Political Parties and Elections Bill

My Lords, I speak also to Amendment 21. These two amendments deal with Schedule 2 and, in particular, the part relating to the fixed penalty notices under the civil rather than the criminal sanctions. If the Minister remembers, in Committee I moved probing amendments, seeking to remove both the early payment discounts to the fixed penalty notice and the late payment penalties. I received a response in due course from the Minister. On this occasion, I have come back with two amendments to remove the early payment discounts but leave in the late payment penalties. It seemed to us that one could put a case for late payment penalties but that, although early payment discounts might encourage early payment, they could also diminish the authority of the commission and trivialise a very important message sent out by its power to give those fixed penalty notices. For that reason, I thought that it would be worth coming back with these two amendments removing the early payment discounts to see whether the Minister had anything further to say on the subject. I beg to move.