In our first factsheet (read here) we discussed how election law might affect your organisation. Broadly, ahead of an election (such as the upcoming UK general election which is likely to take place within the next 12 – 18 months), spending limits and transparency requirements can apply to your activities if they could be seen to be intended to influence an election result. These rules can also apply to policy or issue-based campaigning.
An additional set of rules under election law that can apply when publishing advocacy and campaigning content (including, e.g., social media posts), is the ‘imprint’ regime. In this week’s factsheet, we’ve joined forces with the Electoral Commission, who have set out below the key requirements of the regime, along with how your organisation could be affected.
Under the Elections Act 2022, imprints will be required on certain kinds of digital material. We expect the law to come into force in November 2023. The Electoral Commission have co-authored this factsheet to explain the new laws, and support you to understand how they will work in practice.
In this factsheet, we will concentrate on the scenarios relating to elections, although there are also imprint requirements at referendums and recall petitions.
What is an imprint?
When certain campaign material is published, it must contain specific details to show who is responsible for publishing it. This is a legal requirement. These details are known as an ‘imprint’. The imprint helps to ensure there is transparency for voters about who is campaigning.
There are already UK-wide laws requiring imprints on printed election, referendum and recall petition material, and on digital election material used at Scottish devolved elections. For more information on the existing laws, please use the Electoral Commission’s guidance.
Due to new laws introduced by the UK Government’s Elections Act 2022, imprints will now also be required on some digital material.
When would you need to include an imprint on your materials?
With both print and digital, there are now three different situations around an election that will mean an imprint is required.
For digital material, there are two different ways that an imprint can be required, depending on whether you have paid for the material to be published as an advert – as illustrated by this flowchart:
If your digital material is not a paid advert – for example, material you post on your own social media channels – then we refer to it as ‘organic material’.
Some material is exempted from the rules – for example material published on a website or app whose primary purpose is journalism, and certain shared material where the earlier imprint is retained.
Situation 1: Organic digital material must include an imprint if it is election material – but only if it is published by or on behalf of a ‘relevant entity’, which loosely speaking is someone with an official status under electoral law, such as a candidate, party, or a non-party campaigner who is registered with the Electoral Commission.
‘Election material’ is material whose purpose can reasonably be regarded as intending to promote or procure electoral success for:
- one or more political parties
- a candidate or future candidate
- political parties, candidates, or future candidates that are linked by their support for or opposition to particular policies, or by holding particular opinions – for example, parties and candidates who are against fracking
- other categories of candidates or future candidates that are not based on policies or opinions – for example, candidates or future candidates who went to a state school, or independent candidates any combination of the above
This is very similar to the test for ‘regulated activity’ that was discussed in Factsheet 1.
Situation 2: If your digital material is a paid advert, then it must include an imprint if it is ‘political material’.
‘Political material’ is material whose sole or primary purpose can reasonably be regarded as intended to influence the public, or any section of the public, to give support to or withhold support from the categories of party and candidate set out above, but also some wider categories such as an elected office-holder (e.g. an MP or a councillor).
This means that a paid advert can be political material, and so need an imprint, at any time – because you can influence support for or against an elected office-holder at any time, without there needing to be an election.
Situation 3: For printed material, an imprint is required on election material.
What information must be included?
If your material requires an imprint, you must include the name and address of:
- the promoter (the person who has caused the material to be published)
- any person on behalf of whom the material is being published (and who is not the promoter)
For printed material, you must also include the name and address of the printer.
You must use a postal address where you can be contacted. It can be an office or business address, or a home address. You can also use a PO Box address, or other mailbox service.
Where must the imprint appear?
For printed material, the imprint must usually appear on the face of the material, unless the document is multi-sided in which case it can also appear on the back.
For digital material, the imprint must be included as a part of the material, unless it is not reasonably practicable to do so. For example, this might involve including the imprint as text in a campaign video, or reading it out during an advert on internet radio.
Whether it is reasonably practicable to include the imprint as part of the material depends on the technical capability of the platform on which the material is published. If it is not reasonably practicable to include the imprint as a part of the material, then the imprint must appear somewhere directly accessible from the material. In practice, this means it can be reached via a direct link, usually one click or equivalent, where both the link and the imprint are easy for a voter to locate.
For example, on Twitter, it may often not be reasonably practicable to include the imprint in the post itself because of a character limit. If this is the case, your imprint can be included on your profile or as a pinned tweet. Alternatively, the imprint can be included somewhere else that you directly link to from your post, for example on your own website.
Where to get guidance and advice
Statutory guidance explaining the regime and how the Commission and the police will exercise their enforcement functions was laid for parliamentary approval by the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities in May for consideration on 13 July. For campaigners, showing that they have complied with the guidance will be a statutory defence to any offence under the new laws.
You can read this guidance in draft on the Commission’s website (click here).
In late Autumn, the Commission will be running a series of imprint-related webinars, and offering individual appointments where campaigners can get bespoke advice on imprints. If you would like to register your interest please contact Stuart Butler at [email protected].
You can also contact the Commission for advice on all areas of electoral law by getting in touch at [email protected] or at 0333 103 1928, or 0333 103 1929 in Wales.
We at Bates Wells are grateful to the Electoral Commission for contributing to this guide. Our full range of Election ’24 factsheets can be accessed here. If you have any questions for our team about this guidance or any other area of election and campaigning, please don’t hesitate to contact us.