Political Parties and Elections Bill

I am delighted to move Amendment 4. I had not expected to move the Minister to tears so early in proceedings, but I hope I will have the opportunity to do so again as consideration of the Bill continues. In many ways, this next amendment is in a similar vein. I hope that the Minister will have some positive responses to this because it relates to the nature of the issue of a disclosure notice. The amendment stands in my name and that of my noble friend Lord Henley. The provision does not mention what method the commission would use to serve a disclosure notice, so in that sense the amendment is probing what is intended. The disclosure notice is an important tool of the investigatory work of the Electoral Commission, but how it is to be served? The amendment would insert a provision that the disclosure notice must be served by hand by a person who has specifically been given the power to effect these notices by the commission. We agree with the Government that these notices are hugely important. While we think that flexibility is important in many areas, in this, we feel that the disclosure notice should be served in person. There will be those who make the point that it is unwieldy, will delay the process and cause problems for the commission. However, in devising the amendment, we were mindful of the experience that some other bodies had had; for example, where a request for information had been sent out to the wrong address and the information therefore not received, or compliance noted.