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Political Parties and Elections Bill

Political Parties and Elections Bill



The Committee consisted of the following Members:

Chairmen: Mr. Peter Atkinson, Mr. Joe Benton, Frank Cook, †Sir Nicholas Winterton
Ainger, Nick (Carmarthen, West and South Pembrokeshire) (Lab)
Djanogly, Mr. Jonathan (Huntingdon) (Con)
Duddridge, James (Rochford and Southend, East) (Con)
Grogan, Mr. John (Selby) (Lab)
Hesford, Stephen (Wirral, West) (Lab)
Howarth, David (Cambridge) (LD)
Kidney, Mr. David (Stafford) (Lab)
Laing, Mrs. Eleanor (Epping Forest) (Con)
Linton, Martin (Battersea) (Lab)
Lloyd, Tony (Manchester, Central) (Lab)
Lucas, Ian (Wrexham) (Lab)
Reid, Mr. Alan (Argyll and Bute) (LD)
Sharma, Mr. Virendra (Ealing, Southall) (Lab)
Turner, Mr. Andrew (Isle of Wight) (Con)
Tyrie, Mr. Andrew (Chichester) (Con)
Whitehead, Dr. Alan (Southampton, Test) (Lab)
Wills, Mr. Michael (Minister of State, Ministry of Justice)
Wishart, Pete (Perth and North Perthshire) (SNP)
Chris Shaw, Chris Stanton, Committee Clerks
† attended the Committee

Public Bill Committee

Thursday 20 November 2008

(Morning)

[Sir Nicholas Winterton in the Chair]

Political Parties and Elections Bill

Further written evidence to be reported to the House

PPE 06 Mr. Peter Hooper
9.3 am
The Chairman: I welcome to our penultimate sitting those members of the Committee who are present and I make a plea to the Committee that we make as much progress as possible in the time we have left, so that the expectations of the Programming Sub-Committee can be met—namely, that all the important parts of the Bill be considered before we conclude at 4 o’clock.

