Political Parties and Elections Bill

First, I am grateful to those who have spoken, and I particularly thank my noble friend Lord Hodgson. Here, we are seeking a definition of "reasonableness". The Minister made a very interesting point which seems to have been defended by others in the Committee. We are saying that it would be entirely unreasonable to set a time limit in the Bill. Yet paragraph 5(1) says: ""The Commission may retain any documents delivered to them in compliance with an order under paragraph 4 for a period of three months … In this paragraph "the documents" and "the three-month period" mean the documents and the period mentioned above"." In that particular case, which is in the same schedule, there is a time limit. What is proposed here is that the definition of what is reasonable cannot be stipulated. Even if the Minister came back to us with an argument that a time limit should be set—and of course we will be told in the letter—but that it should not exceed a period, for example, consistent with the three-month period mentioned elsewhere in the Bill. That would seem quite appropriate. Otherwise, what protection is there for the individual—to use the well worn example of the individual in the Caribbean—against any malicious aspect in an approach or request simply inserting that he must respond within two or three days?