Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether the provision in the Transparency of Lobbying, Non-Party Campaigning and Trade Union Administration Act 2014 that only articles which can reasonably be regarded as promoting the electoral success of parties or candidates count as controlled expenditure applies to such online blogs promoting the electoral success of parties or candidates if it does not also apply to articles promoting the electoral success of parties or candidates which appear in publications with a print edition as well as an online presence.

The Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000 contains an exemption so that the publication of articles relating to the election in newspapers and periodicals (other than advertisements) do not count towards controlled expenditure and are therefore not subject to spending limits.

This Government considers that this exemption applies to online newspapers and periodicals, whether or not they have a print edition, in the same way as for printed newspapers or periodicals. This position was not changed by the Transparency of Lobbying, Non-Party Campaigning and Trade Union Administration Act 2014.

As the independent regulator, it is the Electoral Commission’s role to determine how the exemption applies in practice.