Election 2005: campaign spending - Electoral Commission

9a series of recommendations for changes toelectoral legislation in Voting for change (2003),which reiterated a number of recommendationsrelating to electoral registration and postalvoting, in Delivering democracy? (2004) andSecuring the vote (2005). The Commission ispleased that the Government has taken manyof these recommendations forward in itsElectoral Administration Bill and the ScottishExecutive in its Local Electoral Administrationand Registration Services Bill.1.13 At first, the Commission’s focus in this areaof its work was primarily concerned with raisingawareness among political parties, third partiesand candidates, to ensure they fully understoodthe legislative requirements to which they werenewly required to adhere. However, now that thePPERA framework has been in operation for anumber of years, we are focussed on workingwith regulated stakeholders to further improvetheir ability to meet legal requirements.The role of the Electoral Commission1.11 PPERA gives the Commission a duty ofmonitoring compliance with:• Parts V and VI of the Act which deal withcampaign spending by registered politicalparties and third parties and• the restrictions and other requirementsimposed by relevant enactments in respect ofcandidates’ election expenses and donations1.12 The 2001 general election was the firstelection at which the Commission undertookthe role of monitoring compliance with Parts Vand VI of PPERA, as these came into effect on16 February 2001. Accordingly, we reportedon campaign spending by political parties andthird parties in our 2001 general election report.The Commission’s role of monitoring compliancewith the controls on candidates’ spending anddonations to candidates came into effect on 1July 2001. Since that time, the Commission hasmonitored candidates’ compliance with the law.Elections 2005: campaign spending: introduction