Political Parties and Elections Bill

First, political parties are not defined as public authorities for the purposes of the Freedom of Information Act and therefore do not have to cope with FOI requests—thankfully, because they would not have the apparatus to do so. Secondly, we have received representations from all the main parties and some of the smaller parties asking for the £200 limit to be raised and for the burden of that provision to be made lighter rather than more difficult. Instead of comprehensive, continuous, all-encompassing spending caps, the Bill tackles one of several weaknesses in the existing controls—the absence of any controls on spending that takes place outside the official election period at a local or candidate level. The Bill proposes a return to the principle of the pre-2000 system known as ““triggering””, which will ensure that all expenditure for the purposes of a candidate's election is regulated. I hope that that will command the same level of support as it did before 2000. During the passage of the Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000, as the White Paper that I published last June indicates, a Conservative spokesman in the Lords, Lord Mackay of Ardbrecknish, moved a ““belt and braces”” amendment to put the continuation of the trigger beyond doubt. His amendments were withdrawn only on ministerial assurances, sadly not because experience had shown that they were not necessary.