TUV fined by electoral commission following breaches

By David Hunter

The Traditional Unionist Voice has been fined by the electoral commission for breaches of campaign finance rules. 

The party will have to pay £1,850 for late delivery of pre-poll reports for 2017 UKPGE, 2016 statement of accounts, and campaign expenditure return for the 2017 Northern Ireland Assembly Election;

The Liberal Democrats have also been fined £18,000 for failing to submit accurate spending returns over the EU Referendum.

The total sum, which nears the Commission’s maximum individual fine of £20,000, is made up of two fines. 

The first, of £17,000, was imposed for failing to provide acceptable invoices or receipts for 80 payments with a total value of more than £80,000.

In some cases no invoices or receipts were provided at all, and in others some were provided which were inadequate, such as credit card statements, or were incomplete.

The second fine, of £1,000, was issued because some payments were reported in aggregate rather than as individual payments.

A number of other UK parties have been fined for failures over electoral rules. 

 The deadline for payment is 3 January 2018.