Political Parties and Elections Bill

This group of amendments relates to the civil sanctions that are now available to the Electoral Commission, which are widely supported. It is a positive move forward and reflects the recommendation of the Committee on Standards in Public Life which, in its report of January 2007, stated on page 35 that currently, ""the only sanctions that the Electoral Commission has if the parties do not comply with the legislation is to name or shame or, if the offence is sufficiently serious, to refer it to the Crown Prosecution Service for criminal prosecution"." In its fifth report the committee made clear that the Electoral Commission should not have any substantial judicial power. The Government accepted this recommendation and the committee continues to believe that this is the right approach. However, we received evidence suggesting that the commission should be given additional powers to levy administrative financial penalties for non-compliance with regulatory requirements that might not justify the current sanctions. The report then goes on to quote the then chief executive of the Electoral Commission, Peter Wardle, who said that this particular facility would be welcome. In Schedule 2, clear mention is made of what the civil sanctions could be. Part 1 refers to the fixed monetary penalties; Part 2 to the discretionary requirements; Part 3 to stop notices; and Part 4 to enforcement undertaken. These are all very welcome. Basically, these are probing amendments which seek more information from the Minister. In the notes which accompany the Bill produced by the House authorities it states that in this case "prescribed" means "prescribed in an order by the Secretary of State". We would be grateful for some advice from the Minister as to the types of offences that may be the subject of those orders. We would like to explore that further. The mechanism for doing that is to remove "prescribed" and allow it to apply to any offence whatever. That fits in with a point that in many ways were being made against amendments that we proposed earlier—that the commission should be allowed to apply its judgment in particular circumstances. Given that it applies its judgment, why should it not decide when a civil sanction should be used and in what circumstances and under what offences it should be moved up to a criminal offence or referred to the Crown Prosecution Service to undertake that action? I shall wait for the Minister’s response and any other contributions that may throw some light on things. I beg to move.