SNP ‘closed public books’ in 2014 during Salmond’s regime

The SNP’S problems around the allegedly missing £600,000 in donations will not be helped by a decision made in 2014 to shut its books.

Transparency concerns around just under £600,000 of “ring-fenced” donations to the party have been raised by many disaffected pro-independence supporters.

Several SNP national executive committee members, including treasurer Douglas Chapman and high-profile Edinburgh MP Joanna Cherry, have quit over the lack of transparency around the party’s finances.

However, an analysis of the public accounts undertaken by The Scotsman shows that a decision made while under the leadership of Alex Salmond may have unwittingly heaped pressure onto the party in 2021. Prior to the 2013 accounts, the SNP’S accounts submitted to the Electoral Commission showed both “unrestricted” and “restricted” funds, with the latter referring to any donation linked to specific activity such as campaigning.

This is where the vast majority of donations to the party sat in the accounts, including the £1m from Euromillions winners Colin and Christine Weir received in 2011.

Other donations such as legacies, donated through individual’s wills, went into the “unrestricted” funds.

This system allowed individuals to check the party’s annual accounts for the amount of money donated into a specific fund and the amount spent from that fund each year .

Any overspend would be topped up by additional cash from unrestricted funds.

However, the 2013 accounts are the last to break down the SNP’S reserves in this way.

They state that at the start of that year, just over £503,000 was in the SNP’S reserves, dropping to a deficit of £235,000 after the party spent £738,000 from the funds during the year.

The equivalent figure in their latest accounts for 2019 is a surplus of £271,916, having run a deficit of £319,161 for the year.

It is understood the SNP opened their books as part of an attempt from the Electoral Commission to bring political parties closer in line with how charities present their accounts.

However, when the pressure failed to see the larger parties back down, the SNP reverted to the approach taken by other political groups and closed their public-facing books in the process.