Section 51 Removal from register of registered parties
283.Currently, under section 33(1) and (2) of the 2000 Act (Party ceasing to be registered), the Electoral Commission may only remove a party from the register if it receives a signed application from the party leader, nominating officer and treasurer of the party seeking de-registration.
284.This section amends section 33 of the 2000 Act by inserting new subsections (2A), (2B) and (2C) to give the Electoral Commission a power to remove parties from the register of political parties where they fail to confirm their registered particulars by the “specified day”.
285.In relation to the notification requirements under section 32(1) of the 2000 Act, the specified day is the last day of the period in which the confirmation of a party’s registered particulars is required to be submitted. In effect, where a registered political party required to submit unaudited accounts fails within ten months from the end of its financial year to submit confirmation of particulars to the Electoral Commission, it will be removed from the register. A registered political party required to submit audited accounts will be removed if it fails to submit confirmation of particulars within 12 months and one week from the end of its financial year.
286.Under section 34(3) of the 2000 Act (Registration of minor parties) minor parties are required to provide confirmation of their particulars within a period of seven months beginning one month before the anniversary of the party’s inclusion on the register and ending six months after that anniversary (the latter period is extended from three to six months by paragraph 143 of the Schedule 1). In relation to minor parties the specified day is the last day of the period of six-month period commencing on the anniversary of the party’s inclusion on the register. The earliest date, therefore, that a minor party might be compulsorily removed for failure to comply with section 34(3) is six months from the date of its anniversary of inclusion in the register.
287.Subsection (4) amends section 33(3) by providing that a party which has been compulsorily removed from the register ceases to be a registered party.
288.Subsections (5) and (6) amend section 33(4) and insert a new section 33(4A), the combined effect of which is to provide that:
parties compulsorily removed from the register; and
those that apply to be removed from the register and whose gross income or expenditure in the financial year preceding the year in which the entry is removed is less than £25,000,
will only remain subject to accounting, donation and campaign expenditure controls under the 2000 Act, until the end of the party’s financial year in which it is removed from the register. At present, they remain subject until the end of the financial year following that in which it is removed.
