Political Parties and Elections Bill

We welcome this amendment. The arguments that I shall deploy are very much those we have deployed in this Grand Committee, and in Committee and on Report in another place, for a defence of innocent mistake. This amendment goes very much towards that. When the Minister responds, it would be good if he drew a line under what is potentially covered by a "reasonable excuse", in terms of objectivity, that would not be covered by an amendment on an "innocent mistake". Is there a major difference on a philosophical or legal point that we are missing? If so, it would be good to understand what that is in terms of the reach. As regards adjudicating objectively on when a reasonable mistake has been made, the Electoral Commission would be helped enormously if it included members with recent experience of political activity. I appreciate that the Minister may be unable to respond today, but we have been talking about achieving a system of regulating and declaring donations in which the public can have confidence. The objective is not necessarily to be seen to be dishing out hard sentences or penalties for mistakes, but is very much to give the public confidence in their system. To what extent, therefore, does he feel it appropriate for the commission to have a role in providing training and education to people who have made an innocent or reasonable mistake in the completion or late submission of forms? Is that something that the commission could respond to in a way that says, "Yes, we will not levy a civil penalty"—perhaps not a criminal penalty—provided that the person undergoes training to ensure that a level of competence can be established. That would of course mean that a serial offender would have one less argument in their defence. I offer that not as a new idea, but one which has been used by the police, for example, who can offer someone a safe driving course instead of a penalty when they have slightly exceeded the speed limit. Something like that would give integrity to the system and I shall be interested to hear the Government’s response. Otherwise we welcome the changes, which are in line with the arguments we made in another place.