Campaigns Office

From Pirate Party UK Wiki

The Campaigns Office administrates the party's political campaigns. During elections, the office is responsible for some amount of financial reporting.

Contents 1 Personnel 1.1 Campaigns Manager 1.2 Member Induction Review 2 Reports 2.1 Constituency and national spending 2.2 National spending 2.2.1 Information required for submission 2.2.2 Categorisation

Personnel

The Campaigns Manager is elected by party members. All other personnel in the office are appointed by the Campaigns Manager.

Campaigns Manager

• Andy Halsall, June 2011 - present
• Peter Brett, May 2010 - June 2011
• Phillip Hunt, July 2009 - May 2010

A summary of the role of Campaigns Manager can be found here

Member Induction Review

It has been identified that new members are not adequately welcomed into, provided with useful information about or requested to engage with the party. The review will analyse the existing induction process, survey members for their preferences and then directly implement improvements.

• This is now dealt with by introductory email contact with a summary of what is going on in the party, and will be dealt with further going forward.

Reports

The campaigns office must report campaign expenditure to the Electoral Commission. The information here is lifted from the campaign expenditure guidance (CEG) for treasurers and campaign officers.

Constituency and national spending

The campaigns manager must submit a return on national spending, to make sure it doesn't exceed limits. Candidates' expenses in a particular constituency don't count towards this total. (CEG p.6)

The question to ask to determine which category spending falls into is: does the expense promote the party or promote the candidate? Spending is allocated to one or the other; it isn't counted twice. (CEG p.14-15)

National spending

Information required for submission

Within 3 months of the election, PPUK must submit a spending return. This will itemise all national expenses. The level of detail required is that each item must be detailed separately and that for each item, the following included (CEG p.16):

• name and address of the supplier
• category of spending (see below)
• amount
• (if applicable) proportion relating to England / Wales / Scotland.
• dates when:
  • expense incurred
  • payment claimed
  • payment made
• if amount is >£200, an invoice or receipt

The party must keep receipts of all spending items above £200. (CEG p.4)

Categorisation

Expenditure must be broken down by category. The categories are: (CEG p.7-10)

1. Party political broadcasts
2. Advertising of any nature. This includes websites.
3. Unsolicited leaflets sent to electors
4. Costs of printing / publishing manifesto
5. Market research
6. Costs associated with press conferences, e.g. hiring accommodation
7. Transport, where paid for by the party
8. Rallies and other events (excluding annual party conferences)