Clause 3
Political Parties and Elections Bill
1:00 pm
Michael Wills (Minister of State, Ministry of Justice; North Swindon, Labour)
I welcome you back to the Chair, Mr. Atkinson. At the end of our previous sitting, I was explaining why we needed to give the commission flexibility. I hope that the Committee will be reassured to know that the commission is required to publish guidance on how it will use the civil sanctions before it is given the power to impose them. We expect that guidance to be issued at the same time as the guidance on the investigatory powers in January 2009. Should our expectation of the delivery of that guidance change, we shall, of course, let the Committee know.
The guidance will provide information that will be set out in the order that the amendment would require. That approach would allow the commission the necessary flexibility to operate the civil sanctions regime effectively. It may also give those regulated the sort of discretionary requirement that the commission would impose and in what circumstances. Amendment No. 77 would amend the definition of a discretionary requirement. In practice, it would remove the legal definition of a discretionary requirement and, because discretionary requirements are a key element of the suite of civil sanctions provided to the commission by the Bill, I hope that the hon. Member for Huntingdon will consider withdrawing the amendment.
Discretionary requirements are defined as a monetary penalty of an amount to be determined by the commission, a requirement to take such steps to ensure an offence or contravention does not continue or reoccur, or a requirement to take steps to resort to what would have been the position if the offence or contravention had not taken place. The amendment would remove those definitions and amend the proposed new paragraph to remove the legal definition of a discretionary requirement. I know that the Committee has been under considerable pressure and I do not want to labour the point, but we could not find section 147(1A)—it does not seem to exist—with which the amendment would replace the proposed new paragraph under schedule 2. For all those reasons, I hope that the hon. Gentleman will withdraw the amendment.