Clause 27 - Amount of expenses which may be incurred by third party
Electoral Administration Bill
9:00 am
Harriet Harman (Minister of State, Department for Constitutional Affairs; Camberwell and Peckham, Labour)
I welcome you, Mr. Conway, to the Committee.
It is difficult, by definition, to deal with unauthorised expenditure. Authorised expenditure can be attributed to the candidate, so it is straightforward. Unauthorised expenditure, however, is different territory. I shall consider the point raised by the hon. Gentleman.
Clause 27 has two purposes. First, it clarifies an ambiguity about what types of expenditure are allowed by a third party under section 75 of the Representation of the People Act 1983 on promoting or disparaging a candidate's election without the authority of the candidate, his election agent or persons authorised in writing by the election agent.
Following the ruling of the European Court of Human Rights in the case of Bowman v. UK, the Government amended section 75 of the 1983 Act by means of the Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000 so as to increase the expenditure limit for unauthorised third parties. I understand that it stands at £500. However, section 75 remains ambiguous as to precisely what that money can be spent on.
Clause 27 is an attempt to clear that ambiguity. Expenditure by unauthorised third parties up to the levels already set in the 1983 Act will be allowed on holding public meetings or organising any public display; and issuing advertisements, circulars or publications, which is when newspapers would become involved. Those amendments will be retrospective, with effect from 16 February 2001.
Secondly, clause 27 provides that expenditure incurred by a third party with the authorisation of the agent or candidate will count towards the candidate's own expenditure limit during the relevant period. The relevant period, as we shall discuss in a moment, is the four months ending with the date of poll, except for by-elections, when it begins on the day of the vacancy and ends on polling day.
Those amendments provide clarification of the existing law and will fully meet the intentions of the ECHR judgement in the Bowman case. There are apparently some exceptions for the media, but I shall write to the hon. Member for Huntingdon (Mr. Djanogly) to clarify that point.