23/06/09 - Report on Exchequer Funding received by Political Parties for 2008

Part 4 - Guidelines and advice

The Standards Commission is required under section 4(6) of the Act to provide guidelines and advice to persons to ensure compliance with the provisions of the Act. A person must act in accordance with guidelines or advice given by the Standards Commission. In March 2009 the Standards Commission produced revised guidelines for qualified political parties on the requirements of the Act in relation to Exchequer funding and the steps to be taken by appropriate officers when furnishing an annual statement to the Standards Commission showing how the funding was applied. These guidelines replaced previous guidelines published by the Standards Commission in November 2002 and include at Appendix 1 of the guidelines an extract from guidelines published by the Standards Commission in November 2006 on use of Exchequer funding for electoral purposes. A copy of the guidelines was issued to the appropriate officer of each qualified political party on 5 March 2009.

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