Political Parties and Elections Bill

I understand why the Electoral Commission opposes this amendment. It suggests that it may ultimately cost more to the public purse if it has to pursue through legal avenues recovery of what is owed to it, as opposed to the payment of late penalties. However, if you had sufficiently large late penalties, you would get more money in, so it depends on what your legal costs would be as against the amounts from the late penalties. I think that it is better to have a system of late penalties—and I say that as someone responsible for running a party—because it is clearer and simpler. You know where you are; if you do not pay on time, you effectively pay more. I would not like to encourage the commission to think that it had time to get into legal arguments to pursue the payments; you should know that if you do not pay on time, you pay more.