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House of Lords Bill [HL]

Nowhere in the Bill does it say that it must meet in secret but one of the Bill’s flaws is that we have seen no review of the workings of the current Appointments Commission. We do not know how it meets. We probably know that it meets in secret but there is no reason why that should continue. The use of the word "secret" is important, and I am glad that we are discussing it at this stage; I wanted to demonstrate how different it would be from a directly elected senate. Instead of a magic circle of nine individuals deciding who should vote, as the Chamber knows I am in favour of it being the people. The noble Lord, Lord Lea of Crondall, said that political parties will be able to make nominations directly to the Appointments Commission, but it will not have escaped his notice that in another place Dr Tony Wright, the chairman of the Public Administration Committee, has proposed that political parties should not be allowed to propose names to the Appointments Commission. It should furnish the Appointments Commission with a substantial list of names and it will then be up to the noble Lord, Lord Jay, and his colleagues to pick and choose who should sit in your Lordships’ House. I am glad that the noble Lord, Lord Lea, made that point. This is one of the flaws of a statutory Appointments Commission, which I am therefore trying to bring to the attention of the Chamber.