Queen’s Speech - Political Parties and Elections Bill

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Wednesday 3 December 2008

Queen’s Speech - Political Parties and Elections Bill

The Political Parties and Elections Bill, being brought forward from the previous session, will strengthen the regulatory role of the Electoral Commission, introduce greater transparency of political donations, and strengthen the arrangements for regulating candidate expenditure. The Bill also makes reforms to improve the administration of elections in the UK.

The White Paper on Party Finance and Expenditure, published on 16 June 2008, set out the Government’s broad support for long term, fundamental reform of party finance and expenditure based on the framework put forward by Sir Hayden Phillips’ independent review of party funding in 2007. It also signalled the Government’s intention to build consensus in order to bring forward immediate legislation to tighten controls on political spending.

The main purposes of the Bill are to:

· Strengthen the regulatory powers of the Electoral Commission, to provide new powers of investigation and the option of civil sanctions;

· Enable political parties to put forward four Electoral Commissioners to be in a minority on the Commission, and relax political restrictions on staff of the Commission;

· Regulate spending by candidates for a longer period so that spending for electoral purposes is more effectively constrained;

· Place further requirements on parties and donors to clarify the source of donations;

· Amend the Representation of the People Act 1983 to provide a more flexible system for adding to the register of electors when an election is called while the register is being updated – the canvass period;

· Allow for the administration of European Parliament elections by local authority (rather than Parliamentary) returning officers, to help ensure the successful delivery of elections.

The main benefits of the Bill are:

· A stronger and better equipped Electoral Commission which is better able to regulate party spending and political donations - both through giving it greater powers and reforming its governance so that it can benefit from commissioners with recent experience of politics;

· More transparent donations to political parties and others;

· A level playing field for candidates campaigning at general elections;

· A more straightforward method for electors to register to vote at an election during the canvass period, preventing the potential disenfranchisement of electors if an election were to be held during that period.