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Clerk of the Parliaments

rose to move to resolve that this House has received with sincere regret the announcement of the retirement of Sir Paul David Grenville Hayter KCB, LVO, from the office of Clerk of the Parliaments and thinks it right to record the just sense which it entertains of the zeal, ability, diligence, and integrity with which the said Sir Paul David Grenville Hayter has executed the important duties of his office. The noble Baroness said: My Lords, in moving this Motion, I wish to pay a wholehearted tribute to Sir Paul, who will retire at the end of this week, for the work that he has done in your Lordships’ House, which he joined in 1964. Noble Lords who have been in the House for longer than me may well be aware of the great work of Sir Paul’s early career in enhancing the work of the Select Committees of your Lordships’ House. Sir Paul clerked the Select Committee on Sport and Leisure in 1970 and 1971, which marked the start of a long process of reviving the tradition of Lords Select Committee scrutiny—a tradition that had lain moribund for most of the last century. Select Committees are now widely recognised as a credit to this House, and it is in no small part because of Sir Paul’s work that this is so, especially because he was Clerk to the Committees from 1985 to 1990. I should say that his enthusiasm for sport and leisure is captured by his keenness as a longbow archer. His retirement will give him ample time to prepare for 2012, should we need him. I have witnessed at first hand Sir Paul’s negotiating skills and marvel at how, with simply a small facial expression, he can convey pleasure, displeasure, acceptance, concern or—dare I say—impatience with some of my more interesting ideas. What must life have been like when he was Private Secretary to the Chief Whip and Leader from 1974 to 1980, a time that noble Lords will recall as a period when the Government majority in the Commons was very slender? What is clear from the record is that he provided the kind of support that Chief Whips in particular dream of: a steady hand, great knowledge and, no doubt, brilliance when required. His facial expressions would have been used to great effect in those days. When Sir Paul became Clerk of the Parliaments, he set himself four objectives: to be responsive to Members’ wishes, to make the House a place in which the staff are proud and pleased to work, to ensure that the management structures of the House are effective, and to increase the e-delivery of services. In each area, I am sure noble Lords will agree that he has made great progress—not least in taking the unprecedented step of commissioning a Members’ survey and overseeing a large number of changes as a result of that survey. And, of course, he saw through the consequences of the Constitutional Reform Act 2005, not least in the election of the Lord Speaker. He leaves behind a very different House from that which he arrived in 43 years ago. It is more professional, harder working and has greater expectations of its administration. He leaves it a better place for his dedication to it. I have no doubt that Sir Paul will fill his time well, not least as a gifted painter—all the paintings in his office are his own; he is also a French horn player: a man truly of many talents. He says that his life in large measure rotates around the seasons in his garden, though concedes that his wife Deborah is the chief gardener. He is a man, in my view, for all the seasons of your Lordships’ House. Moved, to resolve that this House has received with sincere regret the announcement of the retirement of Sir Paul David Grenville Hayter, KCB, LVO, from the office of Clerk of the Parliaments and thinks it right to record the just sense which it entertains of the zeal, ability, diligence and integrity with which the said Sir Paul David Grenville Hayter has executed the important duties of his office.—(Baroness Ashton of Upholland.)