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House of Lords Bill [HL]

I sympathise with the frustration felt by the noble Lord, Lord Steel, who wants to proceed very quickly with his Bill. I certainly recall sitting up at two in the morning, next to my noble friend Lord Ullswater, trying to do exactly the same with government employment Bills but I found that several noble Lords, including two very distinguished members of the party opposite, took up many hours of your Lordships’ time expanding the Bill into areas that they thought were highly relevant. Therefore, I sympathise with the noble Lord, Lord Steel, but I cannot in any way agree with him. He has reopened Pandora’s box for the nth time in terms of House of Lords reform, which, as we know, is an immensely complex area. He cannot expect the House to concentrate on the areas that he wants to see advanced quickly. Here, we are talking about an attempt to decouple or remove certain very important areas from the overall subject of House of Lords reform to produce a special Bill and advance those areas. I do not believe that it is possible to do that without considering the other, wider issues. The House is being tolerant in considering a Private Member’s Bill on a matter of extreme importance to the overall constitutional settlement of the country, and it is entirely appropriate that, if the tabling of amendments is allowed by the Clerks at the Table, they should be considered fully.