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House of Lords: Reform

On Tuesday 29 June, Lord Steel of Aikwood moved a Motion ""That this House calls on Her Majesty's Government, notwithstanding their proposals for Lords reform whose legislative timetable is unclear, to table Motions before the Summer Recess enabling the House to approve or disapprove:""(a) a scheme to enable Members of the House to retire,""(b) the abolition of by-elections for hereditary Peers,""(c) the removal of Members convicted of serious criminal offices,""(d) the creation of a statutory appointments commission"." The Motion was carried by 44 votes to 29. The Government take seriously the views of the House and have considered the next steps. The Deputy Prime Minister has already established a cross-party committee which has been charged with producing a draft Bill for a wholly or mainly elected second chamber on the basis of proportional representation. The draft Bill will then be subject to pre-legislative scrutiny. The Government hope this will be by a Joint Committee of both Houses. In addition, I have set up a Leaders’ Group chaired by Lord Hunt of Wirral to identify options for allowing Members to leave the House of Lords permanently. The cross-party committee will be considering all the issues raised in Lord Steel’s Motion and a draft Bill will be published around the end of the year. The Government therefore do not consider it appropriate to table Motions before the Summer Recess on these issues.