Northern Ireland (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill

Our View

The New Politics Network welcomed the proposals for greater transparency in political donations to parties on Northrn Ireland. Currently the PPERA regulations requiring the registration and publication of donations of £5,000 or more to political parties in England, Scotland and Wales do not apply in Northern Ireland. There are a number of additional concerns about donations to political parties in Northern Ireland, in particular that party donors could be threatened or intimidated if their names were made public and also the need to allow donations from the Republic of Ireland.

The current proposals are certainly a step in the right direction, however we are concerned that they will do nothing to open up political funding and engender trust in the political process. Also although the Electoral Commission will be able to check the legality of a donation they will not be able to investigate whether that is actually where the money came from.

NPN suggested a third option which would give parties the option of either putting donations into the public domain or getting donors to give direct to the Electoral Commission who would then be responsible for ensuring that such donations were permissible and would then pass the donation on to the political party. The Commission would then publish the amount of the donation and the identity of the party to which it was given but would withhold the identity of the donor.