Electoral Administration
Bill: Simplification of Donation Reporting Requirements
1. Members of the House are required, in the interests
of transparency and accountability, to make public details of
certain financial support they (or in some circumstances their
constituency associations) receive. The House requires details
of sponsorship above certain thresholds to be reported to the
Registrar of Members' Interests for inclusion in the Register
of Members' Interests[1].
Members are also one of the categories of holder of 'relevant
elective office'[2] for
the purposes of the Political Parties, Elections and Referendums
Act 2000 (PPERA), and are therefore subject to the separate requirements
set out in Schedule 7 of that Act for reporting certain controlled
donations (as defined in that Schedule) to the Electoral Commission.
While the two sets of reporting requirements have substantial
elements in common, there are significant differences of detail.
2. In our Second Report[3]
we commented that Members found burdensome the duplication inherent
in these arrangements. There is also scope for confusion, arising
from the differences between them. We expressed the view that
a single system of notification, operating under the authority
of the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards, to enable Members
to discharge both the House's and PPERA's requirements through
a single declaration, would be better. We therefore recommended
that the Electoral Commission and the Government work together
to bring forward proposals for such a system, and noted that the
Electoral Administration Bill might provide a suitable vehicle
for required legislative changes.
3. Our proposal is supported by the Electoral Commission[4],
which had already raised the general issue of duplication of donation
reporting requirements for holders of elective office. On the
basis of four years experience of monitoring compliance with the
reporting requirements placed by PPERA on holders of elective
office, the Commission has concluded that little value has been
added to the aims of transparency and accountability through these
controls. It also noted that having two similar reporting requirements
has caused "notable confusion" for holders of elective
office as to when benefits should be reported and under which
rules.
4. The Commission told us that it would therefore
welcome an amendment to the Electoral Administration Bill to exempt
all holders of relevant elective office from the statutory requirement
to report donations to it[5].
Should such a change be made, the Commission envisaged maintaining
its work monitoring compliance with the statutory controls on
the acceptance of donations through access to, and inspection
of, the respective registers of members' interests maintained
by the relevant elected bodies, including the House, and standards
boards.
5. Correspondence between the Chairman and Ministers
in the Department for Constitutional Affairs revealed that the
Government was in principle sympathetic to the removal of duplication
in the reporting requirements for holders of relevant elective
office generally, and not just for Members. In a letter of 14
October 2005 to the Chairman, the Minister of State indicated
that she was minded to introduce a Government amendment on this
issue in the course of the passage of the Electoral Administration
Bill, which had been presented to the House on 11 October.
6. On 21 November, the Minister of State sent us
detailed proposals, which provided for the removal from all holders
of relevant elective office of the statutory requirement to report
recordable donations[6]
to the Electoral Commission. Her letter is reproduced at Appendix
2[7]. In essence, she proposed
that, following the change, the Electoral Commission should seek
the information it needs as regards Members from the information
published in the Register of Members' Interests.
7. She noted that, as the requirements of the House,
in relation to the Register, and those of PPERA, did not overlap
precisely, adopting this solution would require the House to decide
to include in the Register the additional information at present
required to be supplied only to the Electoral Commission. In order
to maintain the key principles of transparency and accountability,
the Government intended to provide that the legislation would
only come into effect when the Electoral Commission was satisfied
that alternative arrangements had been put in place for it to
be able to access the information it needed.
8. In proposing the removal of the reporting requirements
of PPERA from holders of elective office generally, and not just
Members, the Government's intentions go further than the change
we had originally proposed in our Second Report. The Minister
of State has now given partial effect to these intentions by tabling
a New Clause (NC15), to be considered at the Report Stage of the
Electoral Administration Bill, which would remove the requirements
in relation to Members of the House only. In a letter of 9 January
2006 to the Chairman, reproduced at Appendix 3[8],
she explains that it has not yet been possible to resolve all
the technical issues necessary to put forward an amendment in
more general terms, but confirms that it remains the Government's
intention to put forward proposals for further amendment of the
Bill in relation to other categories of holder of relevant elective
office when it has done so.
9. We have already noted that, if enacted, these
proposals will not be brought into force by the Government until
the scope of the information to be included in the Register of
Members' Interests has been extended to cover the full scope of
the information at present required to be supplied to the Electoral
Commission. Some of the more important areas are mentioned in
the Minister of State's letter of 21 November[9].
This would not, however, represent any overall extension of the
information Members must already make public, and it would bring
them the convenience of only having to make a single return to
the Registrar of Members' Interests. There would also be a benefit
to the public in that, for the first time, all the information
relating to donations received by Members that they are required
to make public would be available from a single source[10].
10. We are grateful to Government for its swift
and positive response to the recommendation in our Second Report.
We commend its proposals to the House as an effective means of
removing the existing duplication of reporting requirements faced
by Members. We also note the Government's support in principle
for making a similar change in relation to other categories of
holder of relevant elective office. Implementation of these proposals
will also remove the scope for confusion on the part of Members
that exists in the present arrangements, thus improving their
effectiveness.
11. We share the Government's view that the key
principles of transparency and accountability will be fully maintained,
as the proposed changes merely simplify the reporting requirements
for Members. The existing underlying statutory controls on Members
as regards the acceptance of donations and requirements for the
Electoral Commission to make information public will remain unchanged.
12. If this provision is enacted, we will bring
forward, for approval by the House, proposals for the changes
to the registration requirements necessary for it to be brought
into effect. We intend to do this as part of our next general
review of the House's rules on registering and declaring interests,
which we expect to launch later this year.
1 Guide to the Rules relating to the Conduct of Members,
(HC 351) (2005-06), paras. 25 to 27. Back
2
This expression is defined in paragraph 1(8) of Schedule 7, PPERA. Back
3
HC 420. (2005-06) Back
4
Appendix 1, pages 6-7. Back
5
Appendix 1, pages 6-7. Back
6
This expression is defined in paragraph 10 of Schedule 7, PPERA. Back
7
Pages 8-9. Back
8
Page 10. Back
9
Appendix 2, pages 8-9. Back
10
The Register of Members' Interests. Back
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