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Political Parties and Elections Bill

The hon. Gentleman makes an ingenious point. I shall deal briefly with the communications allowance and its implications a little later on. It is legitimate to ask whether the lack of certainty under the previous regime can adequately be dealt with by a combination of statute law and clear guidance. Possibly it can, but it will require much more time, which brings me to the second objection to the provision. The idea that it could be allowed to come into effect at Royal Assent, let alone from today's date, is both mad and wrong. The Justice Secretary's original and outrageous suggestion in his statement in the summer was that the measure could be backdated to the date of Second Reading. That is absolutely monstrous. Such premature commencement is in breach of the Government's code of practice on issuing guidance—their guidance on guidance—which states that guidance should be issued three months before any regulation comes into effect:"““To give organisations time to prepare for regulations, guidance will be issued at least 12 weeks before a regulation comes into effect, with some necessary exceptions, e.g. emergencies.””" In the case of the hon. Member for Battersea (Martin Linton) it may feel like an emergency, but I doubt whether it would quite measure up to one in the national scale of things. The guidance continues:"““Sometimes more than 12 weeks will be needed, for example if a regulation is complex or costly to implement.””" The provision is both complex and costly.