Political Parties and Elections Bill

I find this a rather odd amendment, partly for the reasons that my noble friend Lord Campbell-Savours has mentioned, and partly because of the use of the word "appeal", when the appeal is to the same body that made the determination in the first place. It is really a request to the commission to think again, but that hardly needs a provision in the Bill. If anybody receives a notice that is inappropriate, there is nothing to stop a lawyer or other adviser—it does not have to be a lawyer—from saying, "Tell them thus and thus". It is not really an appeal. I am not suggesting that a separate body should be set up that could be appealed to; but the use of language here is inappropriate, and I am not sure what the effect would be.