The UK Electoral Commission has posted a warning on its website saying that “Candidates and their agents must follow certain rules set out in legislation. We provide guidance to help candidates and agents comply with the rules. You do not have to follow this guidance, but if you do, you will normally be doing enough to comply with the law.”

The Electoral Commission has a team who is in charge of publishing written guidance and training political parties prior to the start of the electoral campaign. To that purpose, the Electoral Commission regularly posts updated guidance documents on its website. Reporting forms, power-point presentations regarding main campaign finance regulations, and a webcast to explain how to fill in and submit financial reports are made available and can be accessed anytime.

In the run-up to major elections and referenda, the Electoral Commission also carries out targeted campaign monitoring to check that candidates are complying with the rules on spending and donations and evaluate the risk of possible infringements of campaign finance regulation. Monitoring compliance with the rules during the campaign also aims at obtaining information on activity that the Electoral Commission may refer to when looking at the financial disclosures submitted by candidates.

The Electoral Commission also has enforcement powers to investigate allegations of potential breaches of the rules, as well as breaches it identifies proactively and can impose a range of sanctions. If the Electoral Commission believes that the breach has a significant impact on confidence in the transparency and integrity of party and election finance, it can pass the matter to the police or prosecuting authority.[1]