Political Parties and Elections Bill

My noble friend is seeking to increase the information available to electors about candidates’ pecuniary interests at UK parliamentary elections, and to bring the reporting requirements for candidates into line with those for Members of Parliament. We appreciate the principle that my noble friend is pursuing and the intention behind his amendment. Transparency is a key feature of the Bill. However, for the same reasons set out by the noble Lord, Lord Tyler, we are not prepared to accept the amendment. The practical implications of creating a register such as that proposed in the middle of an election campaign are considerable. This is particularly true given the short timetable for UK parliamentary elections. At present, the legislation requires that the returning officer collates the candidate’s particulars. To go beyond this and require the returning officer to collate all interests of the candidate would introduce unnecessary complexity into the electoral process, as well as introducing a further burden on a returning officer. The question of whether an interest is subject to registration or not is likely to be complex and subjective and it is not clear who would adjudicate. Even if the returning officer were to take the information provided at face value, the ensuing debate is perhaps likely to distract a returning officer from the task of administering the election at a point in time when he or she might be under considerable pressure. There are also risks inherent in formalising the declaration of interests in the manner proposed, rather than, as now, relying on the campaign to bring information of genuine significance to the fore. Another effect would be that the significance of an inadvertent error might be magnified and, in the short and feverish campaign period, this could unfairly compromise a candidate and may even affect the result. I remind the Committee that this might be made all the more likely given that candidates might have as little as six working days to prepare the information, which is perhaps unfair given that Members of Parliament have three months from the date of their election to complete their return. If no one were to police the register, we would, as now, essentially be dependent on the scrutiny of competing candidates to inform the elector of contested and controversial interests. There is a danger of real confusion, too. The amendment suggests that all relevant interests, ""which the candidate receives which might reasonably be thought by others to influence the candidate’s actions"," should be disclosed. This implies that it is up to the candidate to decide what influence certain interests might have. Introducing a layer of subjective judgment such as this might lead to inconsistent application of the rules and undermine the value of the exercise. In fact, it might make it more harmful than if there was no disclosure at all. The Representation of the People Act already requires information about donations above certain thresholds received by candidates to be declared. Although that information might not be publicly available until after the election, it is none the less available. The advantage of the existing requirements is that they are long standing, well understood and clear. The Government’s view is that that while the amendment is of truly noble intent, it would not be effective in practice and would certainly need a lot more work before it could be considered by us in the context of the Bill.