Commentary on Sections Regulation of loans Section 71M Quarterly reports of regulated transactions
346.Section 71M requires regulated transactions to be reported on a quarterly basis to the Electoral Commission, as is the case with donations.
347.Subsections (4) to (8) establish the same reporting thresholds as apply in the donations regime. In broad terms, a regulated transaction must be reported when it exceeds £5,000. Where the same authorised participant enters into a further regulated transaction in the course of the same calendar year, that regulated transaction must be reported when it exceeds £1,000.
348.These provisions also provide a requirement to report when the reporting thresholds of £5,000 and £1,000 are exceeded by an aggregate of regulated transactions from the same authorised participant. So, for example, if A lent £2,501 to a political party, and later in the course of the same year agreed to provide the political party with a £2,500 credit facility (or a loan or security), the political party would be required to record both regulated transactions in the transaction report for the quarter into which the later regulated transaction fell.
349.These provisions, together with amendments made to the donations regime (in paragraph 148 of Schedule 1 to the Act), provide a requirement to report when the reporting thresholds are exceeded by an aggregate of regulated transactions and donations from the same person (as an authorised participant and permissible donor, respectively). So, for example, if A lent £2,501 to a political party, and later in the course of the same year donated £2,500 to the political party, the political party would be required to record in the transaction report the £2,501 loan and record in the donation report the £2,500 donation. (The collective term adopted to refer both to regulated transactions and donations is “relevant benefits”.)
350.Subsection (9) provides that a report must also be made should a party wrongly enter into a transaction with an unauthorised participant.
351.Subsection (10) requires a report expressly to state that no relevant transactions have been entered into where this is the case.
352.Subsections (11) and (12) adapt these reporting requirements to parties with accounting units, adopting a lower initial reporting threshold of £1,000 for accounting units.