Lords Refo...er...Amendments
Due to scheduling madness, this post only covers up to the report stage. The 3rd (and final) reading is...was...to be on March 1st.
The first lot of House of Lords reforms are currently working their way through the Lords. This started off as pretty much the same bill that is brought in in every parliamentary session1 but is different in the fact that it might actually go through - presumably because of a much larger Commons Government backed bill that is due to come around at some point. That's not to say that there have been a couple of interesting moments, such as Conservative peers David Trefgarne, 2nd Baron Trefgarne and Malcolm Ian Sinclair, 20th Earl of Caithness tabling of over 300 amendments for, as a reaction to clauses relating to the removal of by-elections of hereditary peers (previously Clause 10).
This tactic, similar that to 'talking out' a bill, is based on the principle that there is a limited amount of time available to discuss legislation in each parliamentary session - the current session is going into recess on the 27th March 2012, and other major pieces of legislation that are vying for time - such as the Welfare Reforms and the Health bills. These kind of tactics may seem dirty, or even stupid, but this is a bureaucracy: moving slowly is sometimes better for it2
These amendment were all dropped, however, due to compromise. Compromise is, of course, the purpose of having an opposition in Government3 4.
As a result, there is very little actually left in the bill. Even the name has been watered down from 'Reform' to 'Amendment'; hopefully, Nick Clegg's attempt will be more successful.
What has stayed in the bill is the ability for Lords to retire. For the next session (as things currently stand) over 800 lords will be receiving a writ of summons - many of whom will not sit for various reasons. The provision essentially allows for Lords to be get out of being expected to sit. It also withdraws membership of the House to those who do not sit - currently after six months of non-attendance (except those serving in the armed forces).
There was discussion in the debates about redundancy pay5, but this is not included in the bill. It is possible that this will be included in a statutory implement at a later date.
The other half of the bill relates to the removal of peers who have been
Been found guilty of one or more offences [...] and sentence [...] for more than one year, shall cease to be a member of the House of Lords.
The report stage is on the 1st of March, and Lord Steel is hoping to have it introduced to the House of Commons in time for passage before the end of the session.
- 1 ↑ http://services.parliament.uk/bills/2010-12/houseoflordsreformhl.html,
- 2 ↑ See "State of the Bureaucracy"
- 3 ↑ There have been examples of British Parliaments which technically didn't have an opposition, such as the all-party coalition under Winston Churchill 1940-1944
- 4 ↑ Admittedly, the Baron Trefgarne sits on the government benched.
- 5 ↑ http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld201212/ldhansrd/text/120210-0001.htm#120210-0001.htm_para112