Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, if she will make an assessment of the effect of the Transparency of Lobbying, Non-party Campaigning and Trade Union Administration Act 2014 on the work of charities.

The changes made to the existing third party campaigning rules by the Transparency of Lobbying Act 2014 do not restrict charities’ freedom to campaign to further their charitable purposes in a non-partisan way, but instead make the political system more accountable. At the 2015 general election, 68 organisations were registered with the Electoral Commission as third party campaigners undertaking campaigning activity which could influence the election outcome, of which 11 were charities.