Constitutional Reform and Governance Bill

My Lords, there are many aspects of the Bill on which I am tempted to comment but, like the noble Lord, Lord Steel, I shall confine my comments to the provisions relating to the future of your Lordships’ House. In that context, I declare an interest as chairman of the House of Lords Appointments Commission. To start with, I very much recognise the force of the arguments expressed by the Constitution Committee about the lack of full discussion of issues of constitutional significance. I merely note that there are, in the Bill, some genuinely important principles and if we were to lose them it would be a great mistake. I therefore wish the wash-up well. I shall comment on two aspects which are within the Bill and one which is not, but which is in the amendment being proposed by the noble Lord, Lord Steel. My first comment on what is in the Bill relates to the provision for a Peer, whether life or hereditary, to resign from the House. I support that provision. Why? There are at present, as noble Lords have already said, some 700 Peers eligible to sit in your Lordships’ House and, often, 400 or more are present. Those figures may of course increase after the election; indeed, I suspect the question is not whether they will increase but by how much. It seems to me that the ability to resign from this House would allow Ministers to leave it once they have fulfilled their ministerial duties and want to take up careers elsewhere. It would allow Members of this House, even if not Ministers, to resign to pursue interests which they judge would not leave them time to play an active role in the House, and allow those who have played an active and highly effective role in this House but who are, for whatever reason, now unable to do so to hand over to others. I recognise that we do not know the exact impact of any such measure, and that there are other means of reducing the numbers of this House, but I believe that the measure before us would reduce the total number of Members of your Lordships’ House and allow some greater room for the appointment of others, whether through the political process or through the Appointments Commission to the Cross Benches. That could in turn broaden the experience and expertise of the House and ensure that it better reflects the diversity of this country. Secondly, I support the tax provisions in the Bill in so far as they relate to the House of Lords. The two principles which seem to me important are that a Member of Parliament—in whatever House—should pay taxes in the country that he or she is representing, and that the position of each Member of the House should be clear on that. I believe that the provisions in the Bill meet those points. Finally, I shall comment briefly on a point that is, I regret, not in the Bill but which is the subject of the amendment put forward by the noble Lord, Lord Steel. It is the view of the Appointments Commission that its job in recommending appointments to the Cross Benches and in vetting recommendations by the political parties is of sufficient importance for us as a commission to be accountable to the House itself, and not to the Prime Minister. I was unaware of the nine specific references in the past which the noble Lord, Lord Steel, has given us today, and for which I am extremely grateful. I have made this point on the Floor of the House, to the Public Administration Select Committee in the other place and, most recently, to the Constitution Committee in your Lordships’ House. I have long believed it important that, as chairman of the House of Lords Appointments Commission, I should be accountable to a committee of this House as well as to a committee of the other House, and I am grateful to have been given the opportunity to give evidence the other day to the Constitution Committee. I support the amendment proposed by the noble Lord, Lord Steel.