Tuesday Volume 568 15 October 2013 No. 55 HOUSE OF COMMONS OFFICIAL REPORT PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES (HANSARD) Tuesday 15 October 2013 £5·00 © Parliamentary Copyright House of Commons 2013 This publication may be reproduced under the terms of the Open Parliament licence, which is published at www.parliament.uk/site-information/copyright/. 577 15 OCTOBER 2013 578 Bill. The right hon. Gentleman has assiduously cultivated House of Commons those groups in the past, and frankly, they feel betrayed. Will he explain to them why he has led the Liberal Tuesday 15 October 2013 Democrats in support of this assault on grass-roots politics? Better still, will he recognise, even at this late stage, that he has got this badly wrong and join us in The House met at half-past Eleven o’clock opposing the Bill? PRAYERS The Deputy Prime Minister: My view is that if we did nothing about the increasing trend of big money in British politics, which seeks to influence the outcome of [MR SPEAKER in the Chair] political contests through groups that are not political parties, those very same groups would campaign after BUSINESS BEFORE QUESTIONS the next general election, saying that we should do something about that trend. At the general election, LONDON LOCAL AUTHORITIES AND TRANSPORT FOR non-party political funds doubled to £3 million. We LONDON (NO.2)BILL [LORDS] have seen what happens when that gets out of control. Just look across the Atlantic at the United States: Third Reading opposed and deferred until Tuesday super-PACs—political action committees; the increasing 22 October (Standing Order No. 20). polarisation of politics; and people outside the democratic political process, non-political parties, trying to influence HERTFORDSHIRE COUNTY COUNCIL (FILMING ON the outcome of elections. We will maintain the rules, as HIGHWAYS)BILL [LORDS] they have existed since 2000, on whether groups are Second Reading opposed and deferred until Tuesday regulated as third party campaign groups. All we are 22 October (Standing Order No. 20). saying is that non-party political parties that want to act like a political party should be asked to fill in the same paperwork as a political party. Oral Answers to Questions Dr Thérèse Coffey (Suffolk Coastal) (Con): Does my right hon. Friend agree that there is nothing in the Bill that stops campaigns on particular policies? Furthermore, DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER we will not end up with third party groups spending more than political candidates are able to spend on their own election. The Deputy Prime Minister was asked— Third Party Campaign Expenditure The Deputy Prime Minister: My hon. Friend is exactly right. Under the current rules, a well-funded third party campaign group seeking to influence the democratic 1. Paul Blomfield (Sheffield Central) (Lab): What his outcome in a constituency or constituencies could spend policy is on third party campaign expenditure. [900468] more money than a political party. That, surely, cannot be right. The Labour party, which is run by a third The Deputy Prime Minister (Mr Nick Clegg): Before party campaign group, the trade unions, does not think turning to the question, I pay tribute to my hon. Friend it is a problem if political parties are influenced by third the Member for Norwich North (Miss Smith) for her party campaign groups that might have political designs. excellent work in the past year on political and constitutional Nothing in the Bill would stop Make Poverty History reform. I welcome the Minister of State, Cabinet Office, spending millions on its campaign. Nothing would stop my right hon. Friend the Member for Tunbridge Wells the Green Alliance grading us all on our green promises— (Greg Clark), who will bring unique zeal to decentralisation nothing would change that. in particular, which he has championed within Government. I also welcome the hon. Member for Liverpool, West Derby (Stephen Twigg) to his new position on the John Cryer (Leyton and Wanstead) (Lab): Returning Opposition Front Bench. to planet earth, the Deputy Prime Minister regularly bleats on about the value of consultation. Why did that It is of course good that people are motivated to not apply to the lobbying Bill? There was no form of campaign for what they believe in, whether inside or consultation whatever on this wretched Bill. outside a traditional political party. However, it is also important that the integrity of democratic political campaigning is maintained. Campaigning by third parties The Deputy Prime Minister: There was extensive at general elections should therefore be made more consultation and scrutiny on the lobbying provisions in transparent and accountable. the Bill. The parts on third party campaigning were discussed extensively by the three parties in the cross-party Paul Blomfield: I am sure that the Deputy Prime funding talks. It was agreed by all parties, and backed Minister has, like many hon. Members, been contacted by Sir Christopher Kelly in his recommendations on by hundreds of people from the voluntary, charity and party funding reform, that any change to party funding community sectors who are vehemently opposed to the arrangements should also include some limits on third gagging provisions in the Transparency of Lobbying, party campaign groups when they want to influence the Non-Party Campaigning and Trade Union Administration political outcome in a constituency or constituencies. 