Content
About the statistics
Definitions
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Name and topic
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Name: Political parties' financing
Topic: Elections
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Responsible division
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Division for Population Statistics
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Definitions of the main concepts and variables
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Registered political party: A political party that is registered in the Party register at the Brønnøysund Register Centre according to the regulation in the Party Act, ref. § 3, http://lovdata.no/dokument/NL/lov/2005-06-17-102.
Central government subsidy: Funding according to the Party Act § 11.
Municipal/county subsidy: Additional funding on a voluntary basis from the county or the municipality.
Other public subsidy: Other public funding not covered by central government subsidy or municipal/county subsidy.
Membership fee: The total income from membership fees.
Income from lotteries, fund-raising events and similar: Income from lotteries, fund-raising events and similar.
Capital income: Income from interest and stock dividends etc. excluding uncollected gains. Unrealised gains are not to be entered as gains according to the accounting principles of the Political Party Act. Financial assets are to be entered at purchase cost as long as they are not realised.
Income from business activity: Income from own business activity. This includes, among other things, income from the sale of advertisement effects.
Other income from own business: All income not covered by membership fees, income from lotteries, fund-raising events and similar, capital income or income from business activity.
Private contributions: Includes all gifts of money from private donors and all other non-monetary contributions from the same donors when the limit for identifying the contributors is exceeded.
Contributions from commercial enterprises: Includes all gifts of money made by commercial enterprises and all other non-monetary contributions from the same donors when the limit for identifying the contributors is exceeded.
Contributions from employers and labour organisations: Includes all gifts of money made by employers and labour organisations and all other non-monetary contributions from the same donors when the limit for identifying the contributors is exceeded.
Contributions from other: Includes all gifts of money and all other non-monetary contributions if the limit for identifying the contributors is exceeded when these contributions are donated by
• other organisations
• all other non-categorized donors
Costs by type and by activity are two different ways of classifying the costs. Both classifications shall cover all costs.
Costs by type are divided in salary costs, other operating costs and finance costs.
Salary costs: Include all benefits of employees including part-time and temporary employees. Salary costs include employers' national insurance contributions, pension costs, travelling expenses for employees, union dues etc. Remuneration booked as salary is included.
Other operating costs: Include all other costs excluding finance costs, i.e. other operating costs include consumer costs connected to administration, production and sales, office supplies, desktop printers and any equipment that is charged as an expense. Furthermore, purchasing services and any external assistance, legal services, auditing and other advisory services, maintenance etc. and remuneration of representatives who are not employed by the party organisations are included, as are depreciation costs on any fixed and non-current assets capitalised in the balance sheet. Outstanding debts that are not collectable, are also classified as other operating costs.
Finance costs include paid interest adjusted by previously booked accruals, losses in connection with realisation of investment funds and stockholders’ shares etc. Unrealised losses are not to be entered as loss according to the accounting principles of the Political Party Act. Financial assets are to be entered at purchase cost as long as they are not realised.
Result equals the total income reduced by total cost by type.
Costs by activity are divided in administration costs, general political party activity costs and election campaign costs.
Administrations costs cover all costs of administration of the work in the party organisation, e.g. telephone, postage and copying charges, general office equipment, finance costs and salaries etc. Depreciation and non-collectable write-downs are included if they cannot be allocated elsewhere.
General political party activity costs cover costs for activities that facilitate the purpose and objectives of the party, such as party meetings and conferences, costs of preparing the party programme, nomination lists etc. This cost element will consist of all or parts of the costs by type.
Election campaign costs cover marketing costs in connection with election campaigns. This covers costs that were incurred before, during and after campaigns. Costs are also included that may not be directly attributable to the marketing costs of an election campaign, but which are incurred in connection with the campaign, such as fuel for cars used for election campaign purposes, rental cars, stands etc. This cost element will consist of all or parts of the costs by type.
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Standard classifications
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Not relevant
Administrative information
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Regional level
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Country
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Frequency and timeliness
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Annually
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International reporting
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Not relevant
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Microdata
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The reports from the political party units are to be made public individually according to the Political Parties Act § 22. The reports will be published on the website of the Ministry of Local Government and Modernisation, see www.partifinansiering.no.
Background
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Background and purpose
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The statistics were published for the first time in 2006. This publication is based on registered parties’ reports on their financial situation for the fiscal year 2017. According to the Political Parties Act, all organisational levels of the registered political parties are obliged to report to a central register. The statistics are published on the basis of these reports.
The Political Parties Act was revised on 1 February 2013. For 2013 and previous years, the political parties' organisations should only report on income.
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Users and applications
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The statistics have a wide spectrum of users and applications, such as the mass media, research institutions, educational establishments, political parties and individuals.
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Equal treatment of users
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No external users have access to the statistics and analyses before they are published and accessible simultaneously for all users on ssb.no at 8 am. Prior to this, a minimum of three months' advance notice is given inthe Statistics Release Calendar.
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Coherence with other statistics
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Statistics on election campaign contribution which is published every second year in connection with elections (https://www.ssb.no/en/valg/statistikker/valgkamp).
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Legal authority
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Political Parties Act §§ 18, 19, 20, 20a, 20b, 21 and Statistics Act §§ 2-1, 3-2
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EEA reference
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Not relevant
Production
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Population
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The data collection includes all organisational levels of the registered political parties in Norway, i.e. central, county and municipal level, as well as the central youth levels and the youth organisations at county level. The unit in the statistics is political parties.
