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Electoral Commission
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NI political parties accept £437,613 in donations in first quarter of 2025
Political parties registered in Northern Ireland reported accepting £437,613 in donations and public funds during the first quarter of 2025 (January to March), according to figures published tuesday this week by the Electoral Commission. (Opens in new window)
This compares to £431,373 in the previous quarter (Q4 2024).
Cahir Hughes, Head of the Electoral Commission in Northern Ireland, said:
“Over £400,000 in donations was accepted by political parties in Northern Ireland in the first quarter of 2025. The UK political finance regime has high levels of transparency, and we know that voters are interested in where parties get their money from. This publication is an important part of delivering this transparency for voters.
“However, there are parts of the system that need strengthening, and we have been calling for changes to the law in three key areas: limit company donations to the money that they have made in the UK; legally require parties to conduct know-your-donor checks on donations to assess and manage their risks; and ensure those who donate to unincorporated associations are permissible donors.
“The UK Government is currently considering these recommendations as part of reforms to the political finance regime. Addressing the gaps would help to improve coverage of the donation controls and ensure voters can have confidence in the political finance system.”
The political parties to report donations in Q1 2025 were:
The value of donations reported by a political party to the Commission may be different to the value of donations it actually accepted in that quarter. This can be due to aggregated donations, impermissible donations, and/or late reported donations.
Further information
The Commission has also published the donations and loans for parties across the United Kingdom this week.
Full details of donations and public funds for political parties in Northern Ireland are available on our political finance register (Opens in new window), as are details for political parties in Great Britain (Opens in new window).
Notes to editors
Political parties are required to submit quarterly donation and loan returns to the Electoral Commission. Within these returns, parties report:
- donations accepted above the £11,180 threshold (£2,230 for accounting units)
- smaller donations from a single donor which exceed the reporting threshold when taken together
- impermissible donations they have received and action taken by the party in relation to these
- donations which ought to have been reported in previous quarters
As parties only report donations and loans over these thresholds, the figures do not include all donations and loans to political parties. Donations and loans under these thresholds are recorded in political parties’ annual statements of accounts(Opens in new window).
Public funds are donations from the House of Commons, the House of Lords, the Northern Ireland Assembly and the Electoral Commission. ‘Short’ and ‘Cranborne’ grants are available to parties in opposition in the House of Commons or House of Lords respectively.
Public funds are donations from the House of Commons, the House of Lords, the Scottish Parliament and the Electoral Commission. ‘Short’ and ‘Cranborne’ grants are available to parties in opposition in the House of Commons or House of Lords respectively.
There were 29 registered political parties in Northern Ireland during quarter four 2024. Nine were required to submit a quarterly donation report and four to submit borrowing information within the deadline. The remaining political parties have previously submitted four consecutive nil returns. Providing they have not
Original article link: https://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/media-centre/ni-political-parties-accept-ps437613-donations-first-quarter-2025
