Part 4: Regulation of Expenditure Registration of parties etc Section 23: Declaration of assets and liabilities to be provided on application for registration
Section 23 subsections (1) to (4) amend PPERA section 28 which deals with the registration of political parties by the Electoral Commission. The proposed treasurer of a political party will be required to confirm whether to the best of their knowledge and belief they have assets or liabilities that are either greater or less than £500. This declaration is made in reference to whether or not the party meets the assets/liabilities condition outlined in subsection (3). A political party meets the assets/liabilities condition if they do not have either assets or liabilities that exceed £500.
	Parties with assets or liabilities that do not exceed the £500 threshold (meet the condition) are required to make a declaration confirming that fact. Parties who do not meet the condition outlined in subsection (3) and therefore have assets or liabilities in excess of £500, are required to produce a record of their assets and liabilities to accompany their declaration. Under PPERA Schedule 4 paragraph 9, the responsible officers of the party are required to sign an application.
	Minor parties are excluded from this declaration requirement by virtue of subsection (3E). The declaration and record of assets and liabilities is incorporated into the registration process with the Commission and into the register maintained by the Commission (PPERA, s.23). The political party register, maintained by the Commission, will indicate whether the assets or liabilities of a party are in excess of £500 or not (subsection (8B)).