# Political Parties and Elections Act 2009, Section 12: Defence to charge of failing to return donation from impermissible donor


In section 56 of the 2000 Act (acceptance or return of donations: general), after subsection (3) there is inserted—
“(3A) Where a party or its treasurer is charged with an offence under subsection (3), it shall be a defence to prove that—
(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
(b) as a result, the treasurer believed the donor to be a permissible donor.”

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Source: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2009/12/section/12 (the official version)
Page: https://openlegislation.uk/political-parties-and-elections-act-2009/section-12
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Source: legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives.