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Keep calm and keep campaigning

Since the last General Election, the PRCA’s Charity and Not For Profit group has worked hard to represent the concerns of the sector in the way the Lobbying Act applied to organisations during General Election campaigns.

 

Sadly the government has dragged its heels on implementing Lord Hodgson’s sensible proposals for reform of the law.

 

Which means charities – and all private sector organisations as well – will go into the 2017 General Election covered by the same rules as in 2015.

 

But the good news is that charities can learn from the 2015 Election and ensure that they can keep calm and keep campaigning all the way up to the snap election on 8th June.

 

The single most important piece of advice is that “business as usual” communications is NOT regulated by the act. In response to the PRCA’s questions back in 2014, the Electoral Commission advised: “We consider it highly unlikely that awareness-raising of service delivery will meet the purpose test [and be covered by the Act].”

 

Here are five key pieces of advice for charities and campaigners during the 2017 General Election:

1)   Stay focused

If you have a campaign underway, it is highly unlikely to be covered by the Act.

In fact, the Electoral Commission advised that “If the campaign was not previously regulated, your subsequent campaign activity is unlikely to become regulated campaign activity simply because a party has changed its position [and now supports your cause] unless, for example, you change your approach as a result of their support and start publicising their support for your campaign.”

 

2)   Stay neutral (or as neutral as you can be)

One of the basic principles of good campaigning during an election has always been to try to secure cross party support for your cause or issue.

The Lobbying Act makes that even more important.

If your cause is actively supported by politicians on all sides (and you avoid publicly shaming people who don’t support you), it is impossible to see how the Act could apply.

 

3)   Stay within the Law

At the heart of the Lobbying Act are what’s called its “purpose” and “public” tests and is the way you can see if your activity is covered. If the purpose of your activity…

“…can reasonably be regarded as intended to influence voters to vote for or against political parties or categories of candidates, including political parties or categories of candidates who support or do not support particular policies or issues.”

It will be covered by the ‘Purpose’ test. In addition, additional types of tactics might also be covered by the ‘Public’ test if the activity is…

“…also aimed at, [can be] seen or heard by, or involve the public.”

 

4)   Stay clever

It is worth noting that not all tactics are covered by the Act. Among the more ridiculous rulings are that press conferences are covered by the Act, but doing media interviews aren’t. So, just don’t call a press conference.

 

The Electoral Commission also commented that they view “in many cases, the costs of posting material on a social media site, for example sending a tweet or updating a Facebook page, will be negligible.”

 

And equally, volunteer time IS NOT covered by the Act (but time to train volunteers to stage events is covered, so be careful).

 

5)   Stay on top of time

If your campaign does meet the test and is regulated (or is found at a later date to be subject to the Act), you need to ensure that adequate records are kept of time and expenses spent on regulated work. You can read more about how the Electoral Commission advised time is tracked in this pdf (note, it may be subject to change for the 2017 election).