House of Lords Bill [HL]

My Lords, I thank the noble Lord, Lord Steel, for introducing the Bill. I offer my support to it. And I pay great tribute to my noble friend Lord Norton of Louth for all the hard work that he has done to make all this possible—drafting the Bill and so on. I would like to pick up on some remarks made by my noble friend Lord Onslow. I have two points to make on what he said. First, it would have been better if he had managed to address the Bill and not talk about other things regarding the composition of your Lordships’ House. Secondly, while he is telling us of the charms of an elected Chamber, it might have been better if he had actually served in one. He might have spoken with rather more authority. On the Appointments Commission, the Bill makes it clear that the number of Cross-Bench Peers we should have in your Lordships’ House should be not less than 20 per cent. It is worth pointing out that the Cross-Benchers now number over 200 and are in excess of 25 per cent. I gather that that is because the Appointments Commission has been continuing, on the advice of Downing Street, to turn out more Cross-Bench Peers, while at the same time indicating that its view is that the House should be composed 80:20, where 20 per cent would be Cross-Benchers. It seems rather odd to be pushing up the percentage of Cross-Benchers the whole time when the Government’s long-term plan for the Cross-Benchers in this House—there is still a long way to go—is for them to be 20 per cent. Furthermore, there are now so many Cross-Benchers that there is not enough space for them to sit at Question Time. There seems to be a conflict here with what the commission is doing. It is very welcome to have a new one. I am rather sad that the noble Lord, Lord Foulkes, is not in his place. He made the point that the noble Lord, Lord Stevenson of Coddenham, never turns up. That is not precisely true. Between May 2005 and November 2006 there were 206 sitting days. He came here once. When interviewing potential Cross-Bench Peers, presumably he emphasises to them how very important it is that they attend the House regularly. Does he then cross his fingers under the table and say, ““I hope to God they don’t ask me how often I come here””, because he would have a little difficulty explaining what he did? On the question of who should be the chairman, I share many of noble Lords’ reservations—we are not sure that we should leave it all to the Speaker of the House of Commons. I think that the chairman of the commission should be a Cross-Bench Peer, preferably someone with legal experience and law behind him. I think that it is very important that your Lordships’ House is well represented on that committee. The noble Viscount, Lord Bledisloe, made the point that we should not merely be talking about leave of absence, but should say to people who have not been here that maybe they should not come here any more. During the period May 2005 to November 2006, 52 Peers did not attend at all. There are certainly a number of people who could be asked not to come here anymore if they have not been here anyway. I do not think that it does the image of this House any good at all if some of its Members do not bother to come. This legislation is urgently required and I agree with the noble Baroness, Lady Hollis, that gradualism is essential in constitutional reform.