{
  "url": "https://openlegislation.uk/political-parties-and-elections-act-2009/section-12",
  "json_url": "https://openlegislation.uk/political-parties-and-elections-act-2009/section-12.json",
  "legislation": "ukpga/2009/12",
  "legislation_title": "Political Parties and Elections Act 2009",
  "legislation_url": "https://openlegislation.uk/political-parties-and-elections-act-2009",
  "path": "section/12",
  "kind": "section",
  "number": "12",
  "heading": "Defence to charge of failing to return donation from impermissible donor",
  "text": "In section 56 of the 2000 Act (acceptance or return of donations: general), after subsection (3) there is inserted—\n“(3A) Where a party or its treasurer is charged with an offence under subsection (3), it shall be a defence to prove that—\n(a) all reasonable steps were taken by or on behalf of the party to verify (or ascertain) whether the donor was a permissible donor, and\n(b) as a result, the treasurer believed the donor to be a permissible donor.”",
  "extent": null,
  "status": null,
  "version": "current",
  "annotations": [
    {
      "type": "I",
      "label": "I1",
      "text": "S. 12 in force at 1.1.2010 by S.I. 2009/3084, art. 4(a)"
    }
  ],
  "outstanding_effects": [],
  "provenance": {
    "source": "legislation.gov.uk",
    "source_url": "https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2009/12/section/12",
    "retrieved_at": "2026-10-29T09:11:05.670691+00:00"
  },
  "licence": "Open Government Licence v3.0",
  "licence_url": "https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/",
  "attribution": "Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Source: legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives."
}