Schedule 2
Political Parties and Elections Bill
2:00 pm
David Howarth (Shadow Solicitor General, Ministry of Justice; Cambridge, Liberal Democrat)
I shall deal first with amendment No. 1. The hon. Member for Carmarthen, West and South Pembrokeshire is right that a delay in the proceedings is a problem. It certainly is for people who are innocent and find it difficult to establish that. However, although the particular mechanism proposed is interesting, it has a number of difficulties. The main problem is that it allows someone to raise the stakes and go through procedure that the Electoral Commission would find more expensive. One can imagine that very well-off people who are accused of breaching the legislation in particular ways would use that method to, in effect, intimidate the commission and say, “You’ve not got enough resources to pursue me in the criminal courts.” That would therefore be a way for them to get the accusations against them dropped. There has to be a way to speed up the process because the legislation should not give an unfair advantage to well-off people who are accused over people who are not well off. However, I fully accept the hon. Gentleman’s point that speed in the proceedings is important.