---

Political Parties: Funding

My Lords, as someone who was a member of the Neill committee when it produced its report on party-political funding, I am very pleased with the report of Hayden Phillips. I am also pleased with the extent to which the Government have agreed to accept it. At chapter three, on limiting donations, on page nine of the report, when discussing how to fix what the limit should be, Sir Hayden says: "““My hope is that the talks that I am recommending will lead to an agreement on a limit on which the Government will then bring forward legislation for Parliamentary approval””." The Statement says: "““The Constitutional Affairs Select Committee recommended a voluntary arrangement. We agree and think this would work by providing enough flexibility to respect the different structures and traditions of the various parties””." However, the Statement does not say anything about something that was originally a voluntary arrangement becoming the subject of legislation, as Sir Hayden suggests. Is it correct, as I suspect, that in this Statement the Government are indicating that the limit on donations will remain voluntary? If so, how does the noble and learned Lord expect that it will be possible to enforce it? A purely voluntary arrangement will have no sanctions—except, perhaps, that the other parties will also break the limit—and any party that is in a particularly strong financial position will be greatly tempted to break it. What value can be placed on a purely voluntary agreement that has no sanctions attached to it?