Draft Northern Ireland Miscellaneous Provisions Bill PDF Download

The publication of details of donations and loans made to political parties helps to address the risk of corruption and supports democratic decision-taking, by enabling the electorate to know how, and by whom, political parties are funded. The current arrangements to not strike an appropriate balance between public interest and the security of individuals. This paper sets out the first piece of secondary legislation which the Government proposes to make under powers to increase transparency in clauses 1 and 2 of the Northern Ireland (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill. The legislation would provide for the release of limited information about donations made since 2007, and loans made since 2008, providing individual donors and lenders cannot be identified from the information. The proposed changes will enable the Electoral Commission to provide information to the public about the scale and sources of funding to Northern Ireland parties for the first time. The Government's objective is that political parties in Northern Ireland should be subject to the same transparency rules as those in Great Britain.