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Political Parties and Elections Bill

It might be simpler, but it still might not be the right thing to do. That is the point. The point that I am trying to develop is that we need, as far as we possibly can, to give the commission the flexibility to exercise its powers proportionately. We do not want to fix in statute something that would tie its hands unnecessarily in all circumstances for the foreseeable future. The hon. Gentleman's colleague, the hon. Member for Huntingdon made it quite clear—I agree with him—that we are not legislating just for the commission. We are legislating for the future and we think that it is wrong to proceed on the principle of trying to tie the commission's hands at every point, for the reasons that I already set out at great length when the hon. Member for Wellingborough (Mr. Bone) was not in his place. I am happy to discuss them with him outside the Chamber. The commission is aware that inappropriate use of the power would leave it open to possible judicial review. It has taken steps to employ suitably skilled staff in the fields of enforcement and compliance to ensure that they are all equipped adequately to carry out their functions within the confines of the law. I have confidence, and I hope that the House will have confidence, that the commission will only authorise staff with the appropriate skills and expertise if it feels, on those rare occasions, that there is a justification to use this power of entry. I hope that hon. Members will feel sufficiently reassured. I now turn, finally, to amendments 46 and 47, which seek to amend paragraph 1(2) of proposed new schedule 19A, which sets out the commission's power to issue disclosure notices. I shall deal with them together. They are largely identical to amendments tabled in Committee. Together, they seek to place a time limit on the commission's powers to issue a disclosure notice. The hon. Member for Huntingdon set out his concerns very cogently and in Committee I agreed to consider the issue further. We have now done so in close and careful consultation with the Electoral Commission, which has confirmed that a time restriction on the power to issue a disclosure notice under paragraph 1 of proposed new schedule 19A is not likely to be a problem in practice. The paragraph 1(2) power to issue a disclosure notice relates to the commission's supervisory role so it is very unlikely that it would need to issue a disclosure notice to a person who more than five years previously had been a person to whom paragraph 1(2) applied. I resisted the amendment in Committee on the basis that it was unlikely that the commission would need to go back further than five years, but we could not rule out the possibility and we were reliant on the commission's exercising its powers reasonably and having regard to the general principles of public law before issuing disclosure notices. I still believe that there is not a real problem to be solved and that as a matter of principle we should not place unnecessary constraints on the commission's powers. However, I listened carefully to what the hon. Gentleman said and I take his point that keeping audit trails for more than five years might be unduly onerous on people who are often volunteers and who might have moved on from the period of their life in which they took part in such voluntary activity. We have received a reassurance from the commission that placing a restriction on the paragraph 1(2) powers such as that suggested by the hon. Gentleman is unlikely to be a problem in practice, and so I am happy to consider with parliamentary counsel what amendments could and should be made to the Bill properly to reflect the intention of the amendment. The hon. Gentleman will understand that because of the significant number of Government amendments, we have not been a position to do that job of work just yet. However, we will do so at the next available opportunity. I hope that he will understand that we felt it necessary to seek and secure the commission's views before proceeding. For the avoidance of doubt, I am only agreeing to consider an amendment to the power under paragraph 1(2) that enables the commission to issue a disclosure notice in relation to its supervisory role. I think that that is what the amendments seek. The commission has emphasised—I want to make this clear—that any such time bar on requests for information under paragraph 2 in relation to a suspected offence or contravention could cause difficulty, so we are not considering any changes to that power. I hope that on that basis and with those assurances, the hon. Gentleman will withdraw amendments 46 and 47.