The Scottish Liberal Democrats face a fine for failing to hand over audited accounts to electoral chiefs, it was revealed yesterday.
The party's accounting unit missed a deadline to hand over final figures to the Electoral Commission. Parties can face a hefty fine over failure to submit accounts.
The Co-operative Party was fined £500 for handing over their accounts just six days late. The BNP has also failed to submit a final financial statement.
The penalty they face will depend on the length of time between the missed deadline and the submission of outstanding information.
Peter Wardle, chief executive of the Electoral Commission, said: "The accounts should be a key source of information for anyone wishing to find out more about how a political party is funded, and what it spends its money on. Without complete and open accounts, you cannot have full transparency about party finances.
"The rules on transparency are vital to public confidence and integrity in the democratic process.
"That's why we are now taking a tougher approach to ensuring parties follow the rules, including fining parties who don't submit their accounts on time and looking at how we can get parties to improve the ways in which they present their accounts."
A Lib Dem spokeswoman said a copy of the draft accounts was submitted to the commission on the Monday after the July 7 deadline and blamed the delay on an "administrative error".
Figures for the SNP show they spent £1,384,154 last year, with more than £350,000 going on staff costs. The party had an income of £1,836,405 according to accounts.
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