Electoral Administration Bill

I agree, but there is a much easier test. It would be a mistake to get into the situation in which each item of mail has to be scrutinised to see what relevance it has to the local constituency. The only sensible way that I can identify to deal with the abuse is to say in terms that a communication to a specific elector in a specific constituency that has a political content either in supporting a party contesting the election or in opposing one is election material. Most normal people would recognise it as such, and I should like the law to recognise it as well. I am grateful to the Minister for listening to what was said in all parts of the Committee about the four-month issue. Let us be clear about our common ground: we all accept that there is a potential abuse, which needs to be dealt with, through substantial expenditure prior to an election being called that is not caught by the present limits. I was concerned on a number of grounds by the original proposal put to the Committee. Clearly, it distorted current election limits, which were intended to apply during an election period, but which were to be extended over four months. I was concerned because of the difficulties of identifying such expenditure in the context of an election for which there is no fixed term, and therefore no fixed date. I was particularly concerned by the position in which honorary, non-professional agents would be put. They would have to account for expenditure over which they had no direct control and which, indeed, might have happened before their appointment. As a matter of natural justice, people should not be legally responsible for something over which they had, and could have, no control. The Minister has made a suggestion to me and the hon. Member for North-East Hertfordshire (Mr. Heald), which we readily accept is a starting point for discussion, of separating out the three-month period before the election from the usual one-month campaign period. That makes sense because it preserves the present system for the campaign period, but the great unanswerable question in my mind is how we deal with the reporting issue for a period that is not defined and in which no one is actually controlling the expenditure, but someone nevertheless has to produce under pain of law an accurate account of the money expended. We can explore this matter further and I do not want to detain the House today in exploring all the possibilities. I took seriously the point made by the right hon. Member for Wokingham (Mr. Redwood) about the rolling three months and the differentiation between that and the period immediately prior to an election. Things could operate on two levels. It could operate as a general prohibition of political expenditure in support of a particular party or candidate over any three-month period, which would enable someone to challenge the expenditure of large amounts of money in a constituency over that time. That would be more difficult without a reporting procedure, but it might provide some check on unnecessary or inappropriate expenditure. We could also have a proper reporting procedure over the three-month period preceding the election, but we would need some way of protecting the agent from responsibility for matters over which he or she has no control. Part of the answer might be the responsibilities of the political associations in each constituency through the Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000 procedure. I receive regular complaints from the honorary treasurer of my constituency association about the onerous duties now placed on treasurers. They now have a very difficult task in reporting terms and the good ones take very seriously how they account for expenditure by their constituency association. Given that returns already have to be made by law, that could provide part of the answer, but it is not the whole answer because of the issue of third-party expenditure. I look forward to further discussions on this matter. It is right that we do not proceed further with debate on these matters today, but listen to what the Government have to say, contribute to their future considerations and ask those outside the House who are expert on the issue for their views on what is practicable and how we may address the problems. We have made substantial progress on several issues in this group of amendments and I am grateful to the Government for listening in this instance.