Political parties cannot operate without income and, as a consequence, matters of political finance are of great importance to the quality of democracy and also a functioning constitution. Yet, somewhat ironically, political finance in the United Kingdom was effectively unregulated until 2000. 

The passing of the Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act in 2000 has been largely successful. But there are clear indications over the past decade that the effective regulation of political finance may become more difficult to deliver, in part because of technological change, internationalisation and the significant emergence of non-party actors.

This paper explores the challenges to the current regulatory system for political finance in greater depth. It also discusses how the system may need to develop to deal with those challenges.