Changes to legal requirements for parties and non-party campaigners

Political parties

There is now a new registration requirement for political parties. Parties wishing to register with us are required to declare whether they have assets or liabilities over £500 and where they do, provide a record of these assets and liabilities. The declarations and records will be published on our registers. Further information about this new requirement can be found in our guidance.

Parties are no longer able to register with us if they are already registered as an NPC. 

NPCs

There is now a new registration threshold for NPCs at UK Parliamentary general elections.

NPCs are required to register with us if they spend over £10,000, either in England or spread across the UK. These NPCs will then need to provide financial returns when they reach the existing reporting thresholds. The reporting threshold is £10,000 in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales, and £20,000 in England.

During a regulated period, certain categories of campaigners will be banned from spending more than £700. For example, this includes overseas groups campaigning an UK election.

NPCs are no longer able to register with us if they are already registered as a political party. 

Our public register has been updated to reflect the asset and liabilities changes for political parties, and the changes to NPC registration thresholds. We have also updated the website that parties and NPCs use to submit applications (PEF Online) as well as our printable forms, to facilitate the new requirements.

The changes to do with registration of parties and NPCs came into force on Thursday 24 November. We have published an updated suite of guidance on party registration, including the new rules for registration of new parties.

We will produce a Code of Practice on controlled expenditure, which will include guidance on the NPC changes. You can read the draft version of the NPC Code of Practice.