Schedule 1
Political Parties and Elections Bill
7:00 pm
David Howarth (Shadow Solicitor General, Ministry of Justice; Cambridge, Liberal Democrat)
I want to come back to the meaning of Government amendment No. 123 and its relationship with paragraph 3 of schedule 1, the issue that was raised from a sedentary position. It is important to get the matter straight. The amendment states that the
“power conferred by paragraph 1(5) may not be used to enter premises and inspect documents for the purposes of an investigation by the Commission of the suspected offence or contravention.”
Paragraph 3 refers to powers when a person is causing an offence or when a person has contravened
“any restriction or other requirement imposed by or by virtue of this Act”.
My original reading of Government amendment No. 123 was that, by virtue of what it states about “suspected offence or contravention”, it was separating paragraph 1 entirely from paragraph 3, and that nothing under paragraph 3 will apply to the right of entry under paragraph 1. That raises my original question about what does apply. We need to be clear about that because, if that is not the case, the amendment would not achieve the full separation between the inspection power and the investigatory power.