Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000

Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000
Act of Parliament
	Parliament of the United Kingdom
Long title	An Act to establish an Electoral Commission; to make provision about the registration and finances of political parties; to make provision about donations and expenditure for political purposes; to make provision about election and referendum campaigns and the conduct of referendums; to make provision about election petitions and other legal proceedings in connection with elections; to reduce the qualifying periods set out in sections 1 and 3 of the Representation of the People Act 1985; to make pre-consolidation amendments relating to European Parliamentary Elections; and for connected purposes.
Citation	2000 c. 41
Territorial extent	United Kingdom
Dates
Royal assent	30 November 2000
Other legislation
Repeals/revokes	Representation of the People Act 1991
Amended by	Communications Act 2003; Local Government Act 2003; Local Government in Scotland Act 2003; Local Governance (Scotland) Act 2004; Scottish Parliament (Constituencies) Act 2004; Companies Act 2006; Electoral Administration Act 2006; Government of Wales Act 2006; Local Electoral Administration and Registration Services (Scotland) Act 2006; Northern Ireland (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2006; Local Democracy, Economic Development and Construction Act 2009; Political Parties and Elections Act 2009; Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011; Local Electoral Administration (Scotland) Act 2011; Police Reform and Social Responsibility Act 2011; Scotland Act 2012; Crime and Courts Act 2013; Electoral Registration and Administration Act 2013; Co-operative and Community Benefit Societies Act 2014; Northern Ireland (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2014; Transparency of Lobbying, Non-party Campaigning and Trade Union Administration Act 2014; Wales Act 2014; Deregulation Act 2015; Recall of MPs Act 2015; Scotland Act 2016; Wales Act 2017; Scottish Elections (Reform) Act 2020; Senedd and Elections (Wales) Act 2020; Local Government and Elections (Wales) Act 2021; Dissolution and Calling of Parliament Act 2022; Elections Act 2022
Status: Amended
Text of statute as originally enacted
Revised text of statute as amended

The Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000 (c. 41) is an Act of Parliament of the United Kingdom that sets out how political parties, elections and referendums are to be regulated in the United Kingdom. It formed an important part of the constitutional reform programme implemented by the 1997 Labour Government, building on the Registration of Political Parties Act 1998 (c. 48) which was passed two years earlier.

Background

The Act was introduced after consultation with major political parties, and largely followed the recommendations of the Committee on Standards in Public Life (known at the time as the "Neill Committee" after its chairman), an independent body set-up by former Prime Minister John Major to consider ways of making politics more transparent. The committee set out its proposals in its report, The Funding of Political Parties in the United Kingdom.^[1]

The Act created an independent Electoral Commission to regulate political parties and their funding arrangements. It also required parties to submit statements of their accounts on a regular basis, and prohibited the receipt of funds from foreign or anonymous donors. Restrictions on campaign expenditure were also put in place, dictating the maximum amount that parties were able to spend.^{[citation needed]}

Details

Registration of parties

The law gave the newly formed Electoral Commission a role in controlling the registration of political parties.

The requirement for parties to register with an official body, if they wished to be named on ballot papers, was the result of a fairly wide acceptance that the finances of political groups should be regulated to reduce the perception of underhand dealings.

In addition, political groups or individuals failing to register with the Commission would only be able to describe themselves as "Independent" on ballot papers, or else have a blank space instead of a description after their names—with the single exception of the Speaker of the House of Commons who is entitled to be described as: "The Speaker seeking re-election".

This built on the provisions of the Registration of Political Parties Act 1998, passed amid concern about voters being fooled by misleading ballot descriptions.

There is an annual fee for the registration of a political party.

Donations

Under the terms of the law, registered political parties are only allowed to accept donations in excess of £500 from "permissible donors", defined as either individuals on an electoral register in the United Kingdom, or political parties, companies, trade unions, or similar organisations that are registered in the country.

The provision of non-financial support to a registered party – such as subsidies or free materials – is counted as a donation. Each party is required to submit details of all donations received, whether by party headquarters or their subsidiary parts. Each report must provide sufficient information to show that a donor counts as a "permissible source".

Political parties on the separate register for Northern Ireland are exempt from the controls on accepting and reporting donations.

Expenditure

The Act places strict limits on the amount each party may spend in the run-up to the election (how that time period is defined depends on the type of election). As of 2024, the limit for elections to the UK Parliament in Westminster stands at £54,010 per constituency contested; this would reach a maximum of £34.13 million for parties contesting all 632 seats in Great Britain.^[2] This spending limit applies within 365 days of a General Election. These spending limits were last increased in November 2023.^[3]

The amount permitted to be spent by third-parties during Parliamentary elections to support or oppose candidates was increased from the previous limit of £5 (which had been held to be an impermissible restriction on freedom of expression by the European Convention on Human Rights in the case of Bowman v United Kingdom) to £500.^[4]

Referendums

The Act provides a basic framework to the running of all future referendums that are to be held under the jurisdiction of the Electoral Commission in pursuance of any provision made by a subsequent Act of Parliament in the following areas:

United Kingdom

The Act also makes the provision that in any future UK-wide referendum the chairperson of the Electoral Commission is appointed "Chief Counting Officer" for the United Kingdom or gives the power for the chairperson to appoint a Chief Counting Officer.

Controversy

In December 2006 Prime Minister Tony Blair and politicians of other parties were questioned by police as part of their investigation into the Cash for Honours affair. Part of their time was said to be spent looking at whether the Act had been breached by parties taking loans from supporters in return for nominations to the House of Lords. Unlike donations, loans did not have to be made public as long as they were made on "commercial terms".^{[citation needed]}

The Government later changed the law to require the declaration of all forms of loan, and asked a former Clerk of the Crown in Chancery, Sir Hayden Phillips, to undertake a fundamental review of party funding arrangements. He reported in 2008.^[5]

In November 2007 the provisions of the Act were again the subject of scrutiny in the cases of Labour party donor David Abrahams and Scottish Labour leader Wendy Alexander.^{[citation needed]}

In 2016, several UK police forces started investigations into allegations of election fraud during the 2015 general election, specifically on allegations that the Conservatives breached the spending limits. The majority of allegations focus on the misrepresentation of the "battle-bus" finances.^{[citation needed]}