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Constitutional Reform and Governance Bill

The noble Earl makes his point, which has perhaps been made ad nauseam today. It is a good point, which I shall deal with in my own time at the end of my remarks. I want to deal with the amendment of the noble Lord, Lord Steel, and I genuinely praise him. He has had to put up with a great deal of frustration, I suspect, over the past two years as a consequence of reactions to his proposals, not just from the Government but from other parts of the House as well. He has worked tirelessly to modernise the House in this respect and we pay genuine compliment to him on his work. I cannot, though, support his amendment to the Second Reading tonight. He may not be surprised to hear this. Peers will have different views on this but, rightly or wrongly, the Government are committed to creating a second Chamber with a democratic mandate—one where the House is elected. We will, as I said, shortly bring forward concrete proposals for further reform. If a reformed second Chamber were to be 100 per cent elected, an appointments commission—as I think the noble Lord, Lord Steel, said in his own speech—will obviously not be needed. However, if the House were, for example to be 80 per cent elected, any commission would need a different remit and different powers from the commission proposed by the noble Lord.