Political Parties and Elections Bill

I agree that the Minister has attempted to achieve consensus. I thought that we had achieved it on the matter until, suddenly, he wanted to achieve a different consensus at the 11th hour in the House of Lords. However, in the spirit of consensus and out of respect for the Electoral Commission, which, for good reasons, set out a new position on the matter, I completely support what he says. Again, I take the point that the hon. Member for Perth and North Perthshire (Pete Wishart) made so eloquently. I understand his position and have some sympathy with it, but I am afraid that I agree with the Minister's comments, which I will not reiterate because of time. I want to consider Lords amendment 54, which, as the Minister said, my hon. Friend the Member for Huntingdon (Mr. Djanogly) covered in Committee and in other proceedings. Before the Bill was amended in Committee and on Report, the amendment would have extended the Electoral Commission's powers of entry under the Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000 to other bodies and individuals such as donors and, indeed, Members of Parliament. That would not be right, so we fully support the amendments that the Minister has introduced because they mean that due process will be followed and that consent has to be obtained from a magistrate before the Electoral Commission can enter and inspect premises. The Electoral Commission has acted perfectly reasonably since it has had such powers under the 2000 Act. There is no reason to think that it would do anything other than that in future, but the amendments, with which we all agree, mean that it and the system will be better protected in future. In the spirit of consensus, with which we are concluding our consideration, I do not wish to take up the House's time on the other points that the Minister made, all of which are now non-contentious.