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.
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
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 without employer's national insurance contributions are included. Depreciation and non-collectable write-downs are also included.
Finance costs include paid interest adjusted by previously booked accruals, losses in connection with realisation of shares and mutual funds etc. Unrealised losses are not to be included and shall according to the Act not be booked. Financial items shall be booked with purchase cost at any time. Gains and losses shall be booked as such only at the time of realisation.
Result equals the total income reduced by total cost.
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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 and have since been published annually. This publication is based on the income reports from the registered parties for the fiscal year 2014. According to the Political Parties Act, all organisational levels of the registered political parties are obliged to report on income, costs and balance sheet figures 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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Not relevant
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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.
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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, parties with an income below a certain level excluding government subsidy are exempt from comprehensive reporting. These party organisations must submit a statement confirming that their income does not exceed the specified level. All other political parties 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.
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. 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), alternatively with an optically readable paper questionnaire sent to the units upon request. Some of the units have responded by returning a print out of the Altinn questionnaire that could not be read optically.
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 editating 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 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 balances 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. The limit was subsequently increased to NOK 12 000. The income of the political party organisations will naturally 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 2014 were based on reports from 685 organisations exceeding the income level for full reporting. For 2013, the statistics were based on 693 reporting units and the 2012 statistics on 634 units.
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 or in the post. 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.
According to the Act, gross revenues and costs are to be reported, and deductions are not to be booked as such. Thus, income that is transferred internally to other units within the party shall be booked with full amount as income and the transfers as internal transfer cost by the unit that received the income in the first place. The unit that received the internal transfer shall book this as such, i.e. internal transfer received. Some parties may have reported net revenues and costs, thus incomes as well as costs may 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 all members in the country 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.
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. The change in equity may indicate that some units have reported too low costs or too high incomes.
In total, the material may indicate that the costs are reported at a somewhat too low level.
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.
The total central government subsidy disbursed amounts to NOK 397.7 million in 2014 according to the Ministry of Local Government and Modernisation and the County Governor of Sogn og Fjordane. The 685 units of the political parties on which the statistics are based reported an amount of NOK 375.8 million received in central government subsidies. Summing up this subsidy as reported from the 685 units and the amount disbursed to all other units that have fulfilled their reporting obligation, gives a total of NOK 397.5 million.
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Revision
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Not relevant