Political Parties and Elections Bill

I support the amendment. It is absolutely right that if, in fact, the Electoral Commission has been asked to do a piece of work, that response must come. I am not sure whether six months is not a bit too long, but I shall go with the amendment. It is important that responses are received while the issue is still timely. If you leave it a year, you could have completely forgotten what the issue is about. To lay this down means that there has to be a response. The commission says that usually it does get responses, but there have been occasions when it has not. That is unacceptable. It is unfortunate, perhaps, if something needs to go into the Bill to say that that has to happen, but if that is necessary then so be it. The commission also makes the point that reports should be published under Sections 5 and 6 of PPERA. We should ensure that it covers all those points.