Question

To ask the Right hon. Member for Kenilworth and Southam, representing the Speaker's Committee on the Electoral Commission, what assessment the Electoral Commission has made of the risks of impermissible donations being made through high-volume repeated donations through cryptocurrency in a series of below £500 transactions.

Individual payments of £500 or less are not treated in law as a donation, so recipients are not required to identify the donor or check that they are a permissible source for donations.

The Commission has highlighted that there are some existing safeguards in law. Attempting to evade the restrictions on permissibility is a criminal offence, and the Commission advises parties to be vigilant to attempts to do so, such as repeated payments of £500 from the same source.

However, the Commission has raised the possibility of AI being used to facilitate split payments and conceal the source which would increase the risk from these smaller payments. The Commission is engaging with parties to seek information about their approach to these payments. It has recently published interim guidance on cryptocurrency donations, and will publish further guidance later this year.

The Commission has also published updated guidance on crowdfunding to ensure that parties understand how the law applies to donations raised through crowdfunding campaigns and can choose a platform that will support them to comply with the law.