Political Parties and Elections Bill

We now come to the end of this batch of opposition amendments. In moving Amendment 72, I shall also speak to Amendment 73. I hope that I can be fairly brief because they are more probing than anything else. Amendment 72 would insert "reasonable" so that the report becomes the reasonable opinion of the Electoral Commission. On Amendment 73, we felt that rather than, ""might adversely affect any current investigation"," we should make the provision somewhat stronger and say that it, ""would adversely affect any current investigation"." It is obviously very important that the commission should have some form of flexibility and, in terms of reporting, that is very useful. However, this could go too far because as it stands there is no requirement that the commission's opinion as to the lawfulness or any adverse effects of publishing certain information be reasonable. We feel that an opinion to this end should be reasonable. Amendment 73 would strengthen the wording in the Bill to make it absolutely clear that the commission should not include anything that would adversely affect investigations. I would be grateful for the noble Lord's comments on those amendments. I beg to move.