Political Parties and Elections Bill

My Lords, I am grateful to both noble Lords. With great respect, we think that the noble Lord, Lord Goodhart, was correct on that occasion, just as he is tonight. The noble Lord, Lord Pearson, seeks to draw an analogy between what his amendments would achieve and the reasonable excuse provisions elsewhere in the Bill. I am afraid that we do not see a clear link between these provisions and the amendment. The government amendments introducing a defence of reasonable excuse in relation to the obligation to report would not give parties carte blanche. We do not think that it would be wise to water down the important obligation to verify the permissibility of donations above the recordable threshold, nor does the Bill seek to do so. It goes without saying that I will not speak about specific cases. It is for those reasons that we cannot accept the noble Lord’s amendment. The recurrent requirement for an individual to be registered in an electoral register offers a test that is simple to operate for all concerned and we do not want to change that.