House of Lords Bill [HL]

My Lords, I wholly endorse the Bill. It represents an excellent opportunity to make progress and I wish to make only two points. The first is that the Bill has clear cross-party support among Back-Benchers. That is obvious. The need to move ahead on the basis of consensus between the Houses and between the parties has been emphasised. I just hope that we shall also achieve consensus between the Front and Back Benches of all parties and none—echoing the points made by the noble Lord, Lord Tomlinson, and my noble friend Lord Elton. I also hope—perhaps in vain—that representatives of the Lords spiritual will take part in the discussions. I am very sorry that we have no contribution from them today. My second point relates to Part 1 of the Bill. A statutory appointments commission is essential. The present arrangements may have worked well, or tolerably well, but there has been continuing uncertainty about the appointments commission. Even the chairman of the commission was initially uncertain about whether it would have responsibility for vetting any nominations made in the Prime Minister’s resignation honours list. The system is not well understood—there is much confusion—and, as I have said in this Chamber on many occasions in the past, perception is all. The commission is independent, yet appointed by the Prime Minister. During a debate in the other place earlier this year, Bill Cash declared: "““Unfortunately, the appointments system does not stand scrutiny. It is based on patronage and, at its worst, is corrupted by the whiff of scandal””.—[Official Report, Commons, 7/3/07; col. 1578.]" A statutory, independent commission is clearly the answer and is widely recognised as such. It will be seen to be detached and as an independent body operating with statutory protection according to published criteria. The provisions of the Bill will force the parties to appoint people of conspicuous merit and to be open about their procedures. The provisions are also timely in that they are consistent with the Prime Minister’s recent Statement on constitutional change. They would ensure that peerages were no longer seen as the product principally of prime ministerial patronage. They would put the process on a clear, consistent and independent basis, which is both desirable and necessary. The Bill makes provision for the appointments commission in some detail. I know that some may want to question the method by which the commission is appointed or the criteria to be applied. Some may want to ensure that one or more Peers serve on the commission. However, as my noble friend Lord Norton has stressed many times, these are questions about means and not about ends. In any event, I do not believe that we should be convinced that we have an exclusive perspective on what makes a good candidate for membership of this House. Those are matters for other stages of the Bill. Suffice it to say now that the ends embodied in the Bill are wholly admirable, and we have to thank the noble Lord, Lord Steel, for presenting it in such a wonderful manner. I am firmly of the view that we should grasp this opportunity and support it.