Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee: May 2021

Recommendations

1. Financial sanctions available to the EC should be increased beyond the current £20,000 maximum and instead be benchmarked to a percentage of campaigns’ total spend.
2. The EC’s sanctions regime for breaches of the Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000 should be extended to cover acts of non-compliance with the Representation of the People Act 1983 with the objective of closing the current enforcement gap.
3. The EC should be given an explicit mandate to perform as a specialist prosecutor for electoral offences.
4. Parties should undertake AML checks on beneficial owners and refuse donations from companies failing to provide evidence of genuine economic activity in the UK.
5. The EC should be granted powers to compel social media companies to release data on political parties’ online advertising spend.