This updates our earlier post for the 2019 General Election and includes campaigning and political activity by charities, hustings, registration and voter ID, and useful links.

Campaigning and political activity

The relevant legislation

Campaigning by charities during elections and referendums is governed by Part VI (Controls relating to third party national election campaigns) of the Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000, which must be read in conjunction with Part 2 (Non-party campaigning etc) of the Transparency of Lobbying, Non-Party Campaigning and Trade Union Administration Act 2014.

Further, quite apart from the specific rules around campaigning at election time, church congregations are bound as charities by the terms of their domestic charities legislation: in England & Wales the Charities Act 2011, in Scotland the Charities and Trustee Investment (Scotland) Act 2005 and the Charities (Regulation and Administration) (Scotland) Act 2023, and in Northern Ireland the Charities Acts (Northern Ireland) 2008 as amended by the Charities Act (Northern Ireland)  2013. Furthermore, those restrictions apply to charities whether or not they are registered as charities with their territorial regulator. Registration is about the degree of regulation to which the charity is subject, emphatically not about charitable status itself.

The basic rule in all three jurisdictions is that a charity must not support or oppose a specific political party, because purely partisan political activity is not a charitable purpose – though that bar does not prevent charities from supporting or opposing specific policies. For example, the Charity Commission for England & Wales states that “Charities must remain independent and must not give their support to a political party.” In addition, the National Council for Voluntary Organisations reminds trustees that they should make sure that their charity is not used to express the political views of individual trustees or staff members.

Charity Commission guidance

The Charity Commission for England & Wales has issued brief updated Guidance on Charity campaigning in a general election period and has also published a brief piece on its blog by the Chair, Orlando Fraser KC: Campaigning and political activity – what do charities need to consider ahead of a general election?. His key points are as follows:

“Charities may give support to or raise concerns about specific policies advocated by political parties but as trustees and leaders of charities, you have an important responsibility to ensure that everything you do, and every decision you make, helps you further your charity’s purposes and is in the best interests of your charity.

Charities are required to be independent and cannot have political purposes, and this is important for public trust in charities. As such, charities must never stray into party politics – they must never promote, or be seen to promote, a political party or candidate.

As trustees and charity leaders you must protect your charity’s reputation and not allow your organisation to be used as a vehicle for the expression of the party-political views of any individual trustee, employee, political party, or candidate.”

Unsurprisingly, the Electoral Commission agrees:

“Charities must remain independent of party politics and must not support a political party or candidate or create a perception of support as a result of their actions or participation.”

Non-party campaigning

The regulated period for non-party campaigners started on 6 July 2023 and runs to polling day on 4 July 2024. Briefly, under the provisions of the Transparency of Lobbying, Non-Party Campaigning (etc) Act you must register as a non-party campaigner with the Commission if you spend, or plan to spend, more than £20,000 in England or £10,000 in any of Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland on “regulated campaign activity” during a regulated period. During the regulated period, there are rules about how much non-party campaigners can spend on “regulated campaign activity”.

Spending on the following activities can be regulated:

• election material;
• canvassing and market research;
• public rallies or public events;
• press conferences or other media events; and
• transport in connection with publicising your campaign

The purpose test applies to any of the five campaign activities and is met if the activity can reasonably be regarded as intended to influence voters to vote for or against:

• one or more political parties;
• political parties or candidates that support or do not support particular policies; and/or
• other categories of candidates, for example, candidates who went to a state school, or independent candidates who are not standing in the name of a political party.

The public test applies to election material, canvassing and market research, and public rallies or public events. It is met if the activity is aimed at the public or a section of the public: a charity’s members and committed supporters do not count as “members of the public”.

For spending to be regulated, it must meet the purpose test; in addition, the public test must also be met for the three types of activity that it covers.

For small groups, parishes etc. that are only going to put on a hustings, registration is almost certainly not going to be necessary because it is extremely unlikely that any individual congregation will exceed the expenditure triggers under the Act. That said, however, Quakers in Britain registered as non-party campaigners for the General Election in 2017.

Hustings

A hustings is a meeting at which election candidates or parties debate policies and answer questions from the audience; they provide voters with an opportunity to hear the views of candidates or parties. The Electoral Commission has published general guidance, Are you holding a hustings?

Churches Together in Britain and Ireland has published a helpful hustings resource for churches who are thinking of holding local meetings at which electors may meet and question the candidates – post-COVID, it includes advice on holding a hustings via video conference. On the issue of whether you have to invite all candidates (or what has to be done if you hold a “selective” hustings), the answer is that you do not – but if you do not, you must have an objective, impartial reason for not including all candidates.

The simplest approach is to invite all the relevant candidates in the area or all political parties campaigning in the election and allow all those attending an equal opportunity to participate. However, this may not always be practical. For example, there may be so many candidates or parties standing that a meeting would be hard to manage. If you decide not to invite all candidates, there are some good-practice recommendations that you should follow to ensure that your hustings is genuinely not promoting particular candidates or parties more than others.

Note: Not inviting a particular candidate because you do not agree with his or her policies is not an impartial reason.

Registration and Voter ID

Different criteria apply in England and Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland.

It is necessary to register to vote in elections and referendums. Further registration is required if there is a change in the voter’s name, address or nationality. Those unable to go to the polling station in person can arrange for someone else to vote on their behalf (a proxy vote), for which the deadline for application is 17:00 on Tuesday 25 June.

Those registered to vote in the UK can apply for a postal vote before 17:00 on Wednesday 19 June.

To cast a vote at the polling station one must be registered and (as Boris Johnson recently discovered) produce valid identification. Anyone who has not registered to vote must do so by 23:59 on Tuesday 18 June.

This General Election will be the first at which photo ID has been required. The Electoral Commission’s website details the forms of ID that are acceptable and how voters who do not possess it can apply for a Voter Authority Certificate, the deadline for which is 17:00 on Wednesday 26 June.

For voting in person on the day of the General Election, Thursday 4 July, polling stations will be open from 07:00 to 22:00.

Nominated candidates

The deadline for submitting or withdrawing a nomination is 4pm on 7 June, and the publication of statement of persons nominated 5pm on 7 June. 

Useful links

• Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England & Wales: General Election 2024.
• Charity Commission: Campaigning and political activity: general election lessons learned.
• Churches Together in Britain and Ireland: General Election website.
• Cytûn/Churches together in Wales: Election 2024.
• Electoral Commission: Guidance: non-party campaigner.
• Hansard Society: General election rules and regulations: what has changed?
• Law and Religion UK: “Spiritual influence” and elections – an update.
• NCVO: Political campaigning as a charity.
• Quakers in Britain: UK general election 2024: Guidance for Quaker communities.
• Theos: How Religion Will Influence the 2024 UK General Election.
• House of Commons Library, Timetable for the 2024 general election.