Political Parties and Elections Bill

I am grateful for the Minister’s response to these amendments, which, as I said, are probing in nature. I appreciate the point about the groupings made by the noble Lord, Lord Rennard, who referred to Amendments 47 and 49. I shall come on to some of the points relating to those amendments when that group is reached. However, the intention behind these amendments is to get further information from the Minister placed on the record regarding the types of offences that will be brought forward in the statutory instruments. This matter was the subject of a helpful report from the Delegated Powers and Regulatory Reform Committee, which considered paragraph 16 of new Schedule 19C and addressed the issue of the powers being conferred on the Secretary of State. They are considerable powers. If I have heard him correctly, the Minister appears to be saying that the power for prescribed offences will be only for the most serious crimes. Perhaps I am wishing for a little too much, but I will continue my fishing exercise to see whether the Minister is prepared to come forward with some definitions of the type of offences that he considers the most serious. He may want to refer to them when we consider the next group of amendments.