Key Benefits of the Act:
The Act, which received Royal Assent 21 July 2009, reforms political party funding and expenditure to make it more transparent and better regulated and introduces a historic shift to individual voter registration.
The Act includes provisions that:
- strengthen the Electoral Commission so that it is better equipped to regulate party spending and political donations and give the Electoral Commission a wider range of investigatory powers and sanctions
- increase the transparency of the ultimate source of donations, whilst ensuring that volunteers are not overburdened by administrative requirements
- ensure that an individual wishing to donate more than £7,500 to a political party in a calendar year is ‘resident, ordinarily resident and domiciled’ in the United Kingdom for income tax purposes at the time a donation is made
- bring in more effective controls on candidate spending
- introduce a system of individual voter registration, according to a clear timetable designed to protect the comprehensive and accurate nature of the electoral register
- make necessary reforms to the current system of administering elections in order to support their effective delivery.
