---

Government: Draft Legislative Programme

My Lords, I am extremely grateful to my noble friend for giving way. Do the Government accept that the touchstone for constitutional reform should be that the proposals are likely to improve the performance of our institutions of government? Thus, in the case of proposed reforms of either House of Parliament, would the reform in question be likely to improve the capacity of Parliament knowledgeably to debate the great issues of concern to our nation, to scrutinise legislation rigorously and in detail and powerfully to hold the Government to account? Does he accept that those are the tests and that sloganising about modernisation or democracy is beside the point?