Electoral Administration Bill

moved Amendment No. 61:"Page 80, line 42, at end insert—" ““(   )   Part 5A of Schedule 1 amends the 2000 Act for the purpose of controlling loans and certain other transactions involving individuals and members associations.”” The noble Baroness said: My Lords, in moving Amendment No. 61, I wish to speak also to Amendments Nos. 68, 76, 77, 78, 80 and 81. My noble and learned friend the Lord Chancellor said on re-commitment of the Bill on 8 May, that while the amendments which now form Clause 60 were comprehensive in all respects as they relate to political parties, it would be necessary to bring forward further amendments,"““to close any gaps by extending the provisions in much the same manner to individual members of political parties, holders of elective office and members associations””.—[Official Report, 8/5/06; col. 753.]" These important amendments therefore further extend the principles of the loans regime—which this House has already endorsed—to apply to individual members of political parties, holders of relevant elective office and members associations. The approach taken in the amendments in respect of loans to individuals and members associations mirrors the approach taken for individuals and members associations in the existing donations regime of the Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000. As is the case for donations, we have drawn a capacity-based distinction in respect of the transactions entered into by individuals and members associations. The activities of political parties are inherently political, but the activities of individuals are not. Under the donations regime, any donation afforded to a political party can be subjected to a regulatory regime concerned with,"““donations and expenditure for political purposes””." PPERA recognises that this is not, of course, appropriate in the case of individuals. Accordingly, a donation must be a ““controlled donation”” before it falls within the ambit of Schedule 7, dependent on the donation being received by the individual or members association in circumstances where it has been offered or retained for use in connection with any relevant political activities. The amendments take a similar approach. Regulated transactions entered into by individual members of political parties and members associations will only be captured by this regime if the individual or members association intends at the time they enter into the transaction to use any money or benefit obtained in connection with relevant political activities. We also in these amendments remove from individuals and members associations the requirement to report loans on less than commercial terms under the donations regime. As noble Lords will be aware, the loans regime for political parties removes such loans from the definition of ““donation””, because they will now fall within the definition of a ““regulated transaction””. This change avoids a duplicate reporting requirement. A similar approach is taken for loans to individuals and members associations. We also extend the principles of aggregation of loans and donations to individuals and members associations. We have taken exactly the same approach as that taken for political parties, whereby donations and regulated transactions from the same regulated participant that are below the reporting threshold fall to be disclosed when, in aggregation, such relevant benefits exceed the reporting threshold. I beg to move.