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House of Lords: Reform

My Lords, I intervene at this stage because I participated in some of the earlier discussions, and the Statement and White Paper are of manifest importance to the Cross-Bench Peers. There are four elements underlying all future discussions—and I think that there will be a lot of them. They are: first, the conclusion, referred to by other noble Lords, that the working methods of the House are very satisfactory, as shown by the recent report of the Joint Committee on Conventions; secondly, the increasing public satisfaction with the work of the House and their manifest disinterest in any reform; thirdly, the presence of a small number of hereditary Peers, which could call for a move to a situation where a hereditary title does not alone serve as an entry ticket to this Chamber; and, fourthly, the references in the Labour Party manifesto and the gracious Speech that the Government will work to build a consensus on reform of the House of Lords and bring forward proposals. We now have before us the White Paper, so we can see how far we can arrive at a consensus on possible changes. The Statement states that, "““the prize of progress means moving forward gradually and by consensus””." We attach importance to that. These questions have been around for some time—some say, since 1910—and it would be good to decide whether common ground can be found between the two Houses and we can get on with the work of Parliament. As Convenor of the Cross-Bench Peers, a large group in the House, I want to make one or two points which relate directly to us. First, I welcome the reference in paragraph 8 of the Statement and elsewhere in the White Paper that at least 20 per cent of a reformed House would comprise non-party-political Peers. I interpret that as referring to the independent, non-party-political Peers within the Cross-Bench group. It does not of course include the Bishops, who are Lords Spiritual and not normally considered to be within the group of independent, non-party-political Peers. As takeovers and mergers are the flavour of the month, I hope that the noble and learned Lord the Lord Chancellor will confirm that we do not wish to take over the Bishops. We wish to refer to other points that refer directly to the Cross-Benchers, but the bedrock of our position is that 20 per cent of the membership should be non-party-political Peers. We believe that we contribute pretty well to the House and that our role must be continued in any reformed House. Secondly, I welcome the proposal to put the Appointments Commission on a statutory basis. That has not been referred to by the other political parties, but it is an important point. We welcome the substantial non-party-political membership of the reformed Appointments Commission. Thirdly, I am glad to see the continued lifetime role of the present life Peers, although with a possibility of resignation. We also welcome the assurance in the White Paper, in paragraph 10.24, that any action agreed in relation to hereditary independent Peers will be no less favourable than that for hereditary party-political Peers. The even treatment of the hereditary Peers, wherever they are in the House, is an important point, which we understand is reflected in the White Paper. It goes without saying that we shall examine carefully the proposed 50 per cent elected membership of the House and the specific arrangements for such election, together with the procedures to be adopted in each House for expressing a view on membership. Will the noble and learned Lord the Lord Chancellor comment on why the Government decided that elections should be timed with the European Parliament’s elections rather than at the same time as the general election? It might be argued that the people should choose their representatives in the two Houses at Parliament at the same time.