Electoral Administration Bill

moved Amendment No. 31:"Page 68, line 3, at end insert—""““““relevant benefit””, in relation to any person and any year, means—" (a)   a relevant donation within the meaning of section 62(3) accepted by the party from that person as a donor, or (b)   a relevant transaction entered into by the party and that person as a participant, and a relevant benefit accrues when it is accepted (if it is a donation) or entered into (if it is a transaction).”” The noble Baroness said: My Lords, I would have liked to move the amendment formally, but as it is in rather a large group, I should speak to it. In moving the amendment, I shall speak also to Amendments Nos. 32 to 48, 50, 51, 52, 54, 59, 72 and 75. The amendments return us to an issue to which we gave consideration both on recommitment and on Report—the gap that existed in respect of disclosure of aggregated loans and donations. The Government are tabling the amendments because there was previously no provision in the Bill to aggregate loans and donations, such that it would have been possible to make a donation of £5,000 and a loan of £5,000 without a requirement for either to be disclosed. As I said on Report, it would be quite wrong for there to be such a gap. I am most grateful to the noble Lord, Lord Goodhart, for his original amendment, which usefully highlighted this issue. I undertook to return to your Lordships’ House with detailed amendments to tackle this important issue. These amendments close that gap. Under them, a requirement to report and to disclose is triggered where donations, regulated transactions, or any combination of donations and regulated transactions from the same permissible donor or authorised participant exceed the reporting threshold. The amendments adopt the term ““relevant benefits”” as a composite phrase to refer to something that is either a donation or a regulated transaction. The approach that we have taken is that it should not matter whether or not a donation, or a regulated transaction, or a combination of donations and regulated transactions are made. If the aggregate value of any combination of relevant benefits exceeds the initial reporting threshold of £5,000, or the subsequent reporting threshold of £1,000, a requirement to report is triggered. The reporting requirements have been kept as simple as possible. We have steered away from creating a complicated new structure and register for the separate reporting of hybrid aggregates. Rather, we have adopted the more straightforward way whereby donations feed into the existing reporting structure for donations and regulated transactions feed into the existing reporting structure for regulated transactions. So, a party must submit a donation report every quarter, which must list all recordable donations. Under the approach adopted by these amendments, it will not matter whether a donation is required to be reported because, first, it exceeds the reporting threshold in its own right, or, secondly, it is required to be reported because, taken with regulated transactions, it exceeds the reporting threshold. In either case, the donation must be entered in the donation report. In the second case, the regulated transaction must also be reported in the transaction report for that quarter. To ensure clarity, where a requirement to report is triggered because of an aggregation of donations and loans, this fact must be reported in the respective donation and transaction reports. I beg to move.