Combination of elections to European Parliament and to devolved legislature
169.Paragraph 8 of Schedule 9 determines the campaign expenditure limits in circumstances where the relevant period for a European Parliamentary election overlaps with the relevant period for an election to the Scottish Parliament, Welsh Assembly or Northern Ireland Assembly. If the elections to the European Parliament and the devolved legislature are held according to the fixed timetables provided for in the relevant statutes, such overlapping of relevant periods will happen only once every twenty years. The next occurrence will be in 2019 when the elections to the three devolved legislatures would be held on Thursday 2 May followed, five weeks later, with the elections to the European Parliament on Thursday 6 June.
170.Paragraph 8(3) provides that where the relevant period (as defined in paragraphs 4 to 7) for these elections overlap the limits that would have applied to the European election and to the election to a devolved legislature are to be aggregated. Where a party contested all the constituencies and/or regions in both elections, the maximum amount of campaign expenditure that could be incurred would be as set out in the table below:
| Maximum amount in respect of European election £’000 | Maximum amount in respect of election to devolved legislature £’000 | Aggregate limit applying to both elections £’000 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Expenditure in Scotland | 360 | 1,516 | 1,876 |
| Expenditure in Wales | 225 | 600 | 825 |
| Expenditure in Northern Ireland | 135 | 306 | 441 |
171.Paragraph 8(4) defines the relevant period in respect of which the aggregate campaign expenditure limits are to apply. Were the European Parliamentary elections and the elections to the devolved legislatures to overlap, as scheduled, in 2019 the relevant period in that instance would begin on 3 January 2019 (four months before the date of the ordinary elections to the devolved legislatures) and end on 9 June 2019 (the date of the election to the European Parliament).
Combined limits where parliamentary election pending
172.Paragraph 9 of Schedule 9 determines the campaign expenditure limits that apply when the period during which a parliamentary general election is pending overlaps with the relevant period for a European Parliamentary election and/or an election to a devolved legislature. Paragraph 1(3) of Schedule 9 defines the period during which a parliamentary general election is pending as the period beginning with the date on which Her Majesty’s intention to dissolve Parliament is announced and ending with the date of the election. Where such an overlap occurs, and a party is contesting each of the elections, the expenditure limits that would apply to that party in respect of each election (by virtue of paragraphs 3 to 8, as the case may be) are aggregated. A party that contested all constituencies and/or regions in each of the elections would be able to incur campaign expenditure up to the limits set out in the following table:
| Maximum limit for overlapping parliamentary and European Parliamentary polls £’000 | Maximum limit for overlapping parliamentary and devolved polls £’000 | Maximum limit for overlapping parliamentary, European and devolved polls £’000 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Expenditure in England | 19,065 | - | - |
| Expenditure in Scotland | 2,520 | 3,676 | 4,036 |
| Expenditure in Wales | 1,425 | 1,800 | 2,025 |
| Expenditure in Northern Ireland | 675 | 846 | 981 |
173.Paragraph 9(4) defines the relevant period during which the aggregate expenditure limits would apply. The limits of the relevant period are dependent on whether the parliamentary election takes place either, on the one hand, on the same day as or later than the other election(s) or, on the other hand, earlier than the other election(s). Two examples will illustrate this. First, if a Scottish Parliamentary election was held on 5 May 2011 and was followed by a parliamentary general election on 2 June 2011 (having been announced prior to 5 May), the relevant period would run from 3 June 2010 to 2 June 2011. Second, if a parliamentary general election was held on 31 March 2011 and was followed by a Scottish Parliamentary election on 5 May 2011, the relevant period would run from 1 April 2010 to 5 May 2011.
174.Paragraph 9(5) determines the campaign expenditure limits to apply when two parliamentary general elections are pending during different parts of the relevant period (as defined in paragraph 4 to 8) for a European Parliamentary election or an election to a devolved legislature or a combination of the two. For this provision to operate, two parliamentary general elections would need to be held within some four months of each other (the two 1974 elections were held seven months and ten days apart). A possible scenario would be:
| 10 February 2009 | Four-month period preceding a European Parliamentary election begins. |
| 24 February 2009 | Parliamentary general election takes place (having been called in January). |
| 26 May 2009 | Her Majesty announces her intention to dissolve Parliament. |
| 9 June 2009 | European Parliamentary election takes place. |
| 7 July 2009 | Second parliamentary election takes place. |
175.In such a scenario, paragraph 9(5) determines the campaign expenditure limits to apply in “the first relevant period” (as defined in paragraph 9(6)) and “the second relevant period” (as defined in paragraph 9(7)). The first relevant period would, in this example, be the period beginning 26 February 2009 (that is, 365 days before the date of the first parliamentary general election) and ending on 26 May 2009 (the date on which Her Majesty announced her intention to dissolve Parliament in connection with the second parliamentary general election). The limit on campaign expenditure that a party could incur during the first relevant period would be the aggregate of the limits that would apply to the first parliamentary election and the European election by virtue of paragraphs 3 and 4 respectively.
176.In the same example, the second relevant period would run from 27 May 2009 (the day after Her Majesty announced her intention to dissolve Parliament in connection with the second parliamentary general election) to 7 July 2009 (the date of the second parliamentary general election). The limit on campaign expenditure that a party could incur during the second relevant period would be the limit that would apply to the second parliamentary election by virtue of paragraph 3.
