---

House of Lords: Code of Conduct

As the noble Lord referred to me, perhaps I might do my best to assist, although I have no authority on the point. It means anyone who is not a Member. It may be a member of staff, a member of the public or a member of the press; all the paragraph says is that someone making a complaint about a Member should, normally at any rate, raise it with the Member first to see whether there is a reasonable explanation that would cause them not to pursue it. While I am on my feet, let me say that if the noble Lord made a complaint in former times to a previous Leader of the House, Clerk of the House or whatever, he obviously did not do so officially. If he had done, he would have made it to the interests sub-committee and it would have been investigated, as complaints were. Anyone can have a private word, of course, which will not be followed up unless the person making the complaint wishes it to be.