Bulletin, 9 May – IPSA and the Electoral Commission – joint notice on communications

This week’s bulletin contains information about communicating with constituents and election campaigning. This is a joint notice from IPSA and the Electoral Commission.

In addition, please note that your 2023/24 P60s are available to view in IPSA Online.

Joint notice from IPSA and the Electoral Commission

As we approach the General Election, you may be turning your attention to how best you can communicate with your constituents or with prospective voters.

The Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority and the Electoral Commission are two of the bodies responsible for regulating MPs and candidates, respectively.

Below you will find some information on how to distinguish between communicating with your constituents as part of your parliamentary duties, and campaigning.

How to communicate with your constituents

It is important to remember that IPSA funding cannot be used to support campaigning, either on your behalf if you are standing as a candidate at the election, to promote your party or other candidates, or against a party or other candidates.

When deciding whether you can claim from IPSA for any costs associated with communicating with your constituents, you should think about whether your communication material meets the following tests:

• The communication must be for a parliamentary purpose. For instance, you can distribute a leaflet to your constituents to inform them of upcoming surgeries or to update them on any casework you have been carrying out, provided the material is single-issue.

• The communication must not be party-political. You will not be allowed to claim from IPSA for costs associated with communication material that campaigns for or against a political party.

• The communication must not be self-promotional or campaigning in nature. For instance, you should not promote your achievements as an MP or the government policies you supported.

You must not include additional campaigning or other non-allowable material in any IPSA-funded postage or distribution.

If you want to share information with constituents about voter ID and voter registration, you can use existing resources from the Electoral Commission. You cannot use IPSA funds to distribute these messages if they are shared in support of your campaign.

These guardrails are non-exhaustive and are there to provide you with the freedom to develop appropriate content that helps you carry out your parliamentary duties, while ensuring public funds are not used for party political campaigning.

Please make sure you follow the above criteria when developing and distributing content.

If you have any questions about whether your content complies with IPSA’s rules, please contact your account manager.

Election campaigning

If you want to communicate with your constituents to promote your candidacy or your party, or to campaign against a candidate or a party, then this is election material. You cannot claim for costs associated with the production or distribution of such material from IPSA.

You will need to be aware of and comply with political finance and electoral law. The Electoral Commission produces guidance for candidates and agents in Great Britain and Northern Ireland which includes information on campaigning, candidate spending and donations.

If Parliament has not been dissolved by 18 July, a regulated period for candidates will begin: the long campaign. The long campaign will end on the day of the dissolution of Parliament. A second regulated period – the short campaign – begins the day after the dissolution of Parliament.

During both the long and short campaigns, you are required to record your spending on campaigning, including election material sent to voters, and report it after the election. Separate spending limits will apply during the long and short campaigns.

As parliamentarians, you must include an imprint on all digital election material you publish. There are also requirements for imprints on print election material.

The Electoral Commission encourages you to include imprints on all print election material you publish in the run-up to an election, both for transparency and to ensure you can use material throughout the election campaign. For further information, please see the Electoral Commission’s guidance on digital imprints and print imprints.

Reminders and further information

MPs' business costs publication

We are due to publish details of MPs’ business costs for December 2023 and January 2024 on Thursday 16 May 2024, as part of our routine bi-monthly publication of data. We publish these costs to provide members of the public with transparency over how public money is spent.

You can access the latest data on your business costs now using the publication preview service.

We would strongly advise that you check your data before it is published and contact us with any questions or concerns.