Electoral Administration Act 2006 (Regulation of Loans etc.: Northern Ireland) Order 2008

My Lords, if there is an impediment to people being on the UK register, I am afraid they cannot make donations. That is the basic tenet of our ensuring that ““foreign”” money does not come into UK political parties. You can do so if you are eligible to be on the UK register. If you are not eligible, your donation does not count. So far, as I said, I have nothing to report from the Electoral Commission about donations. The rules will be broadly—I cannot say exactly—the same for loans as they are for donations. The noble Lord, Lord Bew, mentioned time. I fully accept his point. He mentioned that this month was forecast in the original legislation for the possible devolution of policing and criminal justice, which clearly is not taking place. We do not see this as a permanent arrangement. The confidentiality of loans and money to political parties must be temporary; otherwise there is no transparency in democracy. Therefore there is that limit. It can be extended, but it is not our intention either to extend the limit that we have now or to wish to do so when the time comes. There is a finite date of 2010. We are in a transition period in which Northern Ireland can enter normal civil society, which it is doing very fast. Part of that involves transparency in funding to political parties. We see no difficulty in the parties coming to the table in 2010 and being fully transparent. Unless I have missed out anything, I think I have covered the central thrust of the questions. As I said, the House will probably have the other order in a few weeks’ time, when we can debate the detail and the nuances of the nature of the society and the organisations that will be eligible to make loans.