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Parliament and the Public: Information Committee Report

My Lords, it gives me great pleasure to wind up this important and thought-provoking debate. I thank all noble Lords who have spoken. I congratulate in particular the noble Lord, Lord Renton, for his introduction to the debate, and his committee on this report, as well as on the helpful annual report for 2008-09. Now more than ever, it is incumbent on us to ensure that the public understand and engage with the important work carried out both in this House and the other place. The committee's inquiry was wide-ranging, and detailed assessment of connections between people and Parliament, and the benefits of this approach are clear to see. Speaking for the Administration, I know that the committee's report has helped to focus minds, and we now have a comprehensive and ambitious action plan in place. Rather than list the huge number of initiatives in the action plan, many of which have been mentioned by noble Lords, I will summarise some of the latest and most interesting developments. One of the most effective ways of connecting people and Parliament is to encourage direct communication between Peers and the public. One of the most successful initiatives is the Lord Speaker's Peers in Schools programme, which goes from strength to strength. This has attracted universal praise from every speaker in the debate. The number of schools visited by noble Lords has risen from 96 in the last financial year to 125 this year. Letters have recently gone out to all schools about next year's programme, and already we have received a large number of expressions of interest. I congratulate all noble Lords who take part, and urge others to get involved in the programme and in our other outreach activities. The Information Office will shortly produce a leaflet outlining the activities and explaining how noble Lords can take part. Another valuable channel of communication has been the Lords of the Blog site. Not only is it a good way for noble Lords to keep readers abreast of developments and issues in your Lordships' House, it also allows members of the public to feed back their views. I was particularly interested in the intensive exchange of views after the noble Lord, Lord Norton, who is a prolific blogger, asked for readers' opinions on a controversial part of what is now the Policing and Crime Act 2009. More recently, the noble Baroness, Lady Deech, and the noble Lord, Lord Soley, blogged about home education in advance of the Second Reading of the Children, Schools and Families Bill, and sparked a staggering number of comments from the public. I was very interested to hear the speeches of both the noble Baroness and the noble Lord on this subject. I appreciate that not all the comments were entirely complimentary: however, this kind of consultation and engagement may be a harbinger of things to come. I understand that research is under way to evaluate Lords of the Blog, and to identify potential new audiences and how best to reach them. In the mean time, I urge noble Lords to become bloggers on this site. It is also important that members of the public who actually visit the House of Lords should receive a high-quality visitor experience. With this in mind, I am pleased to report that the Administration and Works Committee, which I chair, agreed yesterday to improve Black Rod’s entrance to make it a more efficient and welcoming facility. There will be an extra search lane and camera, as well as vastly improved waiting room facilities. In the long run, we also hope to build a canopy outside the entrance to keep waiting visitors dry. The first stages of this work will take place over the Summer Recess, which I am sure noble Lords will welcome. We need support from English Heritage for the canopy. Two initiatives will make it easier for people to follow proceedings in your Lordships’ House. Various noble Lords, including the noble Lord, Lord Soley, referred to this in particular. First, the Information Office and Hansard are developing a web-based update on the House’s business, which would provide a brief summary of proceedings in the Chamber, enriched incrementally by a variety of hypertext links to proceedings and to contextual information, including the online glossary. This should make your Lordships’ proceedings far more accessible. The second innovation is the presentation of Hansard text and audio-visual proceedings of both Houses side by side on a web page, a project which I understand is on track for June this year. I hope that this will prove a popular and useful tool for the public and, indeed, for Members. The Information Committee also made a number of recommendations on filming in the Palace. In particular, it wanted, ""a presumption in favour of factual filming throughout the House of Lords, except in specific areas"," and a revised leaflet that sets out the filming regulations. I am therefore very pleased to inform your Lordships that the Administration and Works Committee agreed yesterday to much shorter and simpler regulations, which state that, ""the presumption is that appropriate requests for filming will be granted"." We have had to retain a number of important caveats, but I think the Information Committee will agree, once the new regulations have been published, that they are much crisper and more positive than the existing ones, which are positively Byzantine. The new regulations are now in force and will be included in the next edition of the filming leaflet. The Information Committee also asked for a more appropriate room near the Chamber in which noble Lords could be interviewed. As your Lordships know, accommodation is currently in very short supply, and there are already three convenient places for interviews: the Peers’ Lobby, the Television Interview Room and the Media Room. I take on board the point which the noble Lord, Lord Puttnam, made about the furnishings in the interview room, and I will see whether anything can be done about them. At this stage, we have not been able to provide an additional room, but I am glad to report that the Administration and Works Committee has agreed that interviews with noble Lords may take place in the Moses Room when it is not in use for other things. This location has the same geographical convenience as the Peers’ Lobby, but without the background noise. Finally, I draw noble Lords’ attention to "People and Parliament: Connecting with Communities", the major outreach project that is being led by the Parliamentary Archives. The aim is to raise awareness of the holdings of the archives and the history and work of Parliament by working outside the confines of Westminster. Partnerships have been formed with five regional archive services; and through exhibitions, regional events and web content, the project uses material held by these archive services and the Parliamentary Archives to explore the impact that Parliament has had on communities and the ways in which local people have influenced Parliament. The first regional events