SNP submits annual accounts to Electoral Commission

The SNP has submitted its annual financial accounts to the Electoral Commission.

The watchdog confirmed it had received the submission before Friday's deadline.

It said the accounts would be published, along with those of other larger UK parties, as soon as practicable.

The SNP appointed new auditors in May after the firm that previously carried out the work stepped down.

All political parties that spend more than £250,000 must submit audited annual returns to comply with electoral law.

The SNP changed the way it records donations last week after the auditors, AMS Accountants Group, flagged that the original records for some cash and cheques had not been retained for the current and prior financial years.

First Minister and SNP leader Humza Yousaf said this was because the party previously only kept online records of donations under £250.

Auditors had made a "qualification" because of the missing paperwork, but the SNP said it was still on track to file accounts by the deadline.

The SNP said the issue was down to "administrative processes" and there was "no suggestion of misappropriation of funds".

AMS Accountants Group was appointed after long-standing auditors Johnston Carmichael quit last September, though it was not made public by the party until this year.

Mr Yousaf said at the time there had been a "significant amount of doubt as to whether we would get those accounts submitted on time".

It comes amid a Police Scotland investigation into SNP finances and funding, codenamed Operation Branchform.

Former first minister Nicola Sturgeon, her husband and ex-party chief executive Peter Murrell and former treasurer Colin Beattie have all been arrested as part of the inquiry.

All three were subsequently released without charge pending further investigation.

The police inquiry centres on what happened to more than £660,000 of funds given to the party by activists to be spent on a future independence referendum.