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Returning Officers: Finance

Answer

This Government has not agreed any of the initial payments for the last five sets of elections funded from the Consolidated Fund. However, it will be responsible for settling the claims for both the 2024 Police and Crime Commissioner elections and the 2024 UK parliamentary general election. The timing of the final payments will depend on when responses to any queries for the last outstanding claims for each poll are submitted and payments settled.

Payments to statutorily independent Returning Officers (ROs) for UK parliamentary and Police and Crime Commissioner polls are made from the Consolidated Fund. An advance payment – typically 75% of the estimated cost – is issued in advance of the election, meaning ROs are not required to meet election costs upfront or wait a considerable length of time for the majority of the funding. The final payment reflects the balance due, following scrutiny and agreement of the expenses claim.

The table below sets out the dates of the first and last payments agreed for each of the last five sets of elections, based on records held by the Department. These figures relate to claims made by ROs for reimbursement of properly incurred costs.

Poll	First Payment	Last Payment
2024 UK Parliamentary GE	24/04/2024	In progress
2024 Police and Crime Commissioner	20/03/2024	In progress
2021 Police and Crime Commissioner	16/04/2021	21/05/2025
2019 UK Parliamentary GE	15/11/2019	02/02/2024
2019 European Parliamentary	21/05/2019	22/01/2021

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

HL9088

Session

2024-26

Related items

Returning Officers: Finance
Tuesday, 28 July 2026
Written questions
House of Lords

Subjects

Consolidated Fund Finance Returning officers

Contains statistics

Yes

Link

View this Written question on www.parliament.uk