have been held with the project’s first partner, the Norfolk Record Office, and feedback has been very positive indeed. I look forward to the ongoing expansion of this very worthwhile project. Before turning to questions that have been raised by noble Lords, I should mention the committee’s annual report for 2008-09. The report provides a very useful summary of the wide range of issues which the committee keeps under review, and reprints, as an appendix, the Government’s response to Are the Lords Listening? I am sure noble Lords will agree that the annual report amply demonstrates the ongoing value of the committee’s work, and I look forward to seeing the committee continue to thrive in the new Parliament. I shall now address various points made by noble Lords in the debate. The noble Lord, Lord Renton, gave us a useful overview of the activities taking place in response to his committee’s report. I echo his warm words about the excellent work being carried out by PICT and the Education Service, and I agree that it is crucial for Members to get involved with outreach activities. On his suggestions about the composition of the Information Committee, which was also taken up by the noble Lord, Lord Tyler, there are some complex procedural issues to consider, but I am sure that the Clerk of the Parliaments will pay close attention to what he has said. The noble Lord, Lord Puttnam, spoke about the need for electronic alerts. I am pleased to say that people can now sign up for email alerts on the Parliament website, enabling them to follow Bills in which they are interested. Parliamentary language was also mentioned by the noble Lord and by many other speakers. I understand the points that have been made and encourage noble Lords to put specific proposals for change directly to the Procedure Committee, which I chair, for consideration. I have taken on board the comments of the noble Lord, Lord Puttnam, about having to withdraw Motions for Papers—indeed I heard his speech in the debate instituted by the noble Lord, Lord Norton of Louth, the other day. I will put the issue to the committee, but I would mention that if possible we want to avoid divisible Motions on general debating days. That would not be what we want. However, I also note that the noble Lord, Lord Renton, has tabled a Motion for a specific debate on this subject. The noble Lord, Lord Selsdon, made a thought-provoking speech about how Members of this House can seek contacts with public representatives outside Parliament. I have no particular suggestions to make on that front, but I am sure that noble Lords will take his views into account. The noble Lord, Lord Haskel, made the interesting point that a comprehensive web presence is not enough in itself. We need Members to act as ambassadors for the House. I quite agree, and that is exactly why the outreach strategy is so important. He mentioned the Hansard Society’s Audit of Political Engagement, which interestingly concluded that the more the public know about Parliament, the more they value it, thus surely demonstrating the importance of demystifying what we do here. I was also interested in his suggestion of self-appraisal by Members, which I am sure that the noble Lord, Lord Renton, will have taken on board. The noble Baroness, Lady Gibson, highlighted the valuable visits paid by noble Lords to women’s institutes, as indeed did the noble Lord, Lord Tyler. I agree that we should target a variety of groups across society and not just schools, although that effort is extremely important. The noble Baroness, Lady Coussins, spoke about the desirability of the public approaching Members on the basis of their areas of interest, and I think other noble Lords mentioned this. More information on areas of interest will be made available as part of the work to improve information about Members, which is already well under way on the website. The noble Baroness, Lady Deech, made a number of interesting practical suggestions about making our proceedings more comprehensible. I fear that the idea of putting the text of amendments on the Annunciators may be difficult, merely because of the size of the Annunciator screens. This afternoon, for example, they are displaying the proceedings of both the Chamber and the Moses Room at the same time. But the suggestion that noble Lords should read out the text of their oral Questions when asking them is worth pursuing. On the issue of promoting the work of our committees, I point to the great improvements in recent years and the valuable work of our Press Office. I was interested to note the emphasis placed by the noble Lord, Lord Soley, on the importance of providing website links on blogs to the relevant passages of Hansard and other supporting documentation. The brief summaries of proceedings that I mentioned earlier will start to do this and will become an accessible and valuable resource as they develop over time. The noble Lord, Lord Parekh, spoke about the importance of engaging young people in the proceedings of Parliament and in the skills of debate. The debating events for young people which have taken place in the Chamber of the House have been very welcome in this regard, and I am sure that there will be more of those in the future. They are just one of the ways of looking at this subject. The noble Earl, Lord Erroll, made a number of interesting points about the importance of some of our apparently arcane terminology and ceremonies, and I agree that we must not throw out the baby with the bathwater. I enjoyed the contribution by the noble Lord, Lord Tyler. On what happens next, I have already mentioned the comprehensive action plan which the Administration has put together, and I am sure the Librarian will be happy to provide him and any other noble Lords with a copy. The Information Committee reviews the plan regularly. The noble Lord also mentioned pre-legislative scrutiny. This is an important tool, and I am sure we will all keep a close eye on how the Government’s new procedures develop. I welcome the supportive remarks made by the noble Lord, Lord Bates, on the content and layout of the action plan, and his positive view of the goody bags which the Information Office hands out to visiting school children and students. Beyond that, it would not be appropriate for me to comment on the merits of Conservative Party policy at this stage. I know that I have not covered all the points that noble Lords have made, but I hope that I have covered the major ones. If any noble Lord would like me to look into anything further, please let me know. I apologise if I have missed any queries. In conclusion, I thank the Information Committee once again for its two reports. It is clear that the Administration takes very seriously the need to enhance connections between people and Parliament, as shown by the comprehensive action plan that has been put in place. None the less, I encourage the committee to keep pressing for the implementation of its recommendations, and I look forward to seeing an ongoing programme of change over the coming months and years.