National Crime Agency: Reform Party Funding Debate
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Lord Pack
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National Crime Agency: Reform Party Funding
Lord Pack Excerpts(3 weeks, 5 days ago)
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Lord Hanson of Flint (Lab)
The Bill that the noble Earl mentions will probably now go before the House of Commons in September: it was due this week, but we have put the Hillsborough law in place this week, which I welcome, and that has been moved back. It is important that we have clear electoral law. He tempts me to talk about issues that are not my direct departmental responsibility, but I will reflect on what he has said, listen carefully to representations and pass them on to the appropriate Minister.
Lord Pack (LD)
My Lords, the National Crime Agency gave evidence to Parliament earlier this year in which it said:
“There are quite a lot of our covert powers … that we can only use if the sentence is three years or over”.
However, many political finance offences do not have a tariff of three years or over. Therefore, the NCA is not currently able to use its full range of investigatory powers to ensure that it is playing its role in keeping our politics clean. That is a topic that the Rycroft review raised, but so far the Government have not tabled any amendments to the Representation of the People Bill to rectify this loophole in our investigatory framework. Will the Minister commit to looking at this issue again with colleagues over the summer and make sure that amendments are tabled in the autumn so that we can close this loophole?
Lord Hanson of Flint (Lab)
As I said to the noble Earl, Lord Kinnoull, Report and Third Reading of the Representation of the People Bill will take place as soon as parliamentary time allows. I am not the Minister directly responsible for that Bill, but I will pass on the noble Lord’s comments. I hope that I share with the noble Lord the aspiration of ensuring that we put as tight a ring as possible around those donations, so that there is transparency, clarity and openness, and so that, if any amendments are made, the National Crime Agency has the independent policing ability to follow through.