Written question asked by Alan Williams (Labour) on Tuesday, 20 February 2007, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Friday, 23 February 2007. It was answered by Jack Straw (Labour) on Friday, 23 February 2007 on behalf of the Leader of the House of Commons.

House of Lords: Reform

Question: To ask the Leader of the House what range of numbers of electors an elected Member of the Lords will represent under his proposals for reform of the House of Lords; what the range is of the number of electors represented by hon. Members; whether elected Members would have the same freedom as hon. Members to make representations on behalf of their constituents; and whether those elected would have parliamentary expenses to enable them to employ staff to help them with constituency work.

Answer: We must await the decision of the House on 7 March before providing detailed analysis. Nor should we speculate on the issue of remuneration. Paragraphs 9.9 to 9.15 of the White Paper explain that the Government will seek the advice of the senior salaries review body on remuneration once the composition of any reformed House is much firmer.By way of illustration and on the basis of the proposals outlined in the White Paper—The House of Lords: Reform (Cm 7027), using a model of a 50 per cent. appointed and 50 per cent. elected House—the assumption is that an elected Member would represent an average of 165,834 electors. This is calculated on the basis of a reformed House consisting of 270 elected Members, using the parliamentary electorate of 44,775,185 (ONS figures: published 22 February 2007). By way of comparison the number of electors represented by hon. Members ranges from 21,873 (Na-H-Eileanan ar lar) to 108,715 (Isle of Wight).

Secondary information