579 Oral Answers15 OCTOBER 2013 Oral Answers 580 Andrew Bridgen (North West Leicestershire) (Con): Dr William McCrea (South Antrim) (DUP): Is the Does the Deputy Prime Minister agree that there is Deputy Prime Minister aware that in Northern Ireland huge public demand for complete transparency in the there is a new drive for individual registration, and influence of trade unions, especially during election would he find it helpful to monitor the success of that periods and especially given the allegations concerning exercise and to learn from the experience? the actions of Unite in the affairs of the Labour party earlier this year? The Deputy Prime Minister: Absolutely; in designing the system of individual voter registration that we are The Deputy Prime Minister: I have this old-fashioned introducing, we looked very carefully at the strengths view that in all our constituencies candidates from our and weaknesses of the experience in Northern Ireland. democratic political parties should be slugging it out on The most important innovation on which we have embarked a level playing field and that we should not have people is the one I explained earlier, which is matching the very pulling the strings in the background in an untransparent large databases that we already have with information way. That is all the Bill is trying to do. Anyone who on the electoral register and, in effect, automatically believes in the integrity and transparency of democratic, enrolling millions of people on the individual voter open contest in our constituencies should support the registration system. Bill. 9. [900479] Nick Smith (Blaenau Gwent) (Lab): What Electoral Register will be the Electoral Commission’s budget for raising awareness of the introduction of individual electoral 2. Lindsay Roy (Glenrothes) (Lab): What steps his registration? Office is taking to improve the completeness and The Deputy Prime Minister: I will have to write to the accuracy of the Electoral Register. [900469] hon. Gentleman on the specific figure, but of course we work very closely with the Electoral Commission to The Deputy Prime Minister (Mr Nick Clegg): The ensure that we pull in the same direction to raise awareness Government will shortly publish the results of our of the changes to the new system, and we have allocated confirmation dry run exercise, which matched almost just over £4 million to various groups locally working 47 million electors against Department for Work and with us and the Electoral Commission to raise awareness Pensions data. The results were much better than we among those groups where under-registration has anticipated and, using a combination of national and historically been a problem. local data, could lead to an overall average match rate of 85%. In addition, we are making registration simpler Stephen Twigg (Liverpool, West Derby) (Lab/Co-op): by enabling online registration, and in June we announced First, I join the Deputy Prime Minister in congratulating £4.2 million-worth of measures to maximise voter the Minister of State, Cabinet Office, the right hon. Member registration ahead of the transition to individual electoral for Tunbridge Wells (Greg Clark), on his appointment. registration. The Deputy Prime Minister spoke about the data- Lindsay Roy: I thank the Deputy Prime Minister for matching dry run this summer, which I understand his answer, but will he explain what he is doing to produced an outcome nationally of 78% accuracy. Within promote voter registration among our armed services that, however, was a range of 47% to 87%. Is there not a personnel, whose percentage registration has been risk that even more electors will fall off the electoral highlighted as a cause for concern? register because of the speed at which the Government are introducing the new system? Will he consider delaying The Deputy Prime Minister: I know that the Cabinet the introduction of individual voter registration in order Office has been working with the Ministry of Defence to maximise the completeness and accuracy of the to ensure that efforts are undertaken. Considerable register? efforts have been made in the past, but where we can do more, we should do more, in order to encourage anyone The Deputy Prime Minister: As the hon. Gentleman who is eligible to vote to do so and to enter into the new knows, the data-matching tests are a dry run and have individual voter registration system, as I explained earlier. exceeded expectations. We think that the use of those central databases, particularly the DWP database, combined Mr Philip Hollobone (Kettering) (Con): As well as the with what we do with other databases, should raise the problem of not enough voters being registered, there is overall figure of automatic enrolment when that finally a problem of voters registered under the wrong category.