House of Lords Reform

The Government White Paper on House of Lords reform - Completing the Reform
Cmnd.5291 (The Stationery Office, November 2001)

Urgent Action Required

Background:

The Royal Commission on Reform of the House of Lords, chaired by Lord Wakeham, reported in January 2000. It recommended a house with broadly similar powers as at present, composed largely of appointed members. It proposed a statutory Appointments Commission to appoint nominees to the House, with between 12% and 35% elected members.

Charter88 has always supported a 100% directly elected second chamber. Our submission to the Wakeham Commission can be viewed here.

The full text of the Government's new White Paper, and the statements made by Lord Williams and Robin Cook in Parliament on 7 November are available at: http://www.lcd.gov.uk/constitution/holref/index.htm

The Government's White Paper, Completing the Reform, accepts most of the recommendations of the Wakeham Commission for the House of Lords, whilst disagreeing with some of the detailed proposals put by the Commission for composition and powers of the second chamber.

Key differences between White Paper and Royal Commission Report:

Royal Commission: 550 strong chamber

White Paper: 600 strong chamber

Royal Commission: Directly elected minority of 12-35%

White Paper: Directly elected minority of 20%

Royal Commission: All party nominees to be appointed by Independent Appointments Commission

White Paper: Appointments Commission responsible only for propriety checks on political nominees. Prime Minister retains power to appoint up to 5 ministers directly to House of Lords as ministers.

Royal Commission: Anglican representation reduced to 16. 5 non-Anglican Christian members and 5 from other faith communities.

White Paper: Anglican representation reduced to 16. Appointments Commission charged with increasing representation of other faith communities.

Royal Commission: Fifteen year terms for all members

White Paper: Shorter terms of 5, 10 or 15 years

The main Government proposals are [para. 11-12]:

The Government accepts the Royal Commission's recommendations for the role of the second chamber. It also endorses many of the Commission's recommendations on membership. Where the Commission sets out options, it has generally based its proposals within the parameters of those options. Its key proposals are as follows:

• The House of Lords should remain subject to the pre-eminence of the House of Commons in discharging its functions;
• No group in society should in future have privileged hereditary access to the House;
• Its principal function should continue to be to consider and revise legislation; to scrutinise the executive; and to debate and report on public issues;
• Membership should be separated from the peerage which would continue as a honour;
• Its political membership should be broadly representative of the main parties' support in the country as reflected in the previous General Election;
• It should be largely nominated including a significant minority of independent members as well as members elected to represent the nations and regions within the UK;
• There should be increased representation of women and those from ethnic minority backgrounds;
• There should be a statutory Appointments Commission to manage the balance and size of the House, to appoint the independent members, and to assure the integrity of those nominated by political parties.

All these elements are consistent with the Government's electoral mandate. They are based closely on the principles and recommendations set out by the Royal Commission. There are however a number of areas where further consideration of the practical effects of certain recommendations has led the Government to consider some modification of the precise recommendations so as to ensure implementation of the Commission's principles in the most effective way possible, as the Manifesto says. Areas where the Government would welcome views are:

The overall balance between, elected, nominated and ex officio members, and the balance between political and independent members;

• Whether elections to the Lords should be linked to General Elections, those for the European Parliament, or over time linked to those from devolved and regional bodies within the UK;
• The length of term for elected members;
• The term of appointment;
• What grounds should lead to statutory expulsion from the House;
• Should there be a change from an expenses-based system of remuneration.
• The Role of the House of Lords.

Functions

The White Paper agrees with the Royal Commission that the main functions of the House of Lords, in complementing the House of Commons were [para.19-24]:

• as a revising chamber to provide further scrutiny of legislation, obliging Government to justify further its legislative proposals.
• as a scrutiny and deliberative chamber, particularly in respect of delegated powers, regulatory reform and the European Union. The White Paper said this capacity should be strengthened.
• The House of Lords holds Government ministers to account. Ministers should continue to be appointed from the House of Lords in numbers similar to that which obtains at present.
• Its role in examining the impact of constitutional reform should be developed within the existing framework.

The Powers of the House of Lords

The White Paper supports, beyond the statutory provisions of the Parliament Acts of 1911 and 1949 which restrict the House of Lords' veto over legislation, the continuance of the Salisbury Convention as the broad structure for defining the relationship in authority between the two chambers [para.25-30]. This Convention states that the Lords will not block legislation contained in a governing party's general election manifesto.

In accordance with the recommendations of the Royal Commission, the White Paper proposes that the House of Lords' power of veto over secondary legislation be replaced by a power of amendment similar to its power over primary legislation [para.31].

The Leader of the House of Lords has established a working group to examine the working practices of the House of Lords. This has been asked to report by the end of 2001 [para.34].

Composition

The effect of the White Paper's proposals would be, in a House of 600 and with a directly elected component in line with the Government's proposals [para.64]:-

120 non-party political members appointed by the Appointments Commission;

120 directly elected members;

16 Bishops;

at least 12 Law Lords, and, very probably, some other Law Lords between the ages of 70 and 75;

a balance of not more than 332 members nominated by political parties, where the number available to each political party is determined by the Appointments Commission.

The White Paper outlined a set of principles underpinning its recommendations on composition. These are [para.35]:

• The House should complement the work of the Commons. It should provide additional checks and balances, but it should not seek to usurp the pre-eminent authority of the House of Commons;

• The House's membership should be distinctive from that of the Commons. It should be attractive to those who are not full time career politicians, but who have experience and expertise to contribute to the work of Parliament;

• There should be an independent element, selected without any commitment to support any particular political affiliation;

• The majority of members should continue to represent the political parties. As a chamber of Parliament, it would be unrealistic to try to keep party politics out of the second chamber;

• The House should not be dominated by the Government of the day or by any other political party. Its party membership should aim to reflect strengths in the country, as expressed in terms of share of votes at the previous General Election;

• The House should be more representative than the current chamber of the nation as a whole, but not duplicate the representational role of the individual MP nor of the House of Commons as a whole. This representativeness should go beyond political affiliation to embrace faith, gender and ethnicity;

• The House should include expertise and experience to add a distinctive approach to its consideration of legislation, and to help it fulfil its more general scrutiny functions;

• The House should be sufficiently authoritative and confident to fulfil its constitutional role.

