Electoral Administration Bill

I am grateful for the sympathy of the noble Lord, Lord Rennard, about what we are trying to do. Indeed, as the noble Baroness, Lady Hanham, recognises, we were conscious that as more sophistication enters our political campaigning, more time, effort and money is being invested in campaigning, particularly in marginal seats—something of which we are all aware—resulting in quite large amounts of money being spent at a local level before the dissolution of Parliament, and therefore not counting. We were seeking to address that problem. That is why we included the Electoral Commission’s recommendation for candidates’ election expenses for a four-month period in the Bill. The concerns of the noble Baroness and the noble Lord were raised in our thinking on how we would achieve this. The noble Lord, Lord Rennard, said that you have the difficulty of not being sure when the election will be called. Nobody is ever sure. Some election agents will not be in position four months before the general election, yet would have legal responsibility for detailing the spend. We do not want Members of the other place to be restricted in any way by worrying about what might count as election expenses. I am after consensus on this issue. The Government are not in any way wedded to this proposal. We have put it in because it was a recommendation of the Electoral Commission. We want to work with colleagues in your Lordships’ House and elsewhere to see if there is a proposition that might find greater favour. Noble Lords will know that there has been discussion in the other place with representatives of the different parties. We will continue those discussions and see whether there is a better way forward. We completely recognise the reasons the noble Baroness gave in her opening remarks about the difficulty of something that would be retrospective from an unknown time. We would like to continue working to see whether there is a better proposition that addresses the concern.