Clause 4
Political Parties and Elections Bill
10:30 am
Eleanor Laing (Shadow Minister, Justice; Epping Forest, Conservative)
I beg to move amendment No. 16, in clause 4, page 3, line 24, at end insert
‘in accordance with Commissioner for Public Appointments’ Code of Practice.’.
I welcome you to the Chair, Sir Nicholas. The Committee looks forward to the pleasure of serving under your chairmanship during what I am sure will be constructive and positive consideration of this important Bill. I wish to say at the outset that, as the clause is about the Electoral Commission, now is an appropriate moment to pay tribute to all the work that Sam Younger has done as its chairman. He is about to retire from that post, and I am sure that, through his sterling work over the past few years, he has gained much respect for the commission.
I welcome most enthusiastically the appointment of Jenny Watson as the new chairman. I gained experience of her excellent work when she was chairman of the Equal Opportunities Commission because, at that time, I was shadow Minister for equality and worked with her. Indeed, Members on both sides of the House have worked with the Equal Opportunities Commission and enormous strides have been taken in that area of policy in recent years. I am sure that, equally, Jenny Watson will bring to the Electoral Commission enthusiasm, ability and respect for her work.
Amendment No. 16 is simple and it would merely clarify the situation. The amendment suggests an addition to clause 4. The clause says that
“each person whose appointment is proposed in the motion has been selected in accordance with a procedure put in place and overseen by the Speaker’s Committee”
and we ought to add after that the words
“in accordance with Commissioner for Public Appointments’ Code of Practice.”
As well as clarifying the current situation, the amendment would entrench it in law, which would be right.
The Electoral Commission has said that it supports the principle of amendment No. 16, which would require the process of appointing all electoral commissioners to be in accordance with the public appointments code of practice. To date, the principles of the code have been observed in all appointments of electoral commissioners, but there is no requirement in law for that code of practice to be observed.
The Bill would be improved and clarified by the amendment. Over the next few weeks of consideration, we shall seek to clarify the Bill in many cases, and this is a simple one. As we discussed in the evidence sessions last week, there are many areas in which the Bill is not clear, and law that is not clear is not good law. We have here a simple example in which matters could be clarified.