The White Paper supports the Royal Commission's recommendation for a majority-appointed second chamber [para.36-41]. It concedes that direct election has a role to play, but says that it is neither a necessary nor a sufficient basis for its membership. It agrees with the Commission that direct election would not produce the range of members or the level of representativeness required.

It says in addition that direct election would almost eliminate the independent members in the chamber. It argues that elected membership would increase the full-time professionalisation of the House. A larger electoral component would lead to competition in the representational role with MPs.

The White Paper agreed with the Commission that indirect election would not be a suitable system of election. Firstly because of the lack of elected regional government in England, and secondly because the Commission found no great desire for dual mandates in the new devolved bodies.

The White paper proposes a number of safeguards in common with the Commission to prevent manipulation of nominations to the second chamber [para.42]:

• A statutory Appointments Commission. As well as selecting independent members of the House, it would determine the numbers for the political parties and vet their choices for propriety;
• A requirement that the representation of the political parties should reflect the votes cast in the preceding General Election so far as possible within the constraints of overall size and length of term;
• A cap on the overall size of the House of 600;
• Guaranteed numbers or proportions for the non-political membership;
• An elected element, specifically to ensure that there is adequate regional representation;

The Government broadly supported Option B from the Royal Commission's Report on electing regional representatives [para.43-47]. However, because the White Paper proposes a larger chamber, 600 rather than 550, than the Commission it recommends a figure of 120 elected members. This would match the 120 independent members.

The Government disagrees with the Commission's recommendation that elections be staged over three electoral cycles.

The White Paper proposes that constituencies should be based on those for the European Parliament elections, using a proportional system of regional lists [para.48]. This would means closed-lists by which electors can vote only for a party which ranks candidates on its slate, rather than for preferred individual candidates on different lists.

The Government is inclined to support holding elections on the same day as general elections. However, it invites comments on the question of timing. Similarly, whilst it feels that the Commission's proposal for 15 year terms is very long, it asks for comments on whether the length of tenure should be 5, 10 or 15 years [para.49-57].

The Government does not propose to bar people from re-election, as suggested by the Commission [para.58].

The White Paper proposes to extend the franchise to members of the House of Lords [para.60].

Independent members

The Government accepts the recommendation of the Royal Commission for 20% of members to be independent [para.62-63].

The Government proposes to establish a statutory Appointments Commission, in line with the Royal Commission's Report. It will have three main functions [para.65-68]:

• To determine the overall size and political balance of the House within the parameters set down, including an eventual maximum size of 600. Political balance should reflect the share of votes at the previous general election. The White Paper suggests a threshold of 5% to qualify for an appointed seat.
• Maintain the independent portion of members at around 20%. The Commission will decide how many nominations will come from each party. The Prime Minister will retain the right to appoint 4 or 5 ministers directly to the House of Lords each Parliament.
• The Commission will be charged with ensuring that appointed members are broadly representative of British society. As recommended by the Royal Commission, 30% of members should be women and 30% should be men. The Commission will also have regard to regional, national and minority ethnic representation.
• The Appointments Commission will select only the independent members in line with the structure operated by the current Appointments Commission. It will only have a role in carrying out propriety checks on political nominations. The Government does not accept the Royal Commission's recommendation that it should have control of the identity of party nominations.

The White Paper proposes only minor changes in the conditions for membership governing bankrupts, but gives provision for expelling members by the House [para.69-77].

The White Paper concurs with the Royal Commission's recommendation to separate membership of the House of Lords with the peerage, which will continue to exist within the honours system. Members of the House of Lords will be designated as "Member of the Lords" (ML) [para.78-80].

Law Lords

The Government is committed to maintaining judicial membership within the Lords at its current level [para.81].

Religious representation

Whilst agreeing with the Commission that it is desirable to maintain and widen religious representation within the House of Lords, it does not see as practicable its proposal to give statutory places to representatives of non-Anglican Christian denominations or to those of other faiths [para.83-84].

It charges the Appointments Commission with giving proper recognition of these faith communities [para.85].

Payment

The White Paper proposes retaining the current expenses-based system of payment for the House of Lords. However, it recognises that this may deter those on lower incomes and those who live outside London, and consequently invites comments on payment [para.86-87].

Transition

The Government proposes a ten year transition period, shorter than that envisaged by the Royal Commission, to a house limited to 600 members, with a maximum transitional figure of 750 [para.91].

To prevent inflation of numbers by the Appointments Commission when seeking to maintain political balance after a general election, the White Paper suggests that the Commission's first duty be to ensure a lead for the Governing party over its main opposition [para.92-93].

In order to facilitate the reduction in numbers to this level, the Government agrees with the Royal Commission that life peers, as well as new elected and nominated members, should be able to retire. The White Paper welcomes views on the possibility of a system of benefits for retiring members [para.95].

How to Respond

Send your response to the White Paper by 31 January 2002 to:

Laura Beaumont
Lord Chancellor's Department
House of Lords Reform Team
Room 815-816
Millbank Tower
21-24 Millbank
London SW1P 4QP

Telephone: 020-7217 4340
Email: laura.beaumont@lcdhq.gsi.gov.uk

Policy: 020 8880 6088 policy@charter88.org.uk