Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government written question – answered at on 9 September 2024.
Phil Brickell
Labour, Bolton West
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether (a) the sprint review of security threats and (b) the Defending Democracy Task Force will consider risks created by weaknesses in (i) the UK’s Laws on political finance laws and (ii) their enforcement.
Alex Norris
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
Effective regulation and enforcement of political finance are crucial for maintaining public trust in our electoral systems and combatting the threat of foreign interference in our democracy. Which is why, as set out in our manifesto, the Government is committed to strengthening our democracy and upholding the integrity of elections. As part of this, the Government intends to strengthen the rules around donations to political parties to protect our democracy. My department is developing proposals to give effect to this commitment, and we will continue to work closely with the Defending Democracy Taskforce, of which MHCLG is a member, and the national security community on this.
Yes3 people think so
No2 people think not
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Secretary of State was originally the title given to the two officials who conducted the Royal Correspondence under Elizabeth I. Now it is the title held by some of the more important Government Ministers, for example the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs.
Laws are the rules by which a country is governed. Britain has a long history of law making and the laws of this country can be divided into three types:- 1) Statute Laws are the laws that have been made by Parliament. 2) Case Law is law that has been established from cases tried in the courts - the laws arise from test cases. The result of the test case creates a precedent on which future cases are judged. 3) Common Law is a part of English Law, which has not come from Parliament. It consists of rules of law which have developed from customs or judgements made in courts over hundreds of years. For example until 1861 Parliament had never passed a law saying that murder was an offence. From the earliest times courts had judged that murder was a crime so there was no need to make a law.
