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Political Parties and Elections Bill

I am sorry to interrupt my noble friend, but this is important. If the regime changes in the way that the noble Lord, Lord Rennard, described, there may be more interventions by the commission, because the threshold will have been dropped. There are likely to be more complaints, and perhaps more complaints upheld, with action being taken. My noble friend says, "Well, they can take into account the local conditions and a reasonable defence", but this is not a court of law. An officer of the commission will decide on something that might be critically important to an individual. There are no proceedings and no appeal body that they can go before that will decide whether, on balance, the penalty imposed is reasonable. This is the area that I am uneasy about. Will my noble friend bear it in mind? I do not expect him to give a detailed response now, but he might have it in mind when he and his civil servants respond to the noble Lord, Lord Bates, and me, on these matters.