Short Money - Provision of Short Money

Provision of Short Money

The current scheme is administered under a Resolution of the House of Commons of 26 May 1999. Short Money is made available to all opposition parties in the House of Commons that secured either at least two seats or one seat and more than 150,000 votes at the previous general election.

The scheme has three components:

1. Funding to assist an opposition party in carrying out its Parliamentary business
2. Funding for the opposition parties’ travel and associated expenses
3. Funding for the running costs of the Leader of the Opposition’s office

Short Money is not available to parties whose Members have not sworn the Oath of Allegiance (such as Sinn Féin) because it was introduced to offer assistance for 'parliamentary duties'. A separate scheme (introduced on 8 February 2006) provides funds to parties 'represented by Members who have chosen not to take their seats', providing for 'expenses wholly, exclusively and necessarily incurred for the employment of staff and related support to Members designated as that party’s spokesman in relation to the party’s representative business'. This is calculated on the same terms as Short Money.

Other opposition parties have access to Short Money to support parliamentary business only and no equivalent extension for representative work has been announced for them.