Scottish Greens fined £2,300 for breaching accounts rules

The Scottish Greens have received a penalty for the late delivery of their annual statement of accounts.

The Electoral Commission confirmed on Tuesday that the party, co-led by Patrick Harvie and Lorna Slater, is to receive a £2,300 fine after the statement for 2020 was delivered more than a month late.

The accounts had been due on July 7 2021, but the party delivered them on August 26 2021, the regulator said.

It explained: “The party’s 2020 annual statement of accounts was delivered late.

“A sanction was appropriate in this case in line with our enforcement policy.”

The sanction is due on July 13.

The Electoral Commission said the sanction in this particular case had been imposed after looking at the party’s compliance history.

It said that while the Scottish Greens had complied in this case, there had been recent cases of non-compliance which contributed to the penalty decision.

These included a £200 fine imposed in 2021 over a failure to deliver a complete campaign spending return for the 2019 general election, and a penalty of £5,349 in 2020 for breaching the rules on disclosing donations.

A spokesperson for the Scottish Greens said: “We regret that due to documentation from a third party being received late our statement of accounts for 2020 was not submitted on time.

“Our accounts received a clean audit and we are confident the problem will not reoccur.”