The Lobbying Act will have the effect of causing charities to limit their campaigning activity year-round, and not just in the run-up to elections, the NCVO has warned today.

In response to the Labour Party’s consultation on the Lobbying Act which closes this week, NCVO said the Act as it stands fails to strike the right balance between protecting legitimate campaigning and “guarding against undue influence”.

According to the report, "it has not yet been made clear why the rules that apply to political parties are considered appropriate to apply to non-party campaigners who tend to operate for very different reasons and in different ways to those that seek election".

The report also calls for “an improved definition” to remove uncertainty about which types of campaigning should be regulated by non-parties during election periods.

Sir Stuart Etherington, chief executive of NCVO, said: “Changes are still needed to reduce the administrative burden of the Lobbying Act. If the inclusion of staff costs is deemed too burdensome for political parties, it is difficult to understand why they were included for charity campaigners.”

According to the report, NCVO member organisations have reported significantly increased administration to comply with Lobbying Act regulation – including training sessions for staff, obtaining legal advice on whether planned campaigning activities are likely to be regulated, additional staff assessment forms for public-facing work and extra sign-off procedures for material at risk of being regulated.

Lobbying Act rules require charities spending more than £20,000 per annum on campaigning in England or £10,000 in the rest of the UK to register with the Electoral Commission in the run-up to an election. The costs include staff members’ use of social media and administration costs.

“The provision according to which staff costs are covered and therefore need to be accounted for is causing the greatest administrative burden for non-party campaigners,” NCVO reported.

“Feedback from our members is that, if they are engaging in activities that may be regulated, they will almost certainly require a member of staff dedicated to ensure monitoring and reporting of costs across the organisation’s functions. Most organisations will also need to set up new systems in order to record and calculate the likely costs.

“The requirement to include staff costs within regulated activity is in contrast to the approach taken for political parties, whose staff costs relating to national campaigning are not regulated.”

Self-censorship concerns

The report also raises concerns about whether the Lobbying Act will lead to self-censorship among voluntary organisations.

“NCVO is concerned that… charities and other voluntary groups will be deterred from engaging in public policy issues and speaking out on behalf of the people they support during election periods,” the report said.

“This danger is made greater by some of the narrative surrounding the Lobbying Act, which is spreading confusion and alarm about the rules; while it is important to highlight the challenges that the Act poses, exaggerated claims about its impact on charity campaigning only serve to feed misunderstanding, which will have the consequence of charities unduly self-censoring.”

According to NCVO member organisations, constitutional limits to campaigning, set out in the Lobbying Act guidelines, “will cause particular problems for smaller organisations, such as those running a campaign limited to a geographical area and for national charities with a federated structure.

“These organisations will need to estimate whether their campaigning costs relate to activity in particular constituencies, and ensure that their planned spending will stay within the new spending limits for activity in constituencies.”

The report also raises concerns about the practicality of the time period that the Act applies to.

“NCVO recommends amending the rules to reduce the regulated period for a general election to six months. The current provisions apply to a regulated period of 365 days prior to general elections... These periods are ’significantly longer than the typical four to six-week regulated period that covers candidates’ campaigning before an election’.

“While the provisions are only intended to apply in a specific and time-limited period, the staggering of referendums and elections in the UK means that organisations will not be able to predict when activity will come under the regulated period. It is therefore likely that organisations will be forced to limit campaigning activity constantly and in perpetuity."

The Lobbying Act came into force in September.

Labour has pledged to repeal the Act and replace it with something else if it is elected next year.