I take note of that and will make sure that my noble friend understands the unpicking of all of that.
I reassure the noble Lord, Lord Clement-Jones, that this flexibility does not amount to allowing campaigners to place the imprint wherever they want. Under our regime, campaigners would be required to
ensure that their imprint is displayed as part of the material and only when this is not reasonably practical may the imprint be located elsewhere—as my noble friend said—but it must still be directly accessible from the campaigning material. Those who do not comply will be committing an offence.
Turning now to Amendment 194A, the Government are mindful that transparency requirements on campaigners remain proportionate and that they are not unduly discouraged from participating in public life. Candidates and registered campaigners already have to detail their electoral spending in their returns to returning officers and the Electoral Commission and provide invoices for payments over a certain amount. Invoices provided to the Electoral Commission are then made available for public scrutiny. The practicality and impact on campaigners of requiring them to submit more detailed invoices or receipts about digital activity would need to be looked at very carefully, as the detail provided is determined by the suppliers themselves and not necessarily by the recipient.
Similarly, in relation to Amendment 196A, the Government welcome the steps already taken by many social media companies in this area. We continue to keep transparency rules under review, but given the steps taken already by platforms such as Facebook, we do not propose to mandate centralised libraries of digital political content. Requiring all campaigners promoting paid political advertising to themselves maintain a library of those adverts with specified information for at least 10 years risks adding a significant and unreasonable administrative burden on campaigners, particularly smaller groups that rely on volunteers or groups that are established only for the lifetime of a particular election campaign. We know that some small campaigns happen and, in our opinion, keeping a library for 10 years would be unreasonable.
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Amendment 194B seeks to ban foreign actors from promoting political advertising—an issue a number of noble Lords brought up—within scope of the digital imprint regime targeted at the UK electorate. With regards to the noble Lord’s proposal to outlaw advertisement of paid electronic material, as set out in Clause 40, by non-UK residents and entities, he will be reassured to hear that electoral law already sets out a stringent regime of spending controls to ensure that only those with a legitimate interest in UK elections can campaign. Measures in Part 4 of the Elections Bill will stop ineligible foreign spending on electoral campaigning by restricting third-party campaigning above a £700 de minimis threshold to UK-based or otherwise eligible campaigners. This includes spending on any digital advertising that is seeking to encourage UK electors to vote in a particular way. Anyone who incurs expenditure in contravention of this will commit an offence. Therefore, this will by nature prohibit much of the advertising that the noble Lord, Lord Clement-Jones, has identified in his Amendment 194B. The noble Lord is shaking his head; this is something we can discuss further at our meeting.
Amendment 194B also contains a proposal to ban the promotion of other electronic material, as set out
in Clause 42, by non-UK residents and entities. It is important to note that Clause 42 applies only to a list of types of electoral entity, such as candidates, registered political parties and third parties. This approach is aimed at ensuring that members of the public are able to express their political opinions online without requiring an imprint on election material that is not a paid-for advert. This list of electoral entities is almost entirely made up of UK-based entities, and therefore the noble Lord’s amendment in this area would have little effect—the one exception being individual registered overseas electors who have registered as third-party campaigners. The Government cannot support any amendment that would seek to silence UK overseas electors as they are a legitimate part of our democracy. For these reasons, the Government ask the noble Lord to withdraw this amendment.
Amendment 212C would create a new offence which would seek to criminalise any false statements made by candidates and campaigners on the integrity of the electoral process. We have a tradition of robust political debate and freedom of speech in British democracy. We have been clear in our position that arguments which can be rebutted by rival campaigners and a free press as part of the normal course of political debate should not be regulated. Our electoral regulation should empower voters to make those decisions but not dictate them.
The Government recognise that disinformation and misinformation is an ongoing challenge, and that is why there are robust systems in place that bring together governmental, civil society and private sector organisations to monitor and respond to interference in whatever form it takes to ensure that our democracy stays open, vibrant and transparent. We recognise that there is a role for regulation—for example, as provided by the clarification of undue influence in Clause 8, which would include deceiving voters in relation to the administration of an election. However, any regulation needs to be carefully balanced with the need to protect freedom of expression and the legitimate public debate which is also crucial to a thriving democracy.
Generally, any new offence requires very careful consideration and development, and assessment of its impact. Clarity of language is crucial to ensure that an offence is proportionate, achieves its intended impact and does not unduly limit free speech. For example, the noble Lord’s proposed amendment includes no reference to intent. Therefore, the new clause as drafted could criminalise unintentionally false statements and could therefore be very broadly applied. This clause could also discourage people from raising legitimate concerns where they exist, for fear of the statement being considered false, or lead to a flurry of vexatious claims and counterclaims.
Overall, this clause would infringe on the freedom of speech of campaigners and candidates. Because of this, I respectfully urge the noble Lord not to press this amendment. In saying that, I repeat that we will read very carefully all noble Lords’ speeches on this subject, and we will offer a meeting to those who are interested. We will follow up with a letter covering anything that I have not managed to answer.