The Coalition Government took the decision not to implement the 2009 legislation, as it was not deemed to be workable, and the Conservative Government continues to hold this view.<\/p>
During the passage of the 2009 Act, the Electoral Commission raised concerns about the legislation (further to Official Report, 15 October 2009, Col. 998W), and in 2013, the Electoral Commission also flagged issues about the tax status declaration requirements. The Labour Government conceded that the provisions could not be commenced at that time \u201cdue to their complex nature\u201d (as outlined in the answer of Official Report, 10 March 2010, Col. 5MC).<\/p>
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An individual\u2019s tax status is subject to confidentiality between them and HMRC. It may therefore be difficult or impossible for the political party and the Electoral Commission to accurately determine whether a donor meets the permissibility test set out section 10 in the Political Parties and Elections Act 2009.<\/p>
The Government also has a principled objection to the measures:<\/p>
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Notwithstanding, as I stated in my previous answer, the Government has announced it will consult on strengthening the current provisions which protect UK politics from foreign influence. The consultation may consider recommendations on tackling loopholes in relation to foreign spending in elections and donations from shell companies which are not properly operating in the UK.<\/p>
<\/p>
More broadly, since 2010, the Government has taken action to sanction and deter those involved in offshore evasion, including creating a new criminal offence for serious offshore evasion, and introducing penalties for those who deliberately help others to evade tax offshore. The Government has introduced over 100 new measures to tackle tax avoidance, evasion and non-compliance.<\/p>"} , "answeringMember" : {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/members/4451", "label" : {"_value" : "Biography information for Kevin Foster"} } , "answeringMemberConstituency" : {"_value" : "Torbay"} , "answeringMemberPrinted" : {"_value" : "Kevin Foster"} , "dateOfAnswer" : {"_value" : "2019-07-01", "_datatype" : "dateTime"} , "isMinisterialCorrection" : {"_value" : "false", "_datatype" : "boolean"} , "questionFirstAnswered" : [{"_value" : "2019-07-01T09:32:22.537Z", "_datatype" : "dateTime"} ]} , "answeringDeptId" : {"_value" : "53"} , "answeringDeptShortName" : {"_value" : "Cabinet Office"} , "answeringDeptSortName" : {"_value" : "Cabinet Office"} , "date" : {"_value" : "2019-06-25", "_datatype" : "dateTime"} , "hansardHeading" : {"_value" : "Political Parties: Finance"} , "houseId" : {"_value" : "1"} , "legislature" : [{"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/terms/25259", "prefLabel" : {"_value" : "House of Commons"} } ], "questionText" : "To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, pursuant to the Answer of 24 June 2019 to Question 266672 on Political Parties: Finance, for what reason the Government considers Section 10 of the Political Parties and Elections Act 2009 to be unworkable.", "registeredInterest" : {"_value" : "false", "_datatype" : "boolean"} , "tablingMember" : {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/members/410", "label" : {"_value" : "Biography information for Jon Trickett"} } , "tablingMemberConstituency" : {"_value" : "Hemsworth"} , "tablingMemberPrinted" : [{"_value" : "Jon Trickett"} ], "uin" : "268969"} ], "itemsPerPage" : 10, "page" : 0, "startIndex" : 1, "totalResults" : 1, "type" : ["http://purl.org/linked-data/api/vocab#ListEndpoint", "http://purl.org/linked-data/api/vocab#Page"]} }