House of Lords Bill [HL]

This is the second amendment that we have to deal with and it goes to the heart of the role and position of the Appointments Commission. I hope that the noble Lord, Lord Steel, will not mind me discussing this, because this is one thing that he would be in favour of—a statutory Appointments Commission. I should say right at the start of this debate that anything I say about the statutory Appointments Commission is no slur on the noble Lord, Lord Jay of Ewelme, or indeed on his predecessor, the noble Lord, Lord Stevenson of Coddenham. I am a big admirer of them both. That is not the purpose of this amendment. Its purpose is to tackle the reasons why there should or should not be a statutory Appointments Commission. I have tabled this amendment to the purpose clause because I think that it is a serious omission from the central purpose of the Bill, and it would be wrong for the Bill to go any further or to be discussed in Committee without recognition of that fact. That central purpose is set out in Clause 1(2), the first operative clause, which reads: ""No recommendations for the creation of life peerages shall be made other than by the Commission"." No other mechanism for appointing anyone to this House is suggested anywhere else in the Bill. Of course, as we discussed during debate on the previous amendment, the Bill also excludes the election of hereditary Peers. The purpose of the Bill is therefore to set up a system that elbows aside the Prime Minister and puts in his place a procedure whereby an elected and unaccountable quango meeting in secret will recommend the entire membership of a House of Parliament. It is that significant.