Further written evidence to be reported to the House
Political Parties and Elections Bill
1:00 pm
Professor Keith Ewing: From my point of view, the Electoral Commission is essential. I cannot contemplate us having a system of regulation of elections, donations or party funding without an independent agency of this kind. I am reinforced in that belief by the fact that most other mature Westminster-style democracies have agencies of this kind. It would be inconceivable now not to have such an organisation.
I am aware of complaints and concerns in the House and elsewhere about the performance of the commission, I think since it was established in 2001. I am not sure who is ultimately responsible for the failure, as some see it, of the commission to perform as well as it might, but I suppose I feel slightly that much of the criticism has been unfair, in the sense that this body has been presented with a very detailed framework of legislation and much of it, or the drafting of it, has been quite difficult. Much of it is very technical. Much of it is incomprehensible. I think it has been as steep a learning curve for the commission as it has been for everyone else.
My sense is that since the loans for peerages affair, there has been a significant improvement in the performance of the commission. Certainly over the last 12 months, the regulatory role of the commission has greatly increased and the profile of the commission has increased, and I think overall the performance of the commission has improved. From my point of view, there should be a healthy tension between Members of the House and the commission. They should not be in each other’s pockets. It should be a conflictual, not a consensual, relationship. I would see that as quite healthy.
That leads me into a measure of scepticism about the desirability of some of the reforms proposed in the Bill. I am not convinced of the case for political commissioners. I do not know of any other Westminster-style democracy where such an idea has taken root. In most countries, electoral commissions—