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<p>The Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000 (PPERA) sets out the
spending limits that apply during the regulated referendum period at UK-wide referendums.
The duration of the referendum period for the referendum on the UK’s membership of
the European Union will be set out in secondary legislation.</p><p>PPERA does not
set total spending limits for each of the referendum outcomes; rather it applies spending
limits to individual campaigners that take part in the debate.</p><p>The Commission
is already monitoring the campaigning activities of potential referendum campaigners
so that it can identify any emerging issues and offer advice and guidance to those
that intend to campaign at the referendum. Once the rules come into force, the Commission’s
campaign monitoring will inform the use, if necessary and appropriate, of its enforcement
and sanctioning powers where the rules are not followed.</p><p>For the EU Referendum,
Parliament increased the limits set out in PPERA to take account of inflation. The
limits for political parties that register to campaign in support of a particular
outcome are allocated according to the party’s share of the vote at the last UK Parliamentary
general election. Campaigners that do not register with the Commission are limited
to spending £10,000. The new limits are set out in the table below:</p><br /><table><tbody><tr><td><p><br></p></td><td><p><strong>EU
Referendum Bill spending limits for a referendum held before 31 December 2017</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>2015
UK general election vote share</strong></p></td></tr><tr><td><p><strong>Limits for
designated lead campaigners</strong></p></td><td><p>£7,000,000</p></td><td><p>-</p></td></tr><tr><td><p><strong>Limits
for political parties with:</strong></p></td><td><p><br></p></td><td><p><br></p></td></tr><tr><td><p>>30%
share of the vote</p></td><td><p>£7,000,000</p></td><td><p>Conservative (36.8%)</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>>20-30%
share of the vote</p></td><td><p>£5,500,000</p></td><td><p>Labour (29%[1])</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>>10-20%
share of the vote</p></td><td><p>£4,000,000</p></td><td><p>UKIP (12.6%)</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>>5-10%
share of the vote</p></td><td><p>£3,000,000</p></td><td><p>Liberal Democrat (7.9%)</p></td></tr><tr><td></td><td><p>£700,000</p></td><td><p>SNP
(4.7%) Green (3.8%) DUP (0.6%) Plaid Cymru (0.6%) Sinn Fein (0.6%) SDLP (0.3%) UUP
(0.4%) Plus all other parties that stood at least one candidate at 2015 UKPGE</p></td></tr><tr><td><p><strong>Limits
for other registered campaigners</strong></p></td><td><p>£700,000</p></td><td><p>-</p></td></tr></tbody></table><br
/><p>[1] Labour Party share of the vote is adjusted because votes cast for joint candidates
are divided by the number of parties the candidate is standing for i.e. Labour / Co-op
candidates (PPERA Sch14, para 1(4))</p>
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