House of Lords (Members’ Taxation Status) Bill [HL]

My Lords, the basic principle is one with which many noble Lords will agree. I say to the noble Lord, Lord Oakeshott, that there are respectable arguments in the other direction. I shall not attempt to deploy them because I am not sure that I have them at my fingertips and I am more concerned with a range of difficulties which emerge from the Bill. But they are for consideration at the Committee stage, not today, and I will resist the temptation to recite some of the difficulties which occurred to me the last time the noble Lord introduced this Bill. I may well wish to return to them again in Committee if the Bill receives a Second Reading. The other principle that has been deployed is that we are reflecting as a Parliament and as a nation upon the future composition and role of this House. As has been mentioned, a White Paper was issued by the Government some months ago anticipating that we should move forward in an agreed manner on the question of House of Lords reform when that agreement can be reached. I fear that it has not yet been reached and certainly the Government are not intending to make further legislative proposals on this matter within this Parliament. If a different Government are in office in the next Parliament, I dare say this issue will not be top of their agenda, so we are not facing an early prospect of Lords reform. The Bill suffers from the same defect as similar Bills in the past and, for that matter, the Bill that went through Parliament in 1999. They were a piecemeal attempt at reform of your Lordships’ House, and incomprehensive reform at that, that included some of the provisions in this Bill. It is therefore inappropriate for the Bill to be considered at this moment. It did not find favour when the noble Lord introduced this Bill in the previous Session, and it is now only a few months on from that consideration. I hope that he will not press his Bill through this House if he gets a Second Reading today. If the Bill goes to Committee, I, and, I dare say, others, will want to table amendments to it. I shall certainly do so, as I think will my noble friend Lord Selsdon and other noble Lords—even the noble Lord, Lord Goodhart, who has already identified some of the shortcomings of the Bill, speaking, as he does, with some expertise in these matters and from the Liberal Democrat Benches. I promise the noble Lord, Lord Oakeshott, that the Committee stage will not be quick. We will need to consider the Bill very carefully. In the mean time, I look forward to seeing what happens to it at Second Reading.