Third Party Campaigning Review

The Third Party Campaigning Review, an independent review aimed at assessing how well new lobbying legislation is working for charities and other campaigning bodies, has issued a call for views and evidence.

The Review is being conducted by Lord Hodgson, supported by the Cabinet Office, with the 2015 general election providing an opportunity to see how the legislation is working in practice. 

In addition to the call for evidence, which is intended to capture views of interested parties in more depth, the Review is also using the following research tools.

• Surveys to seek evidence directly from third parties*, candidates and returning officers. The Review launched three surveys earlier this year. The surveys, which received over 150 responses, closed on 7 June 2015. 
• Roundtables, to obtain further views. 
• Focus groups, to test emerging findings. 

You can access more information on the Review on the Gov.UK website: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/surveys-launched-by-review-of-third-party-campaigning

*Third parties are organisations or individuals that are not standing for election themselves, but are spending money on certain election-related activities or material, seeking to influence the outcome of the election. This could be for or against particular candidates or political parties, or campaigning on particular issues.