Electoral Commission: political donations, spending and election data

The Electoral Commission is the independent body that oversees elections and regulates political finance in the UK. It publishes registers of political parties and campaigners and searchable records of reported donations, loans, campaign spending and party accounts, along with reports and data on each major election. Fact-checkers use it to verify who gave money to which party, how much a party spent at an election, and how many people voted or were registered.

Covers: UK · Release calendar

What it publishes

Quarterly reports of donations and loans accepted by registered political parties, with donor name, donor status (individual, company, trade union and so on), value, date accepted and the receiving accounting unit.
Weekly donation and loan reports from parties during a UK Parliamentary general election campaign.
Donations reported by regulated donees such as MPs, councillors, party members' associations and candidates for party leadership.
Campaign spending returns from parties and non-party campaigners after major elections and referendums, with invoices and itemised payments.
Annual statements of accounts from registered parties, and records of assets and liabilities.
The registers of political parties, non-party campaigners and referendum participants, including registered names, emblems and officers.
Reports on how each major election was run, with electorate size, turnout and rejected ballot data, and investigations and sanctions against parties and campaigners.
For registered electors across the UK, the official counts come from the Office for National Statistics' Electoral registration statistics, based on the electoral registers as at 1 December.

Key datasets

Political finance search: donations
All reported donations to parties, non-party campaigners and regulated donees in Great Britain and Northern Ireland, filterable by recipient, donor, value, period and donor status.
Updated: Quarterly, weekly during a general election
Political finance search: loans
Reported loans and credit facilities to parties and regulated donees, with lender, value, rate and repayment status.
Updated: Quarterly
Political finance search: campaign spending
Itemised campaign spending reported by parties, non-party campaigners and referendum participants for each regulated election or referendum period.
Updated: After each regulated election or referendum
Political finance search: party accounts
Annual statements of accounts submitted by registered parties, with income and expenditure totals and the documents themselves.
Updated: Annual
Registers of parties and campaigners
Registration details for political parties, minor parties, non-party campaigners and referendum participants, including deregistered entities.
Updated: Continuously updated
Reports and data on past elections and referendums
The Commission's reports on each election and referendum with downloadable electoral data such as electorate, turnout and rejected ballots, filterable by election type, nation and year.
Updated: After each major poll
ONS Electoral registration statistics, UK
Electoral registrations recorded on 1 December each year by country and Westminster constituency. The December 2025 edition, released on 2 April 2026, covers Parliamentary registrations only; local authority figures were omitted because of data quality issues.
Updated: Annual (spring)
Donation reporting rules in law (PPERA section 62)
The current statutory text setting the quarterly reporting thresholds for party donations, as amended from 1 January 2024.
Updated: Changes only when amended

APIs and downloads

CSV export from the political finance search
Every search can be exported as CSV or PDF using the Export results button. The site serves the same CSV from /api/csv/ addresses, but this is not a documented public API. Free, no key.
Election data files
Electoral data for each election, usually as Excel or CSV files linked from each report page. The Commission's website blocks automated requests, so open it in a browser.
ONS electoral registration datasets
Excel tables of registered electors by country and constituency. Free, no key.

When it publishes

Parties must deliver each quarterly donation and loan report within 30 days of the end of the quarter, and the Commission publishes the figures several weeks later; the April to June 2026 reports were published on 2 September 2026. During a UK general election campaign, weekly reports are published while the campaign runs. Spending returns are published in stages after each regulated election. The Commission has no single statistical release calendar, so new publications are announced on its research and data pages and in its media centre. ONS electoral registration statistics follow the ONS release calendar.

How to use it to check a claim

For a claim that a person or company gave a party a sum, search the donations register by donor name and recipient, then check the accepted date, the value and whether the entry is cash or non-cash.
Aggregate carefully: a donor may appear several times across accounting units and quarters, and the register only shows donations above the reporting thresholds in force at the time.
Apply the right thresholds. From 1 January 2024, a party's central organisation reports donations from one source totalling more than £11,180 in a calendar year, accounting units report above £2,230, and further donations from an already-reported source are reported above £2,230. Before 2024 the equivalent figures were £7,500 and £1,500.
For whether a donation was allowed, the permissibility test applies to donations over £500; check the donor status field and any entry recorded as returned or forfeited.
For party spending at an election, use the spending search for that election period and check whether the claim covers national party spending only, since candidate spending in constituencies is reported separately to local returning officers.
For turnout or electorate figures, use the Commission's data for the specific election, and for registered electors on a fixed date use the ONS December register counts, quoting which franchise (Parliamentary or local government) is meant.
Record the reporting quarter as well as the date accepted, because a donation accepted in one quarter appears in a report published months later.

Common mistakes

The register shows only reportable donations; many smaller gifts below the thresholds legally go unreported, so totals are minimums rather than complete income.
Comparing donation counts before and after January 2024 mixes two threshold regimes, which reduces the number of reportable entries without any change in giving.
Public funds, such as Scottish Parliament assistance for parties, appear in the donations register with donor status 'Public Fund' and can inflate totals if not filtered out.
Regulated donees, including MPs, report to the Commission separately from parties, and MPs' interests also appear in the House of Commons register, so the two sources can show the same gift.
Parliamentary and local government electorates differ because the franchises differ, for example for EU citizens and, in Scotland and Wales, for 16 and 17 year olds.
ONS's December 2025 electoral registration release covers Westminster Parliamentary registrations only; ONS states it exceptionally left out local authority counts of local government electors because of data quality issues.

What are the current reporting thresholds for political donations?

From 1 January 2024, a registered party's central organisation must report donations or loans from a single source totalling more than £11,180 in a calendar year. Accounting units, such as local parties, report above £2,230, and once a source has been reported, further donations from it are reported above £2,230. These figures are set in PPERA as amended by SI 2023/1235 and appear in the Commission's guidance. Check the Commission's guidance for any later change.

What is the permissibility threshold for donations to parties?

Parties must check that any donation worth more than £500 comes from a permissible source, such as a person on a UK electoral register or a UK-registered company carrying on business in the UK. Donations of £500 or less fall outside the controls entirely. Impermissible donations must be returned and reported, and the Commission's register records how each was dealt with.

How do I download donation data from the Electoral Commission?

Use the Commission's political finance search, choose the type of record (donations, loans, spending or accounts), apply filters such as recipient, period or donor, and then use the export option to download the results as a CSV file. Large result sets may need to be split by period. No account or key is needed.

Where can I find how many people are registered to vote in the UK?

The Office for National Statistics publishes Electoral registration statistics each spring, based on the registers as at 1 December. The December 2025 edition counts Parliamentary registrations by country and Westminster constituency, and omits local government figures because of data quality issues. The Electoral Commission publishes electorate and turnout figures for specific elections in its post-election data. Match the register date to the claim.

Questions answered using this source

Links checked 2026-10-13. This page describes what the source publishes and gives no verdict on any claim.