Question to the Northern Ireland Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, for what reasons he declined the request of the Electoral Commission to publish the details of donations since January 2014 to political parties operating in Northern Ireland; and if he will make a statement.

I wrote to the political parties in January seeking their views on this issue and, while there was broad support for the future publication of donations and loans, only one party expressed support for backdating publication to 1 January 2014. Having considered the representations of the parties, I did not believe it right to impose retrospective regulations on those who donated in accordance with the rules set out in law at the time. The secondary legislation to give effect to full transparency which I propose would therefore apply to donations and loans received on or after 1 July 2017.