Source · Select Committees · National Security Strategy (Joint Committee)
Recommendation 10
10
Accepted
The Representation of the People Bill does not include strong enough safeguards to prevent UK...
Conclusion
The Representation of the People Bill does not include strong enough safeguards to prevent UK subsidiaries donating on behalf of foreign parent companies or wealthy individuals. There are further loopholes enabling donors to receive large sums of foreign money in connection with a donation and not declare it. And it has missed opportunities to amend the terminology on donor and recipient due diligence responsibilities, which currently hamper law enforcement from launching adequate investigations and bringing prosecutions. (Conclusion, Paragraph 90)
Government response summary AI-generated
The government agrees with the concern regarding corporate donation limits and has accepted a similar Rycroft review recommendation in full, also introducing a declaration requirement for donors above a set threshold to prevent evasion.
Summary of the government's response below — read the verbatim text to verify.
Government Response
Accepted
HM Government · verbatim extract
Accepted
The Government recognises the importance of strengthening the safeguards against impermissible and foreign-sourced donations, and we agree with the Committee’s underlying objective of ensuring that only legitimate, transparent funding enters the UK’s democratic system. In particular, the Government is committed to commencing Section 54A PPERA, as inserted by the Political Parties and Elections Act 2009, before the end of this Parliament. This will introduce a declaration requirement for donations above the existing statutory threshold, creating a clearer mechanism to verify the true source of funds and establishing criminal liability for false declarations made knowingly or recklessly. As previously mentioned, we plan to introduce a new due diligence requirement for donors to submit a declaration on all donations above a set threshold. This will ensure that both recipients of donations and the Electoral Commission have the information necessary to check and enforce the overseas elector donation cap and minimum residency period and will guard against companies circumventing the rules by donating the same profits multiple times. We will also amend section PPERA s54A threshold to align with this declaration, helping to reduce the risk of foreign or impermissible donations being funnelled into UK politics. Taken together, these provisions represent a significant step forward in improving transparency and accountability within the political finance regime.
Read the full response on Parliament ↗