To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they will consider increasing the investigative and summoning powers of the Electoral Commission. [HL2692]

The Electoral Commission was established by the Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000. That Act provided the commission with powers to require information or documents relating to income and expenditure from supervised individuals or organisations (as defined in that Act). These powers enable the commission to carry out its monitoring function of checking whether relevant restrictions have been complied with.

In addition to these powers, Schedule 1 to the Political Parties and Elections Act 2009 provides the commission with new powers to enable it to investigate certain suspected offences under the 2000 Act or certain other breaches of the regulatory rules set out in that Act. These include a power to require, through a court if necessary, the disclosure of documents for the purposes of an investigation. There is also a power to require individuals to attend at a specified time and place to answer oral questions put by the commission in connection with an investigation. It is a criminal offence for any person to fail, without reasonable excuse, to comply with any requirement from the commission to provide documents or attend an interview. It is intended that these powers will support the use of the new civil sanctioning powers of the commission which are given by Schedule 2 to the 2009 Act.

As set out in the Written Ministerial Statement of 24 November 2009 (Official Report, Commons, cols. 68WS-70WS), the Government's intention is that the Electoral Commission's new investigatory and civil sanctioning powers will be brought into force with effect from 1 July 2010.