Political Parties and Elections Bill

Perhaps I may make one or two brief comments. We are sympathetic to these government amendments, but I ask the Minister to deal with one or two points. First, can he repeat what seems obvious to me: that this affects only the staff of the commission and in no way could these amendments at some future stage be used to affect the commissioners in relation to new subsection (3)? It would obviously be ridiculous if they began to be appointed by their party leaders. They could not be treated as if they were staff and found themselves excluded because of their political backgrounds. The noble Lord will obviously have no problem in repeating that. Secondly, I agree that it is useful that the chief executive has the power to vary the period as he wishes and that he should consult the Speaker’s Committee. In the end, the final decision will be that of the chief executive. I should be grateful if the noble Lord repeated that. I take it, from my reading of the Bill, that the Speaker’s Committee has no veto on the chief executive. No doubt, he or she would take appropriate advice if the Speaker’s Committee had very strong views about what he was proposing. Thirdly, it would be quite useful if the Minister gave some example of the times when he thought that the chief executive might wish to make use of this power to vary the period. I have some idea of my own, but I should be grateful if the Government gave their views as to when they thought it likely that the chief executive might exercise these powers.