Scottish Ministers have set 17 November 2025 as the start date for statutory guidance on digital imprints for non‑party campaigners at Scottish Parliamentary and council elections. The Electoral Commission prepared the guidance under section 58 of the Scottish Elections (Representation and Reform) Act 2025, submitted it to Ministers, and laid it before the Scottish Parliament on 16 September 2025.
The guidance gives effect to Part 8 of the 2025 Act by explaining what information must accompany electronic campaign material and how enforcement will operate. The Electoral Commission and Police Scotland must have regard to this guidance when exercising their functions, and demonstrating compliance can provide a statutory defence if proceedings are brought.
Scope is explicitly digital. The rules cover material made available to the public that relates to Scottish Parliamentary or local government elections, including websites, social media posts, online videos and images, podcasts, streaming adverts and content on messaging services such as WhatsApp or Signal. Telephone calls and SMS are excluded. If material about a Scottish election is accessible in the UK, the rules apply regardless of where it is published from.
An imprint must identify who is responsible for the material. In practice this means naming the promoter and, where relevant, the person or organisation on whose behalf the material is published, together with an address, so that voters can see who is behind the message.
The Commission sets expectations on where the imprint appears. For videos and images, it will usually be reasonably practicable to include the imprint within the content itself; where that is not possible, it must appear somewhere directly accessible from the material. The guidance also explains a limited ‘sharing exemption’: users who republish unchanged material that already carries a correct imprint do not need to add their own.
Enforcement is described in operational terms. The Commission may require information or copies of electronic material to assess suspected breaches and will set proportionate deadlines, seeking a court order if a notice is ignored. It indicates these powers will be used only where proportionate and where information is not readily available by other means.
The Scottish regime sits alongside UK‑wide rules. Non‑party campaigners must still comply with digital imprints requirements in the Elections Act 2022 and with imprint rules for printed material. The Scottish statutory guidance addresses additional SERRA duties for certain unpaid (organic) digital material at devolved elections, reinstating a Scotland‑specific requirement not mirrored for unregistered campaigners under the UK‑wide regime.
For campaign organisers, the 17 November 2025 appointed date creates a short implementation window. Organisations that campaign but do not stand candidates-such as charities, unions and community groups-should ensure election‑related digital content carries a compliant imprint from that date, update publishing templates and platform bios where necessary, and retain records that evidence compliance if the Commission requests information.