132.—(1) If a person is, either before, during or after a petition, engaged or employed for payment or promise of payment as a canvasser for the purpose of promoting or procuring the success or failure of the petition—
(a)the person so engaging or employing that person, and
(b)the person so engaged or employed,
is guilty of illegal employment.
(2) A person guilty of an offence under paragraph (1) shall, on summary conviction, be liable to a fine; and on a prosecution for such an offence it shall be sufficient to allege that the person charged was guilty of illegal employment.
(3) Where an MP (apart from this paragraph) is guilty of an offence under paragraph (1), they are instead guilty of an illegal practice.
(4) Any person charged with an offence of illegal employment may be found guilty of that offence, notwithstanding that the act constituting the offence amounted to a corrupt or illegal practice.
Commencement Information
I1Reg. 132 in force at 4.3.2016, see reg. 1