Political Parties and Elections Bill

Yes, precisely because they are smaller. Lords amendments 3 and 4 are consequential amendments. Lords amendments 5 and 6 enable the commission's chief executive to increase the one-year restriction on previous political activity for commission staff in clause 7 to a period of between two and five years by designating individual posts in the commission that will be subject to an expanded restriction. The chief executive may designate a post in this way if he or she reasonably believes that such a restriction is necessary to maintain public confidence in the effectiveness of the commission in carrying out its functions. The length of the restriction must be determined by reference to the seniority of the post and the political sensitivity of the matters with which the postholder is likely to have to deal. The amendments are necessary to ensure that the small number of posts for which a one-year restriction may not be suitable owing to their seniority or the likelihood of dealing with politically sensitive matters can be designated as subject to a longer restriction. The amendments also place a requirement on the chief executive to consult the Speaker's Committee on the Electoral Commission on the posts that he intends to designate, which will help to ensure that designations are justified and not unduly restrictive. Lords amendment 7 excludes all commission staff dealing with electoral boundary work from the reduced one-year restriction in clause 7, as it is envisaged that they will eventually transfer to the independent boundary committee established in the Local Democracy, Economic Development and Construction Bill. It is envisaged that under that Bill, a 10-year restriction will be retained along the lines of the one that is currently in place in the Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000. The amendment will ensure that the level of political restriction on the appointment of boundary staff remains consistent in the intervening period between the commencement of clause 7 and the creation of the new boundary committee. Lords amendment 8 restricts the Electoral Commission's public awareness role in section 13 of the 2000 Act to educating people about current electoral systems in the United Kingdom. It does so by removing existing obligations placed upon the commission to provide information about current and pending systems of government in the UK and about EU institutions. It takes forward the substance of another amendment along the same lines in the other place that was widely supported. In practice, the commission's function will be, as it is now, to provide information on the mechanics of the electoral process, including electoral registration procedures—those are important in the light of our preceding discussion—how to vote and any changes to the electoral system and connected matters. Lords amendment 99 makes consequential amendments to section 13 of the Act that are required as a result. Lords amendments 51 and 52 provide for a five-year time limit on the commission's ability to issue a disclosure notice requesting information or documents from former treasurers or other party officials for its supervisory purposes. That is necessary to ensure that an unduly onerous burden is not placed on former treasurers or officers of parties to retain information relating to income and expenditure indefinitely. I hope that the hon. Member for Huntingdon (Mr. Djanogly) will welcome that. I recall that he raised the matter in Committee. Lords amendment 53 narrows the commission's powers of entry under the Bill by removing the Bill's original extension of the powers to those categories formerly supervised by the commission—in other words, any entity that would have fallen within paragraph 2(1)(a) to (d) of schedule 19B to the 2000 Act. That is necessary to support our intention that the Bill will extend the commission's powers so that it is a more effective regulator, but it will not do so unduly, particularly on the delicate issue of entry powers. Lords amendment 54 takes forward the substance of another amendment in the other place by requiring a magistrate to issue a warrant to the commission to enter premises to inspect documents. In addition, it ensures that the amendments will be workable in practice by setting out the criteria that a magistrate will have to be satisfied of before issuing a warrant. The effect is that the commission will not be able to enter the premises of those to whom the power applies without an inspection warrant. Importantly, the amendment makes it clear that entry may take place only for non-investigatory purposes and for the purpose of inspecting documents relating to income and expenditure. Lords amendments 55, 61, 62, and 64 are consequential. Lords amendment 56 will require the commission's applications for court orders, to enforce earlier notices requiring documents, to be approved by the High Court, or the Court of Session in Scotland. That is in recognition of concerns about vesting such a power in a magistrates court, not least given the potential sensitivity of such applications. Finally, Lords amendment 60 extends the court order powers that enable the commission to enforce its requests for documents, so that they may be used also to compel information or an explanation if an earlier notice under paragraph 3(2) of schedule 19B to the 2000 Act requesting one of those things has not been complied with. That is necessary to ensure that the commission has full, effective investigatory capacity. Lords amendments 57 to 59, 63 and 65 are consequential.