Commentary on Sections Part 1: Voting system for parliamentary elections Section 5: Press comment etc not subject to spending controls
31.Section 5 provides that, for this referendum, expenses incurred in the publication of non-advertising material in a newspaper or periodical, or in a broadcast by the BBC, S4C and other licensed broadcasters are not “referendum expenses” for the purposes of the Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000 (“the 2000 Act”). This means that such expenses will not be caught by the spending restrictions that the 2000 Act places on individuals or organisations that campaign in this referendum.