Constitutional Affairs written question – answered at on 30 March 2006.
Peter Law
Independent, Blaenau Gwent
To ask the Minister of State, Department for Constitutional Affairs what assessment she has made of the merits of the public funding of political parties.
Bridget Prentice
Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Department for Constitutional Affairs
None. The Prime Minister has announced that Sir Hayden Phillips will conduct a review of the funding of political parties. The terms of reference are to conduct a review of the funding of political parties. In particular:
To examine the case for state funding of political parties including whether it should be enhanced in return for a cap on the size of donations.
To consider the transparency of political parties' funding.
And; to report to the Government by the end of December 2006 with recommendations for any changes in the current arrangements.
Sir Hayden Phillips will work closely with stakeholders including, especially, the political parties and the Electoral Commission. He has been asked to aim to produce recommendations which are as much as possible agreed between the political parties with a view to legislation as soon as parliamentary time allows.
Yes5 people think so
No0 people think not
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Annotations
Ken Brookman
Posted on 31 Mar 2006 1:56 pm (Report this annotation)
Good sensible querstion for a change. But will it allow public funding for a one party extravaganza ??? I think not. In the electoral commission report it says that money is only given to parties with more than 2 MP's. This excludes any who call themselves independent as an independent belongs to nobody. so PL will have to join Plaid to get any of the money sorry. In addition any member who changes parties will lose 85% of the fundsing. Looks like Little Dai and his mates will have to start collecting.