Political Parties and Elections Bill

A party worker; a volunteer worker of the kind that the noble Lord, Lord Bates, talked about earlier. Schedule 19C allows civil penalties to be pursued as civil debts. Therefore, in theory, remedies such as contempt of court may be possible as an alternative to purely monetary penalties if someone is unable to pay. However, we need to bear in mind the kind of people who are likely to be sanctioned. The parties or donors are unlikely to be those in the impoverished category that the noble Lord identified. I realise that my response does not entirely answer my noble friend’s point. I should be grateful if he would give me some time to consider the proposition that he raised and perhaps allow me to write to him and to other Members of the Committee with a fuller answer.