Lord Laird – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Laird on 2015-11-24.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they will consider amending electoral law to provide for and require the amounts and details of parliamentary candidates’ election expenses to be published online, and whether this could be implemented voluntarily in the meantime.

Lord Bridges of Headley

Electoral legislation sets out the process for publicising the details and amounts of candidates’ election expenses; election expenses are made available for two years after they are submitted.

Current electoral law does not expressly require candidates’ election expenses to be published online, but nor is this expressly excluded.

The Law Commission has raised the matter of online publication of this information in their review of electoral law. This review is on-going and we are awaiting the recommendations of the Law Commission before consideration is given to further legislation in respect of this matter.

The Government is therefore not persuaded of the need to change legislation at this time.