Parliamentary Office of the Liberal Democrats (POLD)

Nick has served on the Board of the Parliamentary Office of the Liberal Democrats since 1994. POLD is the body which organises the Lib Dems' collective work in Parliament: employing staff in the party's Whips' Office, Press Office, Research Department and Leader's Office.

POLD is funded through the Short Money system of funding for opposition parties' Parliamentary work, through contributions from MPs' office and staff budgets, from fund-raising activities, and from money given by the party to support this work.

It has a turnover of almost £2 million and employs getting on for 50 staff.