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Political Parties and Elections Bill

My Lords, to save time, I have agreed not to table an amendment but to speak for two minutes on the Question that the Bill do now pass. I had thought of tabling at Third Reading an amendment to Clause 5 of the PPER Act to require the Electoral Commission to report on elections within a set period of time; say, four months. That seems generally sensible, but it would have specifically ensured that the commission reported in a timely fashion on the problem of badly folded ballot papers, which resulted in the UK Independence Party losing many thousands of votes in the European elections on 4 June. I propose instead to report that I have since spoken to the commission’s chief executive, who has assured me that the commission will indeed report in October on the European elections and particularly on UKIP’s ballot paper problem. Since 17 June, I have become aware that the problem was even worse than I thought then, particularly in Yorkshire and north Lincolnshire. I sincerely trust that the commission will report what happened in depth and make some estimate, however inexact, of the votes lost to my party. Finally, I know that it may now be against our modern bureaucratic school rules, but I, too, would like to place on the record my gratitude to the noble Lord, Lord Bach, and to his team, for his endless clarity, patience and courtesy throughout the progress of the Bill. How he managed it while also taking through the Coroners and Justice Bill and answering a good share of Oral Questions, I simply do not know. Bill passed and returned to the Commons with amendments.