Constitutional Reform and Governance Bill

My Lords, our debate takes place against the background of one of the most devastating reports I have read as a commentary on a piece of legislation. As the noble Lord, Lord Henley, indicated, the 11th report of this House’s Select Committee on the Constitution is the most damning indictment of the Government’s failures in relation to constitutional reform. I know that the noble Lord, Lord Bach, and other noble Lords opposite do not like to be reminded that the sure-footedness shown in the first term of this Labour Government owed much to the groundwork done pre-1997 by the joint Lib-Lab committee which drew up the blueprint for constitutional reform under the joint chairmanship of my noble friend Lord Maclennan and the late Robin Cook. However, that view is endorsed by the editorial in last week’s New Statesman, which opined that continuing Lib Dem input into the constitutional programme of institutional reform would have ensured that, ""constitutional reform would have been thoroughgoing rather than half-baked"." So it would have been. We would not have tolerated the shelving of the voting reform proposed by the Jenkins commission; we would not have bungled the attempts at English devolution; and we would not have mismanaged the changes to the responsibilities of the Lord Chancellor and the establishment of the Supreme Court. On Lords reform, we would not have tolerated a policy of going round in ever decreasing circles of consultations, inquiries, White Papers and cross-party discussions. Now, after a decade of obfuscation, dithering and delay, the Government bring forward a Bill with more deathbed conversions than the last act of "Hamlet". This brings me back to the findings of the Select Committee—findings which, in most cases, would have resulted in ministerial resignations, rather than the brass neck of trying to bring forward the Bill. Let me quote—since the noble Lord, Lord Henley, did not—one of its many critical findings. It states very bluntly that, ""the Government’s management of the Bill"," means, ""that neither House of Parliament will be able to scrutinise the Bill as thoroughly as is appropriate for measures of constitutional reform"." That leaves the House with a dilemma. Are there enough good things in the Bill which are worth saving in wash-up? If so, are the Government willing to tell us what they are? My view is that many parts of the Bill have cross-party support, and lack of detailed scrutiny should not be a deciding factor where the measures proposed have had years— sometimes decades, sometimes a century and more—of scrutiny and debate. As can be seen from the speakers list today, in spite of the Select Committee’s devastating indictment of the Government’s Bill, we intend to give the Bill as thorough an examination as possible at Second Reading. Colleagues expert in specific areas will deal with those matters in detail. I will restrict myself to observations on just three points. On reform of the Civil Service, I refer to one of my favourite quotes of the noble Lord, Lord Sheldon, who said that the two great gifts we received from the 20th century to the 21st are the BBC and our Civil Service. We on these Benches will continue to defend both. We take pride that the reforms on which the integrity and reputation of our Civil Service are based are the great Northcote-Trevelyan reforms, enacted by a Liberal Government. However, we regret that it has taken 140 years to bring forward legislation to underpin those reforms. We regret, too, that the proposals before us lack a statutory basis for the Ministerial Code and that the opportunity is not taken to strengthen the independence of the Civil Service Commission. I turn now to the matter of Lords reform. We would not be in the sorry mess we are in today regarding reform if the Government had adopted and given time and support to the Bills initiated by my noble friends Lord Steel, Lord Oakeshott and Lord Avebury. The proposals in the Bill are not a testimony to the radicalism of Mr Jack Straw, but an indictment of his dithering and delay over these past 10 years. Let me admit now that I regret that we did not grasp with both hands the findings of the Wakeham royal commission. The proposals seemed modest at the time, but if they had been adopted, I believe that they would have set in train a process which would have continued throughout the decade and beyond. As it is, we have too little, too late from Mr Straw. If this last-minute hotchpotch of a Bill is seen as a cunning plan by Mr Straw to give Labour candidates some credibility on the doorstep in terms of reform of our system of governance, he is wrong. What he has produced is a checklist of his own failures. The message from this Bill is that if you want to clean up politics—if you want changes that are thoroughgoing, rather than half-baked—vote Liberal Democrat. We, rather than those who are driven to it by expediency, believe in reform. Let me make a similar point to the Conservatives. If you think that you would be able to leave Lords reform to a Cameron third term, you are living in cloud-cuckoo-land. This House is already damaged goods. The idea that you can increase its size to more than 800, based on appointment for life by patronage and appointment, gravely underestimates public opinion on the matter. A few weeks ago, I suggested in a debate initiated by the noble Lord, Lord Willoughby de Broke, that his grandfather, the leader of the last-ditchers, quit the field on 10 August 1910 because of the imminence of the grouse season. The noble Lord kindly sent me a copy of his grandfather's memoirs, which makes it clear that the last-ditchers were defeated not because of the grouse but because the Bishops ratted on their promise of support. There is a contemporary relevance to this, because the noble Lord, Lord Willoughby de Broke, made it clear to me that his policy now is for a three-option referendum on Lords reform—the status quo, appointments or elections. So there we have it: the last-ditchers have moved further in the past 100 years than many on the Labour Back Benches. I have a final and brief word on reform of the voting system. Like the Electoral Reform Society, we would have preferred a multiple-choice option in any referendum. However, we do not want to make the same mistake that we made over Wakeham and reject the better because we cannot have the best. We will listen carefully to what all sides have to say and give particular weight to the point made by the Select Committee that, ""the consequence of the Government tabling so many late amendments to the Bill is that the parliamentary consideration ""given in both Houses to the important aspects of constitutional reform which this Bill is likely to effect has been substantially curtailed"." On the other hand, a consultative referendum early in the next Parliament would assist rather than hinder deliberations and would not fall foul of the strictures from the Select Committee that we are producing change without scrutiny. There will be those who will say that such is the parlous state of our economy that it would be frivolous to devote parliamentary time in the next Parliament to constitutional reform. Liberal Democrats take a contrary view. It is in part because of the deficiencies in our governance that we find ourselves in the state we are in. We can debate whether or not we have a broken society, but there is no doubt that we have a broken and mistrusted political system. That is why, in the coming election, we will be able to make our case for fundamental reform to receptive ears. People know that we have to change our ways. I will make a final point about timing. The idea that crises squeeze out other measures flies in the face of history. At a time of this country's greatest peril, the wartime coalition produced the Beveridge report and the Butler Education Act. Good government can deal with crisis and carry through reform. As I said in opening, my colleagues will deploy their considerable expertise on the measures and we will then take our case to the hustings. In the mean time, I leave noble Lords with the last words of the Constitution Committee: ""This is no way to undertake the task of constitutional reform"."