Our response to the Political Parties and Elections Bill
Following the Government's White Paper on party finance, the Political Parties and Elections Bill was introduced to Parliament in July. In our response to the Bill (PDF) we welcomed the proposals to strengthen the Commission by providing it with wider investigative powers and a more flexible range of sanctions to be used when the rules on party and election finances are broken.
We continue to raise concerns about proposals in the Bill to change the make up of the Commission. In particular we do not believe that the proposals on the appointment of Commissioners with recent party political experience can be made to work without compromising confidence in our independence. We believe these proposals are not an appropriate and workable way to provide us with greater access to party political experience and we are particularly concerned by the proposals for political party nominees.
Read our written evidence to the Public Bill Committee
Read our oral evidence to the Public Bill Committee
Read our briefing on the Political Parties and Elections Bill (PDF).
Read our full response to the White Paper (PDF).
