Political Parties and Elections Bill

I am grateful to the noble Lord. We do not have that guidance from the Minister. He may feel that it is necessary to give it guidance between now and Report on whether the model is that all four have to withdraw in such circumstances, or the circumstances in which some other arrangement can be made. I share the anxiety of the noble Lord, Lord Campbell-Savours. The Minister’s response was very helpful and I am grateful. He rightly emphasised, and perhaps I should have done so earlier, the role of the Speaker’s Committee. I hope this debate will inform and assist that committee in considering these issues in future. However, there is room for greater clarity between now and Report. The terms of office issue, which falls under Schedule 1 to the PPERA, need to be looked at again. For example, if an incoming party leader decides that his or her representative inherited from a previous leader is going to be an extremely awkward customer, who has gone native in the Electoral Commission and is now taking a totally dispassionate, non-partisan view when the reverse is what the party leader requires, the easiest way to deal with that is to say to Joe Bloggs or Joan Bloggs, "Look, I have got a good idea. Why don’t you go into the House of Lords?". That would remove him or her immediately from the commission and then the party leader can put in the favoured trustee to behave in a more partisan fashion. There is an issue here and we should think about it quite clearly. If the electoral commission is going to operate on exactly the same basis as other commissions, it could be a potential minefield and we need to address the issue. I do not wish to detain the Grand Committee longer. Important points have been made throughout our debates today which have fully justified our anxiety to take a good look at this issue. It is an important change in both practice and perception for the commission and I hope that Ministers will at least give further thought to the best way to handle it before Report. We, too, will do that—we will look very carefully at what has been said on all sides of the Committee—but, in the mean time, I beg leave to withdraw the amendment. Amendment 74 withdrawn. Clause 5 agreed.