Further written evidence to be reported to the House
Political Parties and Elections Bill
1:00 pm
Martin Linton (Battersea, Labour)
Thank you, Sir Nicholas. I have some specific questions, but I shall try to be brief.
No one pretends that triggering is a 100 per cent. foolproof method, or even necessarily the long-term solution to the problem, but I cannot quite agree with Professor Fisher. On the one hand, he says that it is impossible to police but, on the other, points out that there has been only one case in living memory. My specific question is, if we do not have triggering, what solution would Professor Fisher advocate? He mentioned four months, which I supported in the Electoral Administration Bill, but which the Lords did not like. What about 365 days, as with national expenditure? What about a solution advocated in the past by the Neill committee of a Canadian-style system, lumping local and national spending together and dividing it by the number of constituencies, so that, effectively, you have a single limit for local and national spending?
I have another couple of quick questions, mainly addressed to Professor Ewing. I agree with him that, just as taxation legislation has to be renewed every year to deal with the accountants’ loopholes, this legislation has to be updated on a regular basis. I would be interested if he could elaborate a little on what he sees as a solution to two specific points he made. One concerns the unincorporated associations and private companies that have become a conduit for undeclared donations. Would it be possible to bring these bodies into the legislation, so that whatever applies to political party donations also applies to them? In many cases, they have just become a conduit for non-disclosed donations.