My Lords, I shall also speak to Amendment 72.
Amendment 60 would ensure that all campaigners spending more than £50 were covered by the recall rules. Amendment 72 would ensure that all campaigners were covered by PPERA. The purpose of these is the same, in a way, albeit the former is by way of a probe, to ascertain from the Government why they chose the figure of £500 and also what thought was given to five or six campaigns in a constituency all being able to spend £500—technically, I think it is £499—without any sort of regulation. We want to see all but very small, local petitioning campaigning done in compliance with rules of fairness and transparency, particularly in relation to donations and expenses.
Just 10 days ago, on 9 January, we read a Cabinet Office spokesman saying:
“We want to make the political system more accountable and prevent a situation where opaque and unaccountable groups spend large sums of money attempting to influence the political system”.
We say amen to that, but the Bill as it is written allows unregistered people, indeed, non-UK nationals, to give or to receive foreign donations—in other words, not simply donations from permitted donors—and it would allow them to campaign in a recall petition provided that they did not spend more than £500. However, three, four or even more such campaigns could all be at work in the same constituency, which is, surely, exactly,
“a situation where opaque and unaccountable groups spend large sums of money attempting to influence the political system”,
but, in the case of recall, the Cabinet Office appears strangely unconcerned.
Some such groups may be working in complete innocence, but also in ignorance of the normal PPERA and Representation of the People Act rules, as they will not be registered parties, with all the expertise and experience that that implies. So while we welcome the parity of campaigners when it comes to rules on printed literature, if all campaigners are to be held to the same standards of election law, they should also all have access to the same advice and guidance as registered parties.
Schedule 6 makes provisions for how the Bill affects existing legislation, including the Representation of the People Act 1983 and the Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000. It is the latter that our amendment concerns. At present paragraph 3(7) requires that only accredited campaigners be offered advice and assistance from the Electoral Commission, whereas
we think that the commission should also be on hand to support non-accredited campaigners. Does the Minister agree that such access to advice is essential to help this be fair and transparent in the way we want? Will he, therefore, agree to correct this anomaly? Will he also confirm that all spending and donations should fall under PPERA, which, at the moment, they do not?
I return to Amendment 60, which relates to the amount of money that non-accredited campaigners can spend. There is nothing in the impact assessment as to how the figure of £500 was chosen; and why is the figure the same for all constituencies, regardless of the number of electors? At election time, the amount that one can spend varies, depending on the number of constituents. Can the Minister set out the thinking behind the choice of £500?
We are concerned about the lack of parity between non-accredited and accredited campaigners in terms of the scrutiny to which they will be subject and the guidance they will receive. Our understanding is that non-accredited groups, which could between them outspend the MP, will not otherwise be covered by PPERA; but, again, perhaps the Minister can confirm that our reading of that is correct and whether he is happy that so much money can be spent in one constituency with no rules at all. I beg to move.
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