Political Parties and Elections Bill

My Lords, I am grateful to the Minister for his response to the amendments and for the additional information that he has now placed on the record. It was felt that there should be in the Bill an indication of the types of offences that could be involved but I accept the reasons that he puts forward for why that should not be the case and also the provision of a statutory instrument that will contain more detail on the specific offences. Our concern was that for the most serious offences there should remain the criminal option. In a previous debate, we discussed the potential moral hazard that could occur if the Committee on Standards in Public Life assessed a Member and knew that the consequence of its judgment could mean that proceedings for recall were commenced. In certain circumstances, following the argument of the noble Lord, Lord Campbell-Savours, that might give rise to some hesitation on the part of the committee before it arrived at that conclusion, even if it was the right one. There is a similar concern here that, with the civil sanctions that are available, the Electoral Commission may feel under some restraint as to how they will be deployed and at what point it would choose to pass over the case to the Crown Prosecution Service for pursuit of criminal sanctions. Now that those matters have been aired, and the information secured, I do not want to press the amendment and beg leave to withdraw it. Amendment 3 withdrawn. Amendments 4 to 15 not moved.