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My Lords, the Government do not comment on the submission of suspicious activity reports. The Electoral Commission, the National Crime Agency and the police are operationally independent. Suspicious activity reports are confidential and breaching that confidentiality risks committing a tipping off offence under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002. Every year, the Electoral Commission publishes a report on how many investigations take place into potential breaches of political finance rules. I know my noble friend asked a Question similar to this a month ago, so I wanted to give him information on the numbers. In 2023-24, there were 17 investigations; in 2024-25, there were 14; and in 2025-26, there were nine investigations concluded. We cannot release how many of these come from SARs.
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My Lords, I am very grateful to the Minister for her informative reply. Does she agree with me that it ill behoves the leader of a national party that aspires to government to say, as Nigel Farage did yesterday, that his response to complaints about dodgy party finances is to throw them in the bin? Can she tell the House what further measures the Government are considering to tackle foreign-based cryptocurrency billionaires interfering with our rules-based democratic system?
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I am sure my noble friend will understand that I will not comment on individual cases. However, following the recommendations of the Rycroft review, the Government are introducing a complete ban on crypto asset donations of all value until such point that Parliament and the Electoral Commission are satisfied that there is sufficient regulation in place to ensure confidence and transparency in donations being made in this way. The ban has a retrospective effect from the date of its announcement on 25 March this year to prevent malign actors circumventing it. With this policy, we are taking decisive action to defend the legitimacy and integrity of our democratic system from foreign interference. I hope all politicians will take seriously that the rules apply to everybody.
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My Lords, successful investigations require the right powers to be available, yet both the National Crime Agency and the Met Police have warned that they cannot use their full sweep of powers because the maximum sentences for many political finance offences are too low and do not trigger them. Both the Rycroft review and the Joint Committee on the National Security Strategy have highlighted this loophole. Can the Minister reassure us that the Government will be using the Representation of the People Bill to table amendments to close this loophole so that the full power of law enforcement can be used against politicians who might or might not be breaking the law?
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We want to see all the loopholes around this issue closed, and we are taking very strong and clear action. We have accepted all of Philip Rycroft’s recommendations, and we are taking forward a comprehensive package of reforms to strengthen the safeguards against foreign political influence and interference in our politics. I look forward to debating this Bill with Members of your Lordships’ House—we start on 14 September.
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My Lords, Section 44(4) of the Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act says that you must not tell your auditor either “knowingly or recklessly” something which is incorrect. Can the Minister tell me whether there have been any prosecutions under that section? I am sure she will have to write to me. It is a very important section, and it would appear to be a section that would certainly be able to drive making sure that the accounts of individual political parties are accurate and correct, which I think would be a most valuable feature in updating our political party finance arrangements.
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The noble Earl is quite right in that I cannot answer his specific question off the top of my head, but I will write to him on that. However, the whole system of suspicious activity reports requires, as I am sure he knows, that banks, lawyers, accountants and other anti-money laundering regulated businesses must submit a suspicious activity report to the NCA where they have a suspicion that activity may constitute money laundering or terrorist financing. There has been a significant total of SARs submitted in each year. That system appears to be working, but we continue to look at it to make sure that it is doing what it is intended to.
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Does the Minister know that there are around half a million Muslim women, and others, who do not speak English and speak only their native language, who are therefore ignorant about their rights to vote under British law? Surely the Minister will recognise that these are the prime victims of any corruption of voting, with family voting seen as the priority. Is there any way in which the Government can consider the rights of those ladies and in some way offer special education to them at an adult age which will enable them to use their rights more effectively?
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We want to see all those who are entitled to vote having the information they need to enable them to do so. That is a very important part of the process. We continue to explore with local authorities, the Electoral Commission and electoral registration officers how we might better do that and make sure that the information is available to everyone who is entitled to vote. Of course, the offence of undue influence, first under Section 8 of the ROPA Act 1983 and then amended by the Elections Act 2022, protects electors from intimidation and malicious interference with their vote. We need to tackle this from both angles: from the education angle and by making sure that people are not coming under undue influence and that those offences are prosecuted.
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My Lords, to return to the original question, such investigations depend on good record-keeping, such as the submission of election expenses. Can the Minister clarify how that data is held, how many estimates are not submitted accurately, and the capacity of the police to investigate suspicious activity?
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Record-keeping is subject to both the Electoral Commission and local authorities, which are the initial point of contact for this. We want to make sure that there are always sufficient resources to do that. I do not think local authorities have been helped in their management of elections through the cuts they have had in their funding in recent years, but we will continue to make sure that we are talking to our local authority partners about the resources for doing that. On police investigation, we are working very hard with police colleagues to make sure there are sufficient resources to do what needs to be done. Under the current enforcement framework, most political finance offences are treated as possible criminal offences, even when they amount to minor administrative breaches. The new Bill will put that right so that we are focusing attention where it needs to be, which is on the actual criminal activity.
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My Lords, does the Minister agree with me that, at the moment, our politics is being funded by spivs, thieves and tax-dodgers, and that the only way we are going to control this is to control the amounts of money that can be spent at elections? That is the way to deal with this problem—not trying to fix the rules but stopping what is becoming a nuclear war for funding for political parties.
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I am not sure that I would use the exact language my noble friend used, but we need to make a concerted effort to tackle what is seen as corrupt practice in election financing. The Government have published an anti-corruption strategy. We want to bring the corrupt actors to justice, prevent them benefitting from illicit wealth, tackle the vulnerabilities to corruption at home and build resilience overseas. That is all coming forward in our new Bill. We need to be robust in our approach to this, otherwise the whole of our democratic process is undermined. I look forward, as I said, to debating the Bill with Members of your Lordships’ House. I hope that we can get this tightened up as quickly as possible.
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My Lords, the Minister mentioned the very welcome ban on direct crypto donations, but can she say something about controlling those donors whose wealth is derived from cryptocurrency dealings?
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We have significantly strengthened the ability to identify, freeze and recover illicit crypto assets in recent years through a combination of legislative reform, operational capability uplift and system-wide co-ordination. We are going further now, following the introduction of the Financial Services and Markets Act regulations this year, implementing a broader crypto asset regulatory regime, which I hope will do exactly what the noble Lord referred to, covering activities such as trading, custody and consumer protection. We need to make sure that we know the source. The “know your donor” provisions in the new Bill make sure that political parties are taking serious account of where their funding is coming from.
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My Lords, I strongly support the Liberal Democrat Front Bench in saying that we should look at amendments when we consider the Representation of the People Bill on 14 September and beyond. I also suggest that this might be a good topic for a special committee of this House to examine. Just to be really helpful, I have submitted a proposal to that effect.
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I thank my noble friend for his point. I think that there will be several days of “special committee” exploring these issues when we consider the new Bill. I look forward to debating it with him.