Political Parties and Elections Bill

Perhaps it would be appropriate to say a word about the context. I have some sympathy with what the noble Lord, Lord Campbell-Savours, has said about openness and transparency, for very obvious reasons. At Second Reading, some of us expressed considerable concern about what we might call the serious reputational crisis of Parliament and politics. Since this Grand Committee has met, that crisis has deepened and, in fact, is now dire. The warnings given during Second Reading—not just by my noble friend Lord Rennard and me but by the noble Lords, Lord Hodgson, Lord Marland and, indeed, Lord Campbell-Savours—were substantial. If the Minister is not fully aware of the crisis that we are facing and the extent to which this Bill might be able to meet it, then I do not think he ever will be. I do not believe that he is in denial but I think that some of his colleagues in the Government are still extraordinarily complacent. If we are always going to have to try to rely on the consensus of the lowest common denominator in order to move forward, I do not think that we will meet the crisis that is clearly there in terms of our reputation. My problem with the noble Lord’s amendment is not the purpose, which I think is admirable, but the practice. He is right that the explosive mixture of money and politics, which is at the heart of so many of our current reputational problems, is appropriate in terms of candidates and their concerns. However, if we were to accept the noble Lord’s amendment, how exactly would it work? The Electoral Commission has already raised a number of concerns. It says, for example, that compiling and publishing these reports would place a significant new burden on both candidates and returning officers. At what point in the process would that have to happen? Would it take place following nomination, when the electoral registration officers’ teams are absolutely flat out? Presumably, it would cause extreme difficulties in terms of the timescale.