The total cost to the public purse of elections held nationally comprises two main elements: the costs incurred by Returning Officers in running the poll; and the cost of delivering election mailings produced by candidates. Returning Officers have submitted their expenses claims for running the 2015 UK Parliamentary election and the 2014 European Parliamentary election, and these are subject to scrutiny before being settled. This process is underway, and the final and exact cost of each election will not be known until all of the claims have been paid

The amount initially drawn down from the Consolidated Fund for the conduct of the 2015 UK Parliamentary election was £81.4M. While the final cost will differ from this figure, depending on the actual level of Returning Officers’ expenses, it provides an indication of the cost of running the poll. The total cost of delivering election mailings for the candidates who stood at the 2015 UK Parliamentary election was £41.7M.

Expenditure on delivering poll cards is one of the costs incurred by Returning Officers in running the election. It is therefore subject to the aforementioned scrutiny of Returning Officers’ expenses claims, and is not yet known

The amount initially drawn down from the Consolidated Fund for the conduct of the 2014 European Parliamentary election was £69.0M. While the final cost will differ from this figure, depending on the actual level of Returning Officers’ expenses, it provides an indication of the cost of running the poll. The total cost of delivering election mailings for the candidates and parties who stood at the 2014 European Parliamentary election was £40.6M.

The Government is not aware of any particular additional security costs associated with the UK Parliamentary election in May 2015.