Clause 8

Declaration as to source of donation
Amendment proposed [18 November]: No. 153, in clause 8, page 5, line 43, leave out ‘£200’ and insert
‘£5,000, or £1,000 where subsection (4A) of section 54A applies,’.—[Mr. Wills.]
Question again proposed, That the amendment be made.
The Chairman: I remind the Committee that with this we are discussing the following: Amendment No. 3, in clause 8, page 5, line 43, leave out ‘£200’ and insert ‘£1,000’.
Amendment No. 135, in clause 8, page 5, line 43, leave out ‘£200’ and insert
‘£5,000 donated to a registered party or £1,000 donated to an accounting unit of a registered party’.
Government amendments Nos. 154 and 155.
Amendment No. 4, in clause 8, page 6, line 3, leave out ‘£200’ and insert ‘£1,000’.
Government amendment No. 156.
Amendment No. 5, in clause 8, page 6, line 14, leave out ‘£200’ and insert ‘£1,000’.
Amendment No. 134, in clause 8, page 6, line 14, leave out ‘£200’ and insert
‘£5,000 donated to a registered party or £1,000 donated to an accounting unit of a registered party’.
Amendment No. 179, in clause 8, page 6, line 17, after first ‘the’, insert ‘reasonable’.
Amendment No. 180, in clause 8, page 6, line 21, after ‘person’s’, insert ‘reasonable’.
Government amendments Nos. 157 to 159.
Amendment No. 181, in clause 8, page 7, line 17, after ‘or’, insert ‘was reasonably’.
Government amendment No. 160.
Amendment No. 148, in schedule 3, page 34, line 7, leave out ‘£200’ and insert ‘£1,000’.
Government amendment No. 161.
Amendment No. 147, in schedule 3, page 34, line 12, leave out ‘£200’ and insert ‘£1,000’.
Amendment No. 185, in schedule 3, page 34, line 18, leave out from first ‘the’ to ‘knowledge’ and insert ‘individual’s reasonable’.
Government amendment No. 162.
Amendment No. 146, in schedule 3, page 34, line 25, leave out ‘£200’ and insert ‘£1,000’.
Amendment No. 186, in schedule 3, page 34, line 29, after first ‘the’, insert ‘reasonable’.
Amendment No. 200, in schedule 3, page 34, line 34, after ‘person’s’, insert ‘reasonable’.
Government amendment No. 163.
Amendment No. 188, in schedule 3, page 35, line 6, at end insert—
‘(8) The Commission shall prepare and publish guidance notes, which must be attached to any declaration under paragraph 6A, and which set out in clear English information necessary to properly complete such a declaration, which will as a minimum include—
(a) examples to assist in understanding how benefits are valued;
(b) examples to assist in the completion of the declarations required by paragraph 6A(3);
(c) the penalties for non-compliance with time periods, and for knowingly or recklessly making a false declaration;
(d) the appropriate details of when time limits for the submission of declarations commence and end.’.
Amendment No. 189, in schedule 3, page 35, line 37, leave out ‘appearing’ and insert ‘who reasonably appears’.
Government amendment No. 164.
Amendment No. 145, in schedule 3, page 36, line 2, leave out ‘£200’ and insert ‘£1,000’.
Government amendment No. 165.
Amendment No. 144, in schedule 3, page 36, line 7, leave out ‘£200’ and insert ‘£1,000’.
Amendment No. 190, in schedule 3, page 36, line 13, leave out from first ‘the’ to ‘knowledge’ and insert ‘individual’s reasonable’.
Government amendment No. 166.
Amendment No. 143, in schedule 3, page 36, line 20, leave out ‘£200’ and insert ‘£1,000’.
Amendment No. 191, in schedule 3, page 36, line 24, after first ‘the’, insert ‘reasonable’.
Amendment No. 192, in schedule 3, page 36, line 29, after ‘person’s’, insert ‘reasonable’.
Government amendment No. 167.
Amendment No. 194, in schedule 3, page 36, line 45, at end insert—
‘(8) The Commission shall prepare and publish guidance notes, which must be attached to any declaration under paragraph 6A, and which set out in clear English information necessary to properly complete such a declaration, which will as a minimum include—
(e) examples to assist in understanding how benefits are valued;
(f) examples to assist in the completion of the declarations required by paragraph 6A(3);
(g) the penalties for non-compliance with time periods, and for knowingly or recklessly making a false declaration;
(h) the appropriate details of when time limits for the submission of declarations commence and end.’.
Government amendment No. 168.
Amendment No. 142, in schedule 3, page 37, line 30, leave out ‘£200’ and insert ‘£1,000’.
Government amendment No. 169.
Amendment No. 141, in schedule 3, page 37, line 35, leave out ‘£200’ and insert ‘£1,000’.
Amendment No. 195, in schedule 3, page 37, line 41, leave out from first ‘the’ to ‘knowledge’ and insert ‘individual’s reasonable’.
Government amendment No. 170.
Amendment No. 140, in schedule 3, page 38, line 6, leave out ‘£200’ and insert ‘£1,000’.
Amendment No. 196, in schedule 3, page 38, line 10, after first ‘the’, insert ‘reasonable’.
Amendment No. 197, in schedule 3, page 38, line 15, after ‘person’s’, insert ‘reasonable’.
Government amendment No. 171.
Amendment No. 198, in schedule 3, page 38, line 31, at end insert—
‘(8) The Commission shall prepare and publish guidance notes, which must be attached to any declaration under paragraph 6A, and which set out in clear English information necessary to properly complete such a declaration, which will as a minimum include—
(i) examples to assist in understanding how benefits are valued;
(j) examples to assist in the completion of the declarations required by paragraph 6A(3);
(k) the penalties for non-compliance with time periods, and for knowingly or recklessly making a false declaration;
(l) the appropriate details of when time limits for the submission of declarations commence and end.’.
Clause 8 stand part.
I point out to hon. Members the fact that this group now includes a number of amendments that were starred at the previous sitting of the Committee. I call Jonathan Djanogly, if he has recovered his breath.
Mr. Jonathan Djanogly (Huntingdon) (Con): Thank you, Sir Nicholas, and the answer to that is “barely”. I apologise for my lateness.
Clause 8 is entirely unacceptable in almost every respect. It is an example of needless, ill thought through provisions at their worst. Given the varied issues covered by the clause, we were surprised at the lump grouping of amendments. Furthermore, given that significant issues go not only to the context of the clause, but to the sense of the clause itself, we did not expect the stand part debate to be included in the grouping. That has not made it easy to discuss the clause in a coherent fashion.
The Chairman: Order. The hon. Gentleman should not question the decisions of the Chair.
Mr. Djanogly: I would never think of questioning the decisions of the Chair, Sir Nicholas. I was just saying that, from our point of view, the grouping of amendments has made it difficult to debate the clause.
I shall now rebut the Labour Back-Bench amendments. Clause 8 creates a new responsibility for donors to political parties to clarify the source of donations. Donors giving more than £200 will be required to make a declaration whether another person is providing them with money or benefits worth more than £200. Amendment No. 3 and others would increase the donation that triggered the reporting requirements under the clause to various amounts between £1,000 and £5,000. If we agreed with the clause—I have just said that we do not—we would agree in principle with the need to increase the trigger thresholds to avoid unnecessary administrative burdens being laid at the feet of donors and local party volunteers alike.
By my estimation, setting the threshold at £200 would result in about 100,000 declarations being handled each year by the Conservative party alone. That would be a huge increase in the work load of many local party officers—and a fairly pointless one at that. I doubt whether the systems or, indeed, the manpower are in place to cope with such an increase.
Mr. Andrew Turner (Isle of Wight) (Con): Will my hon. Friend make it clear that many of those people are not paid, but are volunteers?
 
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