My Lords, I have two amendments in this group. In preparing my notes, I had intended to say precisely what the noble and learned Lord, Lord Morris, said just a few minutes ago. It is the responsibility of this House to try to make sure that anything that leaves us is as good as it can be and as perfect as we can achieve. Today, therefore, we are all together in seeking modest amendments in most cases, but important ones that make the Bill more workable, more acceptable and more democratic.
Before I come to the two specific amendments on which my name leads, I should very much like to support the noble and right reverend Lord, Lord Harries, in his Amendment 34. It is important for the sake of civic society that we enable people to get fully involved in the dialogue with Parliament about the legislation
that goes through the two Houses. I hope that, in one way or another, my noble friend will be able to make that absolutely clear. It must surely be right that, when legislation is going through both Houses of Parliament, our fellow citizens are in a position to campaign without let or hindrance to improve that legislation. I very much hope that we will have reassurance on that point.
Amendment 40, which stands in my name and in the names of the noble and right reverend Lord, Lord Harries, my noble friend Lord Cormack and the noble Baroness, Lady Mallalieu, is quite simply about bringing the concept of supporter up to date. I echo here a point made by my noble friend Lord Cormack a few minutes ago. When I was first involved in politics, those of us who wanted to engage in the political process, in the main, joined a political party. I did so as a student and I suspect that many others in your Lordships’ House did the same. Some then drifted off into other occupations. I stayed with politics, to my obvious detriment in terms of income compared with the lawyers in your Lordships’ House. From that period to now there have been dramatic changes in society. Many then did join parties; others might have joined campaigning groups. Some of those groups are still with us and still have a mass membership. In those days, it was very much the culture of the age, particularly among young people, but people today support campaigns à la carte. They do not get involved in just one campaign and stick with it to the exclusion of all others. They are involved for a time but their priorities change, just as in the consumer world people expect now to pick and choose. You go to one supermarket for one purpose and to another for another, to one airline for an outward flight and another to come home again. You do not necessarily feel that you have to join up to one hospital even—you choose. It is part of the culture of our age.
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People do not sign up to any one view or any one provider of that view. They certainly do not join one group for fear that doing so would sub-contract their future views on future issues to that group concerned. Yet it is still important in electoral law to make way for groups that communicate with people who have regular, committed supporters without that being counted as some sort of electioneering. The concept of a committed supporter is now familiar to the Electoral Commission and it incorporates that in its guidance. Amendment 40 seeks to tighten that up and put it into legislative form. In short, we are saying that someone who has given money to an organisation or has directly communicated with it in the past 12 months should be accepted and recognised as a committed supporter.
To be clear, I do not believe, as some have suggested, that everyone who has given Data Protection Act consent to be contacted in future—for ever and always—should be counted as a supporter of that group full time. That surely cannot be practical. I am sure that if Members of your Lordships’ House look at their e-mail inboxes, they will find messages there from all sorts of groups in relation to which at some time we have either ticked or not ticked a box to say that we do not mind if they communicate with us. However, that is not enough to say that we are committed supporters
of a particular group. Therefore, I think that our amendment is much more practical. Surely that consent should not be allowed to imply active, ongoing support for the group concerned. However, active participation in a campaign in the past 12 months—not just receiving e-mails but acting on them—is surely a signal of active support. I think it should be recognised as such alongside, and on an equal basis with, financial contributions. As I have said, the existing Electoral Commission guidance is not sufficient because it concentrates too much on donations. Support for an organisation involves much more than simply giving money and we should take this opportunity in this Bill to say so firmly so that in future the guidance is absolutely explicit.
Finally, Amendment 45A in my name makes one very simple suggestion, which I hope will commend itself to my noble friends on the government Front Bench. I do not need to tell your Lordships that the Bill is controversial. It would be reassuring for all those concerned to know that any future alterations to Part 1 of Schedule 3, which is very controversial, cannot simply be made by ministerial fiat. On many occasions in your Lordships’ House we have had the familiar problem of what I think is usually referred to colloquially as the Henry VIII power. It is not appropriate here and I hope therefore that, on the basis of Amendment 45A, that power can in future be subject to an affirmative resolution of both Houses. That would give proper control over that exercise. I accept that that is not something for today but I hope that my noble friends on the government Front Bench will look at it in time for us to consider whether that might be a useful very small addition but one that would give real reassurance to those who are concerned about the future of this legislation. On that basis, I hope that when the Minister responds he can do so positively to these amendments.