News story

Draft guidance to make campaigning more transparent published

Guidance to help campaigners understand new digital imprints rules will ensure voters benefit from greater transparency online.

From:
Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities
Published
13 July 2023
  • Draft statutory guidance to help campaigners understand and follow the new digital imprints rules has been laid in Parliament by the Government
  • The Elections Act 2022 introduced digital imprints to make campaigners identify themselves when promoting certain digital material
  • If the guidance is approved by Parliament, it will come into force alongside the new digital imprint rules in November 2023
  • The new rules will ensure voters benefit from greater transparency online

Draft guidance for campaigners to understand new rules which will ensure voters receive the same - and in some circumstances, even greater - transparency from digital campaign material as they do from campaign leaflets has been laid in Parliament.

Digital imprints must include the name and address of the promoter of certain campaign material and any person on whose behalf the material has been promoted.

The new rules will ensure voters will get the same - and in some circumstances, even greater - transparency from digital campaign material as they do from campaign leaflets posted through their letterbox under one of the most comprehensive digital imprint regimes in the world which will see campaigners more accountable for the content they post online.

Under these rules, the general public will never need to include an imprint where they are expressing their own personal political opinion online (unless they pay to advertise material within the scope of the rules or are one of the specified political entities requiring an imprint on their other electronic material).

Draft statutory guidance produced by the Electoral Commission has been laid by the Government, without changes, for approval in Parliament, which will support candidates, campaigners and political parties in understanding and complying with the new rules.

Elections Minister, Baroness Scott, said:

“Online campaigning is a fixture of our democracy so it is important we have rules to allow people to see who is promoting material.”

“I welcome the draft guidance from the Electoral Commission which has today been laid in Parliament and will support campaigners in understanding the new rules when they come into force.”

The draft also includes guidance for the police and the Electoral Commission, who will be responsible for enforcing the rules. A public consultation on an earlier draft of the guidance towards the end of last year received positive feedback overall.

If approved, the draft guidance will come into force later this year along with the new rules.

The new rules will apply, for the most part, all year round and not just in the run up to an election and will apply to anyone paying to publish digital political material as an advertisement.

The regime will also apply to certain material where no payment to publish an advertisement has been made, but where it is promoted by specific political entities such as candidates, future candidates, political parties, recognised third-party campaigners and elected representatives (including local government representatives).

Further information:

  • The new digital imprint rules were introduced by the Elections Act 2022. To support compliance with the new rules, the Act provides for statutory guidance to be prepared by the Electoral Commission.
  • Only when this is not reasonably practicable (for example, in a text-based Tweet where there is a character limit), the imprint may be located elsewhere but must be directly accessible from the campaign material.
  • The Government has considered the draft guidance by the Commission and is today laying the draft without changes for parliamentary approval over a 40-day period.
  • The Government has issued a written ministerial statement to both Houses and deposited a copy of the draft guidance in the Libraries of both Houses to facilitate parliamentarians’ access to the draft.
  • The Government has also written to the Local Government Association regarding the use by councillors of relevant council addresses for imprints for the purpose of transparency in respect of the digital imprint rules.
  • The Government has also shared the draft guidance with the Parliamentary Parties Panel.
  • If the guidance is approved by Parliament, it will come into force alongside the new digital imprint rules in November 2023.

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Published 13 July 2023