The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Rosindell on 2016-01-11.
To ask the hon. Member for South West Devon, representing the Speaker’s Committee on the Electoral Commission, what the maximum permitted spending by each campaign will be during the final weeks of campaigning on the referendum on EU membership; and what steps the Electoral Commission plans to take to ensure that spending by each campaign is subject to the same limit.
Mr Gary Streeter
The Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000 (PPERA) sets out the spending limits that apply during the regulated referendum period at UK-wide referendums. The duration of the referendum period for the referendum on the UK’s membership of the European Union will be set out in secondary legislation.
PPERA does not set total spending limits for each of the referendum outcomes; rather it applies spending limits to individual campaigners that take part in the debate.
The Commission is already monitoring the campaigning activities of potential referendum campaigners so that it can identify any emerging issues and offer advice and guidance to those that intend to campaign at the referendum. Once the rules come into force, the Commission’s campaign monitoring will inform the use, if necessary and appropriate, of its enforcement and sanctioning powers where the rules are not followed.
For the EU Referendum, Parliament increased the limits set out in PPERA to take account of inflation. The limits for political parties that register to campaign in support of a particular outcome are allocated according to the party’s share of the vote at the last UK Parliamentary general election. Campaigners that do not register with the Commission are limited to spending £10,000. The new limits are set out in the table below:
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EU Referendum Bill spending limits for a referendum held before 31 December 2017
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2015 UK general election vote share
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Limits for designated lead campaigners
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£7,000,000
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–
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Limits for political parties with:
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>30% share of the vote
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£7,000,000
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Conservative (36.8%)
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>20-30% share of the vote
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£5,500,000
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Labour (29%[1])
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>10-20% share of the vote
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£4,000,000
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UKIP (12.6%)
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>5-10% share of the vote
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£3,000,000
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Liberal Democrat (7.9%)
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£700,000
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SNP (4.7%) Green (3.8%) DUP (0.6%) Plaid Cymru (0.6%) Sinn Fein (0.6%) SDLP (0.3%) UUP (0.4%) Plus all other parties that stood at least one candidate at 2015 UKPGE
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Limits for other registered campaigners
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£700,000
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–
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[1] Labour Party share of the vote is adjusted because votes cast for joint candidates are divided by the number of parties the candidate is standing for i.e. Labour / Co-op candidates (PPERA Sch14, para 1(4))
