Minutes of the Executive Team meeting
17 December 2009
Present:
Peter Wardle (PW) (Chair)
Chief Executive
Clare Ettinghausen (CE)
Deputy Chief Executive
Stephen Rooney (SR)
Director of Communication
Carolyn Hughes (CH) (Chair) Director of Party and Election Finance
Andrew Scallan (AS)
Director of Electoral Administration and
Boundaries
Lisa Klein (LK)
Director of Party and Election Finance
In attendance:
Louisa Parry (LP)
Strategy and Planning Manager (for Item 2)
Bola Bajomo (BB)
Head of Finance and Procurement (for Items 2
and 3)
Jerome Malone (JM)
Policy Manager (Regulatory Reform) (for Item
5)
Katharine Sparrow (KS)
Minutes
1. Apologies
1.1
There were no apologies.
5.
Options for Campaign Monitoring
5.1 JM presented his paper on the options for campaign monitoring at the
forthcoming general election. He said there were a range of options
from doing nothing, to desk based research to a partnership approach.
The Recommendation being put to Executive Team was a combination
of all options (Option 5).
5.2 PW said the paper was very England focused and asked for assurance
that a consistent Commission-wide approach would be taken. JM said
the Devolved Heads had fed into the paper from the start; the approach
would be consistent across the UK but an extra input of resources was
required in England.
5.3 PW requested a Management Team member be appointed to take
responsibility for the project to ensure a consistent approach across the
UK.
5.4 PW expressed a concern that the Partnership option would lead to a
change in the compliance objectives. He questioned what added value
the partnership option brought to the work of the Compliance Team. SR
said there were also risks associated with the partnership approach; the
Commission would not necessarily want to be associated with the
website. CE suggested investigating whether any academics were
2
planning research in this area.
5.5 PW said he was not sure the benefits from the partnership approach
outweighed the risks. Executive Team decided the advanced desk
research option (Option 3) was taken. A review could then be
undertaken after the election to identify whether this approach left any
gaps in compliance knowledge.
5.6 Executive Team agreed the PPP should be informed of the approach
the Commission planned to take.
3