Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Bill

Yes, we will have PPS squared. On a more serious point, in one of the replies to an earlier debate, it was said that in future Ministers might come not just from the House of Commons, but more might come from the House of Lords, or elsewhere. The implication was that there could be Ministers who were in neither House of Parliament. Will the Minister clarify whether that is the Government’s policy? That would mean the start of a move towards the separation of powers and the movement of the Executive away from the legislature. That would be a very retrograde step, but it may be something that the Government are considering. The Conservatives or, even more keenly, the Liberal Democrats may have that in mind. That separation of powers also raises a question. A number of Members have raised the question of the comparison of the number of elected Members in Britain with the USA or France. We have dealt with the federal aspect of how in the United States of America, every state has its own Senate, members of the House of Representatives, Governor and so on. My noble friend Lord Rooker gave us the exact figure for the number of elected representatives per head in the United States compared with the United Kingdom. However, the separation of powers is also important. In the United Kingdom, Ministers have to be MPs as well and they have the workload of Members of Parliament.