Question

To ask the Right hon. Member for Kenilworth and Southam, representing the Speaker's Committee on the Electoral Commission, pursuant to the Answers of 23 January 2025 to Questions 25270 and 25269 on Candidates: Expenditure, if he will publish any (a) guidance and (b) advice provided by the Electoral Commission on (i) notional invoices and (ii) declarations of value of notional spending.

No invoice is required for notional spending; the legal requirement is to make a declaration of the value of the notional spending in the return. To avoid confusion, the Commission does not refer to "notional invoices" in its guidance , and this term does not appear in legislation.

The Commission has published guidance on valuing notional spending. This states that candidates should make an honest and reasonable assessment of the value of the goods or services they are receiving. In practice, most parties and candidates include additional information about the nature of the spending, in case it is queried following the election. The Commission offers advice to all parties and candidates in response to their queries, in line with its published guidance.