Political Parties and Elections Bill

We, too, very much support this amendment, along similar lines to the noble Baroness. I am not sure whether it is not that the present reporting regime has been inadequate as regards what the commission has or has not been doing, or whether it is the response that the Secretary of State has or has not made in a timely fashion that is at the centre or core of the amendment proposed by the noble Lord, Lord Norton of Louth. Either way, this is obviously an extremely helpful self-discipline, which otherwise is not really dealt with under Section 6 of the 2000 Act. The reviews set out under that section are very important; these are not trivial issues and, as the noble Baroness has said, leaving them too long unreported or unresponded to by the responsible Secretary of State would seem to leave a nagging doubt on whether action is being taken on important issues. We warmly support the amendments and hope that the Minister will be prepared to take them on board either now or at Report in some other format, if that becomes essential. Either way, a bit of tightening up and tidying up is very timely.