Contribution
My Lords, I congratulate my noble friend Lord Macintosh on his maiden speech, even though I was unable to be here for it, for which I hope he has forgiven me. As he has not walked out before my speech starts, there is a chance that he might have. I am delighted to contribute to this debate, as part of the process whereby an important manifesto commitment is transferred into legislation. What makes this Bill so important is that it strengthens and future-proofs our democracy at a time when, as in too many countries today, democracy itself is under threat.
I have called on many occasions for the voting age in England to be brought into line with Scotland, where votes at 16 were introduced in 2015. Five years later, Wales made the same change. So there is inescapable logic in extending that to cover the entire UK and applying it to elections at all levels. Votes at 16 is an important democratic development, expanding the electorate and bringing new voices and perspectives into the political process—the comments just now by the noble Lord, Lord Fuller, notwithstanding. But the full benefits of lowering the voting age will not be felt if that right is introduced in a vacuum.
That is why the All-Party Group for Schools, Learning and Assessment, of which I am a member, undertook an inquiry into how the building blocks can be put in place to ensure that young people are prepared for being democratically empowered. The inquiry was concerned with education that supports young people in preparing to vote, but it went beyond that to examine how schools and colleges can foster the democratic skills and knowledge that underpin using the vote and support young people to participate in broader democratic society as critical, engaged and active citizens.
The report was published in July and, as my noble friend Lady Lister said, it stressed the importance of citizenship education in providing the building blocks for young people to understand and develop an appreciation of democratic engagement. Among its recommendations was a call for the Government to ensure that upcoming changes in response to the curriculum and assessment review create a “core curriculum entitlement” to citizenship and that teachers are given the support to enable them to navigate this new aspect of citizenship education with confidence.
If implemented effectively, there is a particular strength in young people registering to vote while still in an educational setting, with schools and colleges able to support them through that process. The Association of Colleges says in its briefing for this debate that colleges are keen to explore the scope for integrating college and school enrolment with voter registration, as has already occurred at several universities. Clause 3 stipulates the entitlement to be registered at 14, signalling an opportunity for schools to embed registration for 14 and 15 year-olds and thus enhance initial citizenship and political literacy education.
I want to highlight the very welcome toughening of rules on political donations and campaign financing in Part 4 of the Bill. The initial provisions were strengthened in another place by the Government adding recommendations by the Rycroft review into countering foreign influence. The restriction being placed on the amount which can be given to a political party during a calendar year by an individual who is a non-UK resident has been set at £100,000, which is appropriate and one that I think the average voter will see as reasonable—unlike the outrageous amounts paid to a political party last week, the timing of which was simply to evade this legislation. As my noble friend Lord Sikka said: these are not donations, they are investments.
That said, I cannot agree with those who called for retrospective legislation to deal with those payments. First, retrospective law is, I believe, fundamentally undemocratic. Secondly, such a move would play into the hands of those who claim this Bill is specifically aimed at one party in particular. It is not, of course, but that argument could quite easily be used against Labour unless the Government tread carefully.
There is also an issue with domestic political campaign donations. At Third Reading in another place, Minister Eshalomi made a commitment on domestic political finance reform, saying that a new cross-government task and finish team will be working at pace to find a solution to the issue of mega donors in UK politics. I ask my noble friend the Minister to expand on the remit of this task and finish team and tell us whether the Government will commit to the introduction of a donation cap and reduce the national campaign spending limit before the next general election.
Time does not allow me to cover the questions of electoral reform, the Electoral Commission and hostility towards candidates. All of those will need to await Committee, to which I look forward.