Political Parties and Elections Bill

My Lords, this amendment relates to the permissibility requirements surrounding donations made by individuals. I make it quite clear that, in what I have to say, I am not referring in any way to any case that may be pending on this matter. Currently, the 2000 Act requires that, to qualify as a permissible donor, an individual must be registered on an electoral register. Parties may accept donations of over £200 only if they are deemed permissible under the terms of the 2000 Act, although noble Lords will be aware that this threshold is to be raised to £500 under provisions in Clause 17 of the Bill. If a party receives a donation from an impermissible source, it is required to return it within 30 days; it is an offence not to do so. Additionally, if a party accepts a donation that is impermissible, the Electoral Commission may apply to a court to seek forfeiture of an amount equal to the donation. Any amount forfeited is paid into the Consolidated Fund. Let me respond to Amendment 28, which concerns the existing requirement in the 2000 Act. As the House knows, the Act is based largely on the recommendation made in the fifth report of the Committee on Standards in Public Life, then chaired by the noble Lord, Lord Neill of Bladen, who has already spoken in this debate. The House and the country owe a huge debt of gratitude to the noble Lord, Lord Neill, and the committee’s members. The Government agreed with the vast majority of the report’s recommendations, but on individuals to be regarded as permissible donors we differed slightly from what was recommended. The Neill report, as we have heard from the noble Lord, recommended that a donation could be properly received from a person who was on the register or eligible to be on the register. We disagreed with that recommendation and set out why in our response to the Neill report: ""Checking that a particular donor appears on the electoral register offers a test that is both conclusive and simple to administer. It would be far less straightforward for political parties to verify that a donor not appearing on the register was nevertheless entitled to do so. It is in the interests of the parties to have available a test which offers certainty as to the eligibility of a donor"." Our view has not changed over the years. Political parties have an obligation to ensure that the donations that they receive above the threshold are permissible. We should not look to add a further measure that would increase the administrative burdens on parties. We are concerned that the measure proposed by the noble Lord, Lord Pearson, would do that. That view is shared by the Electoral Commission, as the noble Lord, Lord Pearson, frankly admitted in moving his amendment. In commenting on this amendment, the commission said: ""The proposal to widen the scope for permissibility along eligibility to register would create additional burdens and present uncertainty for regulated entities in confirming permissibility of donors"." I hope that the noble Lord, Lord Goodhart, will forgive me for mentioning him. The noble Lord, Lord Neill, has pointed out that he, too, was a member of the committee at that time. When this matter was considered in the debates on the 2000 Act, the noble Lord, Lord Goodhart, said: ""The Government put that forward—this was stated in their reply to the Neill committee—because administratively it is a relatively simple matter to check who is in fact on the electoral register, but it is much more difficult to find out whether someone who, let us say, sends a cheque drawn on a British bank in a letter from an address in London is in fact eligible to be on the register. It is not of course difficult for anyone who is eligible to be on the register to put themselves on the register. For that reason, the Neill committee, when this proposal was put to it, did not object to it being brought forward in the form in which it is brought forward by the Government".—[Official Report, 12/10/00; col. 546.]" I am sorry not to have spoken to the noble Lord earlier and told him that I intended to use his words.