Fixed-term Parliaments Bill

My Lords, I support the principle of fixed-term Parliaments and, since the start of scrutiny of the Bill, I have supported terms of five years, not because five-year terms or fixed-term Parliaments themselves offer some kind of trendy radical change but because it offers the electorate certainty. Right now, people elect a Government for up to five years, but a Prime Minister gets to decide that the Government will serve for fewer if it means that his party has a better chance of serving for more. If this Bill passes, people will elect a Government in exactly the same way as before and they will know two things for sure: that the Government and their opponents will have to face the electorate on a predetermined date, whatever the political conditions at that time, and that it will happen once every five years. Let me expand further on why I support five-year terms. In my Civil Service career, I spent five years in 10 Downing Street. I was very lucky that my time in No. 10 coincided with the tenure of the noble Lord, Lord Butler of Brockwell, as Cabinet Secretary, and I am pleased to see that he is in his place. I was never as distinguished as the noble Lord, but like him and the noble Lord, Lord Armstrong of Ilminster, I have served at the heart of government in periods immediately before elections—in my case, before two general elections—and I know how Ministers and the machinery of government become distracted by them. The noble Lords, Lord Armstrong and Lord Butler, do not support the principle of fixed terms; indeed they are supporting the sunset clause, which we will debate later. However, at previous stages in the passage of the Bill they voiced their view that, if we are to have fixed terms, they should be for five years in order that the country receives effective government for more than four of those five years. As a former civil servant, I wholeheartedly share that view. My support for five-year terms goes beyond that. I listened carefully to the arguments for four years put forward by the noble and learned Lord, Lord Lloyd of Berwick, on the second day in Committee. I agree absolutely with the point he made at the time about how we should determine the length of a fixed term. He said: "““The objective should be … to make the Government and, indeed, Parliament itself more accountable to the public””.—[Official Report, 21/3/11; col. 481.]" He was concerned that five-year terms would reduce the frequency of elections. I take a different view. To achieve the objective outlined by the noble and learned Lord, Lord Lloyd, we need terms that allow each Government to create new and additional opportunities to give the public a greater say in the decisions that affect them. The noble and learned Lord rejected the view of the noble Lord, Lord Butler, that the British public did not want more general elections, and referred him to the Power commission as evidence to the contrary. I took it upon myself to read the Power report, which was published in 2006 following an extensive study into declining participation and disillusion in the political system. It was chaired by the noble Baroness, Lady Kennedy of The Shaws. I do not agree with all the recommendations, but the analysis of why people feel disengaged is very interesting. The central point of the report is that what underlines a wide range of frustrations among the electorate is this: people feel that they do not have enough influence over the decisions that affect them. As the noble Baroness, Lady Kennedy, summarised in her introduction to the report: "““The disquiet is really about having no say. It is about feeling disconnected because voting once every four or five years does not feel like real engagement””." The report does not say that people want more general elections, but that they want more influence. The problem identified by the Power commission will not be addressed by an election every four or five years. It will be addressed by Governments introducing change like that which we are scrutinising in the House at the moment. I refer to issues such as elected police and crime commissioners, local referenda, referenda on European matters and so forth. In fact, the Power commission’s analysis of the public is similar to the evidence I referred to at Second Reading, that of the Populus poll commissioned by the Times in 2009 at the height of the expenses scandal. It showed that 74 per cent of the public supported fixed-term Parliaments as a change to improve the political system. The only measures ranking higher among a list of 13 possible reforms were a recall of MPs found to have broken parliamentary rules, national referendums on major constitutional issues, and local referendums on local issues where interest warranted them. In my view, the answer to the noble and learned Lord’s objective is fixed terms which allow time for people to have influence over the decisions that affect them. Five-year fixed-term Parliaments are not a radical change to our constitution. To me, they are a concession made by politicians. If we make it, it will show some real respect for the electorate. If all Governments now and in the future use fixed five-year terms to give the British people a greater say in the decisions that affect them, this small concession might start to feel like something meaningful to the electorate. I support five-year, fixed-term Parliaments and I do not support the amendment tabled by the noble and learned Lord.