Political Parties and Elections Bill

My hon. Friend is entirely correct, and that is what the record shows, too. Let me turn briefly to the detail of the Bill. Clause 1 clarifies the Electoral Commission's regulatory role to make it clear that a key part of its role is to take appropriate steps to secure the compliance of parties and others, including by helping parties to comply, especially given that parties rely so much on unpaid volunteers. The clause also enables the commission to publish guidance to assist parties and others in this respect. Clause 2 and schedule 1 change the commission's investigatory powers. They repeat, with minor changes, the commission's current power to require political parties and other regulated entities to disclose information relating to finance and expenditure, and for the first time enable it to compel anyone else to disclose or provide information or an explanation, where that is reasonably required for the purpose of investigating a suspected event or contravention of a requirement in the Act. The scope and proportionality of these powers will be examined in detail in Committee, but it is worth pointing out—this relates to the point raised by my right hon. Friend the Member for Rotherham—that the Bill contains important safeguards on the use of these powers, which go beyond those in the Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000. They include the provision that the powers of entry require a warrant from a court on evidence of a reasonable belief that a criminal offence has been committed. That is not required under the existing schedule 19. In any event, the existing powers have been used only once since the Electoral Commission was established nearly eight years ago.