asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will take steps to arrange that a candidate who does not obtain one-eighth of the total votes cast at a parliamentary election has to pay a sum of £1,000; and what revenue would thus have accrued to the Exchequer over a period of five years.

Any change in the size of the deposit would require legislation and might appropriately be considered initially by a Speaker's Conference. No estimate of the revenue which would have accrued to the Exchequer can be given because it is not possible to say how many of the 843 candidates who have lost their deposits since April 1972 would have stood if a deposit of £1,000 had been required.