1    STATUS and AUTHORITY
1.1    The basic units of the Party are the Constituency Associations and Branches, established under section 5 of the Party Constitution. They shall uphold the principles of the Constitution and are responsible to the National Executive Committee via the Party Chairman or his delegate who will normally be the regional organiser.
1.2    A Constituency Association consists of one entire parliamentary constituency and it shall bear that name.
1.3    A Branch consists of more than one parliamentary constituency and shall include the parliamentary constituencies concerned in their entirety. It shall have an appropriate geographical name.
1.4    The primary functions of Constituency Associations and branches are to select and support candidates for parliamentary and local elections, to assist in euro-election campaigns, recruit new members, raise funds and generally to promote the Party and its policies.
1.5    In accordance with the party’s aim to have Constituency Associations in all parliamentary constituencies, branches covering more than one constituency are encouraged to split when branch membership becomes sufficiently large.
1.6    Branches shall co-operate with their regional committee.
1.7    Constituency Associations and Branches shall both be managed under these rules and both are hereinafter referred to as Branches.

2    MEMBERSHIP
2.1    All Party members are members of the branch in which they live and shall be entitled to participate in its activities.
2.2    The affairs of members who live in a parliamentary constituency with no established branch shall be administered by the Party Chairman or his delegate (Constitution paragraph 5.5).
2.3    Party members may, on request, become a member of another branch, subject to the agreement of the receiving branch committee.
2.4    A Party member may normally serve on only one branch committee at a time.

3    BRANCH COMMITTEES
3.1    Branches are responsible for their own actions and financial affairs.
3.2    A branch committee shall have a minimum of two members and would not normally have more than eight members in total.
3.3    The three principal branch officers, Chairman, Treasurer and Secretary shall all be committee members. Further officers may be elected to fulfil other posts. If only two members are elected to the committee, they shall be Chairman and Treasurer and one of these shall also be named as Secretary.
3.4    The branch officers and other committee members shall be elected at the branch’s Annual General Meeting (AGM) by ballot of members attending. Their term of office shall run from the AGM when elected until the next AGM. The principal officers shall be required to complete and return a Party Officer’s Declaration form.
3.5    All branch members in good standing and members from other branches in accordance with rules 2.3 and 2.4 above are eligible to stand for election to the branch Committee.
3.6    Members of less than twelve months standing must be proposed and seconded by those who have been Party members for twelve months.
3.7    The elected committee shall have the power to co-opt other branch members for specific purposes whose term shall end at the next AGM and whose voting rights shall be determined by the elected committee.
3.8    Duties of Branch Officers
3.8.1    The Chairman has principal responsibility for the direction of the branch and shall normally chair all meetings including the AGM.
3.8.2    The Treasurer shall be responsible for managing the branch finances and bank account. All branches are Accounting Units for the purposes of the Political Parties Elections and Referendums Act, 2000 (PPERA) and the Treasurer is responsible for compliance, in particular the reporting of donations to Head Office and the preparation and submission of Branch Accounts, according to guidance from the Party Treasurer.
3.8.3    The Secretary shall normally be responsible for the general administration of the Committee, including taking minutes of meetings, maintaining a record of the branch’s party members and advising Head Office of changes. The secretary shall also advise Head Office of any changes to the officers and the branch registration details.
4    BRANCH MEETINGS
4.1    Committee Meetings
4.1.1    Branch committees shall normally meet at least six times per annum with sufficient flexibility to cope with emergencies such as the sudden calling of an election.
4.1.2    Half of the committee members, including two of the Chairman, Secretary and Treasurer, shall constitute a quorum. The normal notice period is 7 days.
4.2    Annual General Meeting
4.2.1    The Party’s year ends on 31st December. The AGM shall normally be held between 1 January and 31 March and between 10 and 14 months after the preceding AGM.
4.2.3    21 days notice of the AGM shall be given and the notice shall invite nominations for the election of committee officers and motions for the meeting.
4.2.4    Any motions for the AGM must be submitted in advance and must be consistent with the principles and Constitution of the Party.
4.2.5    The business of the AGM shall include:
(i) Approval of the minutes of the previous AGM; (ii) Receiving reports from the chairman and secretary; (iii) Approving the Treasurer’s Statement of Accounts for the previous year; (iv) Election of the branch committee members and officers for the following year;
(v) Transacting such other business as may be brought before it.
4.3    An extraordinary general meeting (EGM) shall be held when called for a specific purpose by the branch committee, by the Party Chairman or by the written request to the branch chairman or secretary of 25% of branch members in good standing. An EGM must be held within 6 weeks of being validly called and 21 days notice to all branch members must be given.
4.4    Ordinary meetings of the whole branch
may be convened as thought fit by the committee and may typically be combined with campaigning or other activities.

5    SELECTION of CANDIDATES
5.1    It is the responsibility of branches to seek to adopt candidates for parliamentary and local elections within the branch area, in consultation with the regional organiser.
5.2    For general election candidates, the committee shall follow the rules laid down for selection, in particular regarding short-listing, the organisation of hustings meetings and adoption procedures.
5.3    For parliamentary by-elections, the NEC must agree to the choice of candidate and shall decide whether or not the by-election is contested (Constitution paragraph 16.7).
5.4    For all local government elections, the branch shall invite applications from members to stand and shall have the responsibility for selecting candidates.

6    AUTHORITY for CANDIDATE NOMINATIONS
6.1    Authority to use the Party’s ‘description’ (UK Independence Party) and ‘emblem’ (UKIP logo) on nomination papers at elections within the branch’s parliamentary constituencies and local government boundaries is the responsibility of the relevant Deputy Nominating Officer, who is appointed by the Party’s registered Nominating Officer.

7    DISPUTES
7.1    Instances may arise when differences within a branch threaten its proper functioning.  Every effort shall be made to resolve these at the local level, either by the branch committee or at a full meeting of the branch. If this does not succeed, the dispute shall be referred to the regional organiser, acting on behalf of the Party Chairman.
7.2    If the dispute remains irreconcilable, or if the Party Chairman deems that the behaviour of the committee or its officers is inconsistent with the Party’s Constitution or principles, the Party Chairman may suspend or dissolve the committee, or dissolve the branch in its entirety.
7.3    Any such action under paragraph 7.2 shall be ratified by the NEC.