The Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000 (Exclusions and Variation of Campaign Expenditure Limits) (Wales) Regulations 2025: Integrated impact assessment

The change in electoral system for Senedd elections brought about by the Senedd Cymru (Members and Elections) Act 2024 (“the 2024 Act”) means that existing expense limits for parties at elections will no longer function as intended.

Practically, that means that if nothing is done the spending limit available to a party contesting every seat will reduce from around £1,200,000 at the 2021 election to £160,000 at the 2026 election, a reduction of more than 85%.

The 2024 Act gave powers to the Welsh Ministers to set new limits to take account of the electoral change, and it is the use of such powers and any consequential impacts that this document considers.

The proposals are, broadly, to map across the existing campaign expenditure limits for parties to the new system, minimising any change to the overall maximum possible limit, while taking account of the changed nature of the electoral system.

This change will be brought about by making regulations to amend the existing campaign expenditure limits applying to Senedd elections set out in the Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000 (“the 2000 Act”).

The Regulations also make provision for a recommendation from the Electoral Commission to exclude security costs from the scope of qualifying campaign expenses and qualifying controlled expenditure as set out in the 2000 Act.

This means that spending on candidate safety-related costs can be exempted from candidate spending limits for devolved elections for candidates, parties and non-party campaigners. This will bring devolved elections in line with the UK approach and meets an important recommendation from the Jo Cox report.

8.1 How have people most likely to be affected by the proposal been involved in developing it?

A public consultation was held in autumn 2024 which garnered 13 responses representing a mix of individual members of the public and political parties. This is in addition to technical briefings facilitated by the Electoral Commission which were offered to parties in Wales.

8.2 What are the most significant impacts, positive and negative?

Though the impacts of adapting to a slightly different overall expenses limit will be felt by political parties and, indirectly, candidates, that impact is minimal when considering the change from the previous election. The larger impact is when compared with doing nothing, which would result in a significant drop in the available spending at elections.

The proposals would therefore be better characterised as preventing a negative impact on parties – by restricting their ability to campaign – and voters – by restricting the information they have access to about the parties standing.

The security exemption would help ensure proper provision for security by removing the need to consider a party’s overall spending limits and so could potentially increase the overall security of candidates.

8.3 In light of the impacts identified, how will the proposal: 

• maximise contribution to our well-being objectives and the seven well-being goals; and/or,
• avoid, reduce or mitigate any negative impacts?

It will avoid the negative impact outlined in 8.2 by preventing the spending limits from dropping by about 85% due to changes to the electoral system.

The Security exemption would reduce the risk that parties would not make proper provision for security on the grounds of it exhausting their spending limits.

8.4 How will the impact of the proposal be monitored and evaluated as it progresses and when it concludes? 

The normal monitoring and reporting requirements for campaign expenditure remain in place and the work done by and through the Electoral Commission will provide comprehensive data on parties’ expenditure at the election.

What plans are in place for post implementation review and evaluation?

A motion proposing a general review of the new electoral system has been legislated for in the Senedd Cymru (Members and Elections) Act 2024. Should the next Senedd decide to undertake such a review, it would offer a useful vehicle for reviewing party expenditure limits.