Clause 8
Political Parties and Elections Bill
1:00 pm
Michael Wills (Minister of State, Ministry of Justice; North Swindon, Labour)
I welcome you, Sir Nicholas, and the rest of the Committee to our final sitting. I think that before the Committee adjourned I had completed my remarks about clause 8 stating clearly that a person commits an offence only if they knowingly or recklessly make a false declaration, but I want to say at the commencement of this afternoon’s proceedings that I recognise the concerns that have been expressed that an over-zealous approach to enforcement for minor technical breaches is in no one’s interest. It may result in major breaches going unpunished if the Electoral Commission focuses on minor technical breaches, so I asked the commission to write to the Committee, setting out its risk-based approach to regulation. I hope that members of the Committee have received that letter.
As part of the letter, the commission has described in a very helpful way its criteria for investigating breaches. I hope that that goes a significant way towards reassuring hon. Members. The commission has said that the criteria that it will apply in order for it to investigate a breach are, first, that there is evidence or information substantiating a potential breach of political party or election finance legislation, not merely an assertion of or a speculation about a breach, and secondly, that the commission considers that it is in the public interest for it to investigate, taking into account the potential impact of the breach on the integrity or transparency of party or election finance, the cost of investigating such a potential breach relative to the impact of the breach, and any other considerations that may be relevant. I hope that those criteria are helpful in reassuring the Committee that the commission is not interested in pursuing cases that are essentially groundless. Members of the Committee are understandably concerned about that.
Notwithstanding the considerable reassurance from the Electoral Commission, I am still willing to consider how that reassurance may be given more force in appropriate cases. However, in stressing my openness on the issue, I emphasise that offences that are formulated as false declarations through the Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000, such as those subject to the amendment, quite properly have a degree of intent or negligent wrongdoing inherent in them. I do not think that there is a good case for revisiting that. Clause 8 already provides that a person is guilty of an offence only if they knowingly or recklessly make a false declaration. They commit an offence only if they are either conscious of the fact that it is substantially certain that they are making a false—