According to the Political Parties Act § 18, the party organisations (units) with an income below a certain level excluding government subsidy are exempt from comprehensive reporting. These party units must submit a statement confirming that their income does not exceed the specified level. All other political party organisations have to report the full annual accounts, i.e. incomes, cost and balance sheet. The reports from the organisations exceeding the limit represent the basis for the statistics but for those parties where the number of reporting units is less than three.
The Political Parties Act was revised on 1 February 2013, setting the limit at NOK 12 000 with effect from the fiscal year of 2013. The previous year’s limit was NOK 10 000.
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Data sources and sampling
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The reference for the statistics is the Party Finance Register, which was established in accordance with the Political Parties Act. This register is held by Statistics Norway, cf. § 2-1 of the secondary act to the Political Parties Act. The register includes the reports from all registered parties at municipal, county and central Level, including youth organisations at central and county level. The central political parties have to be registered in the Political Party Register as part of the Brønnøysund Register Centre.
The Party Finance Register also contains a summary of all donors that, during the fiscal year, contributed money or gifts exceeding NOK 12 000 to parties at municipal level, NOK 23 000 to parties at county level and NOK 35 000 to parties at central level according to the revised act of 1 February 2013 (the previous levels were NOK 10 000, NOK 20 000 and NOK 30 000 respectively). This also applies to sponsors and creditors. Donors with whom the party organisation has entered into a written political or commercial agreement are to be identified independent of the amount donated.
Total count.
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Collection of data, editing and estimations
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No additional sources to the Party Finance Register.
The questionnaire is prepared by Statistics Norway. The information is collected electronically through Altinn (the Norwegian public reporting portal) and a specific questionnaire (RA-0604). A few of the units have responded by returning a signed printed version of the Altinn questionnaire that have been handled manually.
The information is published in the same form as it is received by the Party Finance Register. Neither the registrar nor Statistics Norway, as the producer of the statistics, carries out any revisions of the data except for obvious errors in the reported data after consulting the respondent.
The statistical information is a calculation of income and cost summaries from the various organisational levels to the degree that the parties are required to report according to the Political Parties Act.
The statistics do not include internal transfers within the different political parties, neither as income nor as cost, since they balance each other in total, and would thus give an inflated amount. Neither are the balances of the units consolidated, and are thus not published as statistics. There is no statutory requirement for internal liabilities or debts to be specified or reported. Furthermore, there may be a large number of units that are included in the sample which have such liabilities and/or debts towards units not included. Thus, consolidation of the balance sheets would be misleading.
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Seasonal adjustment
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Not relevant
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Confidentiality
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Not relevant
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Comparability over time and space
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The statistics were first published in 2006 (for the fiscal year 2005), and have since been published annually.
The revision of the Political Parties Act on 1 February 2013 entails a break in the homogeneity according to the organisations that are obliged to report comprehensively. For the years 2005 to 2012, all organisations with income except government subsidies of NOK 10 000 and more were obliged to report fully. For the fiscal year 2013 and later the limit was increased to NOK 12 000. The income of the political party organisations will differ over the years, especially between election and non-election years. Thus the number of organisations reporting comprehensively will depend on natural and formal changes. This may have an impact on the values published in the statistics.
The statistics for 2017 were based on reports from 766 organisations exceeding the income level for full reporting. For 2016, the statistics were based on 716 reporting units (for 2015 there were 781 units, 685 units in 2014, 693 units for 2013 and 634 units for 2012).
Accuracy and reliability
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Sources of error and uncertainty
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The data is reported by the units to the central register on forms submitted electronically. Different categories for entering the income, cost and balance sheet items are given in the form, including a category for party internal income transfers. Errors may occur when the different items are entered in the wrong category.
The Act requires gross revenues and costs to be reported. This means that revenue that is earmarked to cover specific costs or is to be transferred internally to other units within the same party must first be recognised as income and then as a cost (transfer to others) by the unit that originally received the amount. The amount shall be entered as income in an internal transfer by the units that have received such monies. Some units of the parties may have recorded such amounts as reimbursements, and reported the net amount, thus both the revenue and cost figures will be too low.
As an illustration, membership fees have been booked and reported at net value by some of the central political parties that received the fee from their members in 2013. A considerable part of the total was transferred to the local units. Due to the net booking, the membership fee reported for 2013 is too low and the increase in 2014 is misleading and too high. From 2015 and forward data may indicate that this error is reduced compared with 2014 and previous years.
The Political Party Act requires that all costs are divided by type and by activity. The cost shall be classified in two different ways. The total costs by type differ from total costs by activity due to non-consistent data from some of the political party units. Overall, the costs by activity are 0.12 per cent less than total costs by type.
The change in equity from 1 January to 31 December differs in some cases from the reported result. In some few cases, this may be due to capital contribution or withdrawal only booked in the balance - in contrast to the regulations by law. The change in equity may indicate that the cost should be 0,6 per cent lower or the income correspondingly higher in 2016 than reported.
Furthermore, some units have not reported at all, in spite of the obligation according to the Act. Thus, some units that should have reported full annual accounts according to the Act may not be included in the data. Imputations are not calculated and implemented to statistically compensate these errors.
Statistics Norway does not hold financial data for political parties with an income below the reporting limit according to the Political Parties Act. Thus, the accounts reported in these statistics are lower than the actual level. Neither governmental subsidies to, nor other income or costs of these parties are included in the statistics if not explicitly mentioned.
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Revision
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Not relevant