Electoral Administration Act 2006
Act reforming UK electoral administration, including making loans to parties reportable.
The Electoral Administration Act 2006 made party loans reportable only from its start date, the main precedent as peers debate whether caps on donations, raised after Reform UK received two £36m gifts in September 2026, should reach backwards.
Last refreshed: 7 October 2026
Timeline for Electoral Administration Act 2006
Made party loans reportable only from commencement
UK Local Elections 2026: Mentioned in: Delo and Harborne give Reform £72mMentioned in: Finance reform bill stalls past polling day
UK Local Elections 2026Background
The Electoral Administration Act 2006 received Royal Assent on 11 July 2006. It covers electoral registration, standing for election, the Conduct of elections and the regulation of political parties.
Its most lasting change to party finance came in section 61, which inserted Part 4A into the Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000. Part 4A regulates loans and related transactions to parties, so they are reported much as donations are, and the Electoral Commission administers the rules.
The Act was a response to the loans affair that surfaced before and after the 2005 election, and its forward-only design is the template now cited in arguments over whether new party-funding rules should reach back.
Loan rules applied only from commencement
Before the 2005 general election, Labour and the Conservatives raised millions in loans that the law did not then require them to declare. This Act brought loans into the reporting regime, but only from its commencement, leaving earlier borrowing alone. The episode Fed the cash-for-honours inquiry, which closed in July 2007 without a charge.
The same choice now faces Parliament. Reform UK accepted £36m each from Ben Delo and Christopher Harborne in September 2026, and the donation caps tabled in the Lords are drafted, like the 2006 loan rules, to bite only on money given after the new law starts.