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Political Parties and Elections Bill

The noble Lord took a stronger line on the second amendment, rather than on the first. I was perfectly happy to drop the first amendment, given that adding "reasonable" before "opinion" is possibly unnecessary; one’s opinion may be assumed to be reasonable. The use of that word is also inelegant. However, I feel slightly more strongly about adding "would" instead of "might". Despite what the commission said, that would refocus it when deciding whether publication of information would damage its investigation. In accommodating the mere subjective opinion requirement, which we have identified, this section would allow for a very cautious report indeed, which might not be fully informative and might not truly reflect the reality of the commission’s work. However, I shall look very carefully at what the noble Lord said. I am pretty sure that I will not come back on Amendment 72, but we may want to have another look at Amendment 73 in due course. We will have to see. For the moment, I beg leave to withdraw the amendment. Amendment 72 withdrawn. Amendment 73 not moved. Schedule 2 agreed. Clause 4 agreed.