Spending on campaign material
Your location:
Understanding who has paid for campaign material
Imprints
You may be able to tell who paid for campaign material by checking its imprint.
Under the law, some campaign material must contain an imprint. Imprints tell you who is responsible for publishing campaign material, and on whose behalf it is being promoted.
While an imprint tells you who is responsible for publishing the material, it does not always mean that the material has been paid to be published. For example, if a political party shares a post on social media in the run-up to an election, it would still need an imprint even if they do not pay to promote that post.
Paid adverts on social media and digital platforms
Some social media companies have political ad libraries. These libraries include extra information about political adverts that have been paid for, including who has paid for the advert, who the advert was targeted to and how much it cost.
For example, if you see an ad on Facebook or Instagram, you can click ‘Why am I seeing this ad?’ to get information about specific ads targeted to you. You can also search through the entire ad library database to find out more about paid-for political adverts.
Find out more about ad libraries on each social media platform’s website:
- Meta’s ad library (including Facebook and Instagram)
- Google’s Ad transparency centre (including YouTube)
- Snap’s ad library
- TikTok’s ad library (TikTok does not allow political ads)
- X (formerly Twitter) does not have an ad library
Spending rules
Spending limits
There are separate limits on how much candidates, political parties and non-party campaigners can spend during election campaigns. These limits have been set out in law by the relevant parliament, depending on the type of election. The spending limits apply to campaign activities that can reasonably be considered as trying to influence voters to vote a certain way.
Spending limits are only in place at a certain time before an election. This is called a ‘regulated period’. The length of a regulated period depends on the type of election, and is different for candidates, political parties and non-party campaigners.
For example, at UK parliamentary general elections spending limits apply to things that political parties and non-party campaigners do during the 365 days before polling day.
Spending limits for candidates at elections in the UK generally apply to things that they do after they officially become a candidate. However, in elections to the Scottish Parliament, there are some restrictions on how much candidates can spend before they officially become a candidate.
Non-party campaigners are people and organisations who campaign on issues around elections but aren’t registered parties or candidates. This includes campaigning for or against a political party, a candidate, or a group of candidates.
Campaign activity
Campaign activity is regulated if it can reasonably be considered as trying to influence voters to vote in a particular way. Regulated campaign activities include:
- Advertising of any kind – from billboards to ads in newspapers, from online ads to YouTube videos
- Unsolicited material sent to voters – including printed leaflets or letters that aren’t in response to questions raised by voters
- Manifestos and other documents setting out a party’s policies
- Market research or other methods of finding out how people intend to vote
- Press conferences or other events dealings with the media
- Rallies and events, including the cost of people’s attendance, and any goods, services or facilities provided
- Transport costs incurred running a campaign
Reporting on campaign spending
Political parties and non-party campaigners must:
- record what they spend during an election campaign
- report their spending to us in a spending return
Political parties and those non-party campaigners which spend over a certain amount must report the details of campaign spending to us after an election.
They must:
- keep invoices or receipts for any payments over £200
- report within a certain period after the election
Candidates or their appointed agents must submit a candidate spending return to their Returning Officer.
For some elections, including UK parliamentary general elections, Returning Officers send copies of the candidate spending returns to us. We publish this data after the election.
Our role
We provide guidance to candidates, political parties and campaigners at elections to help them follow the rules. We monitor whether campaigners are following the rules on funding and spending at elections. We publish information to provide transparency about election campaign spending so that voters and the public can have confidence in the outcome of elections.
We can investigate breaches of the rules and issue fines up to £20,000 to parties and non-party campaigners, or refer the most serious breaches to the police.
We don’t enforce the candidate spending rules. The police are responsible for investigating breaches of those rules.
Your location: