Election
Expenses
By law
you are limited in amount of money you can spend or your campaign. These
limits are varied from time to time but the Electoral Commission keeps
track of this. You can check the details here - http://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/elections/election-spending
.
Candidates are subject
to controls on the election expenses that they can incur in the period
before an election, and are regulated by the Representation of the People
Act 1983 (RPA). The restrictions on incurring election expenses at an
election set out in the RPA are based on controls that have governed
candidates' election expenses since the nineteenth century and predate
the separate limits controlling expenditure by political parties introduced
by the Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000 (PPERA).
However, PPERA introduced controls on candidates' donations, in order
to bring the treatment of candidates' donations and party donations
into line.
All your
expenses should be included even where you haven’t had to pay
out money costs must be covered. For example; if your candidate has
photos taken by a professional photographer and you use these photos
on your leaflets you must include the costs in your election expenses
even if the candidate pays for this himself; if someone lets you use
their front room as a committee room on polling day you must declare
that you paid them a nominal sum, even though you didn’t.
If in doubt the Returning Officer's staff can assist you but the basic
rule is if you used it in the election then you have to pay for it and
you have to declare what you paid so keep your receipts.
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