Annual Report 2008

Powers of enquiry under section 4(4) of the 1997 Act

Unlike the Ethics Acts, the Electoral Acts do not provide a formal complaints and investigative procedure for the Standards Commission to examine instances of non-compliance with the Acts. The Standards Commission may, under section 4(4) of the 1997 Act, make such enquiries as it considers appropriate and may require any person to furnish any information, document or thing in the possession or procurement of the person for the purposes of carrying out its duties under the Electoral Acts.

Section 4(4) gives the Standards Commission very wide scope to request information which it may need for the purposes of carrying out its supervisory role under the Electoral Acts. Generally, however, the Standards Commission carries out its enquiries under the Electoral Acts in a relatively informal manner and will only resort to making a request for information under section 4(4) of the 1997 Act when previous requests for such information have not been replied to.

As shown earlier in this report, the Standards Commission conducted a number of enquiries under the Electoral Acts during 2008. In most cases the information requested was provided in a timely manner. In some cases, however, there were significant delays in providing all of the information requested by the Standards Commission.

There is no sanction in the Electoral Acts for failure to comply with a request for information made under section 4(4) of the 1997 Act. While negative publicity, which might attach to being mentioned in a report by the Standards Commission as having failed to comply with a request for information, might be regarded as a sanction, the Standards Commission requests that consideration be given to providing for an offence for failing to comply with a request for information under section 4(4).

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