The Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster (Lord Hill of Oareford)
My Lords, it is a great honour to stand here as Leader of your Lordships’ House and to reflect on the previous Session and look ahead to the new one. My first few months in the job have brought home to me time and again the importance of the contribution that the House makes both to the legislative process and to our wider political debate. They have also made me realise how fortunate we all are to receive such outstanding support from those who work in the House. To that end, and on behalf of the whole House, I place on record our gratitude to Black Rod and all the staff for organising such a superb day.
Today is a great state occasion, which means one thing: briefly, I get to be nice about the Leader of the Opposition. I thank the noble Baroness, Lady Royall, for moving the Motion to adjourn. For the first two minutes of her speech, I agreed with everything she said; and while she and I do not always agree on content of what is before the House, I know that we have a shared affection for it and a shared idea of how it should work. I am grateful to her for the professionalism and courtesy that she has always shown me and the usual channels. I know how hard she works on behalf of her party and Back-Benchers and, indeed, the House as a whole, and I look forward to continuing to work closely with her in the coming Session. I also greatly appreciate the parts played in the work of this House by my noble friend the Deputy Leader of the House, and the noble Lord, Lord Laming, as Convenor of the Cross Benches. They, too, are fundamental to what this House is about.
In praising the work of the usual channels of today, I should also like to pay tribute to my predecessor, my noble friend Lord Strathclyde, who was a mainstay of the usual channels for almost 20 years. He was a quite outstanding Leader of this House and leader of my party and I, along with many others, am greatly in his debt. Now, I know that my noble friend was sometimes accused of being wily. That is an accusation that I categorically reject. It is a grotesque understatement. His explanation to me of what it would involve to be Leader of the House was not wily: it was a flagrant breach of the Trade Descriptions Act.
In looking back over my noble friend’s remarkable career in this House, for which he was rightly made a Companion of Honour, I was struck by an odd pattern. He first became a government Minister in 1988, the year when the SDP merged with the Liberal Party. In 1994, the year when the Liberal Democrats took Eastleigh from the Conservatives, he became government Chief Whip. In 1998, the year when the Liberal Democrats overtook the Conservatives in local elections, he became Leader of the Opposition. In 2010, when he became Leader of this House, the first coalition Government for more than 60 years was formed between the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats. Is this coincidence, or has my noble friend in fact been a Liberal Democrat sleeper for all these years?
That is not something of which I would ever accuse my noble friend Lord Lang. I am especially delighted that he said yes to the invitation to propose the humble Address, and I know I speak for the whole House when I congratulate him on performing his role with such wit and style this afternoon. For those who know of his early career, this comes as no surprise. A member of the Cambridge Footlights with John Cleese and Peter Cook, he went on to write scripts for “That Was The Week That Was”. What better preparation to be a Conservative Cabinet Minister than training as a satirist? First, as Scottish Secretary, and then as Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, my noble friend served in the Cabinet for seven years with great distinction. As a mark of his particular skill, he was the only Cabinet Minister I can remember appearing on programmes such as “Question Time” in 1997 without being booed. I say to my noble friend, “Don’t relax”—we might have to call on him again.
It is also a pleasure to congratulate my noble friend Lord German on his speech this afternoon. He may be a more recent entrant to your Lordships’ House, but he is no newcomer to the political world, with a career in Welsh politics spanning three decades. I see that he is also a member of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Cyprus, where I fear his surname may prove something of an embarrassment at the moment. A former music teacher, he continues to put his musical talents to good use, until recently chairing the parliamentary choir. To coin a phrase, where there was discord, he brought harmony. I am particularly intrigued by what I understand is my noble friend’s party trick of singing the words of one carol to the tune of another. This is, of course, a great skill for life in a coalition government. I will be perfectly happy if from now on he sings from the same hymn sheet as me.
The year since Her Majesty last opened a new Session of Parliament has seen the success of the Olympic and Paralympic Games and, of course, the Diamond Jubilee celebrations. Those in particular underlined the great affection in which she and His Royal Highness the Duke of Edinburgh are held. They continue to set an example of public service which is quite remarkable. It was a particular pleasure that this year they were accompanied by His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales and Her Royal Highness the Duchess of Cornwall.
I cannot promise that the legislative programme of the coming parliamentary Session will be as enjoyable as the events of last summer, but I am sure that there will be fireworks of another kind. I think that noble Lords will agree that in the gracious Speech Her Majesty set out a full legislative programme designed to address some of the biggest challenges facing our country.
The gracious Speech included a range of measures to build a stronger economy, to cut the deficit, to invest in infrastructure and to remove unnecessary regulation. It offered help for parents with the cost of childcare, help for those who have saved for their retirement and help for those who find themselves faced with the costs of long-term care. It will address crime and rehabilitation, national security, immigration and defence. A number of measures will be published in draft in line with the Government’s commitment to consultation and pre-legislative scrutiny.
Five new Bills will start their passage in this House. These are Bills to reform the care system, to reform the way that offenders are rehabilitated, to make it easier for businesses to protect their intellectual property, to ensure that sufferers of mesothelioma receive payments and to close the Audit Commission. The early business of this House will also include four Bills from the House of Commons carried over from the previous Session. These are the Children and Families Bill, the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Bill, the Energy Bill and the Financial Services (Banking Reform) Bill.
I do not expect that all sides of the House will agree on every aspect of every Bill. I do, however, think we will agree that the Bills are certain to leave this House in better shape than when they arrived. Having taken legislation through your Lordships’ House, I know the very real change and improvement that its scrutiny brings. I know that this House will, in this Session as always, take its duties as a revising Chamber seriously and fulfil them wisely.
However, vital as it is, the business of this House is not just the passing of legislation. The previous Session saw a wide range of debates, some led by government Ministers and many more by Back-Bench Members, addressing issues of national and international importance, while our Select Committees have continued to produce excellent and thought-provoking work. Our new ad hoc committees have demonstrated the House at its best, complementing the work of the House of Commons and making use of a wider range of the expertise available among our Members. The same is true of the first dedicated post-legislative scrutiny committee that we set up last year to look at the statute law on adoption and consider draft clauses in the Children and Families Bill. Since the start of this Parliament, we have also seen an increase in the number of Joint Committees of both Houses conducting pre-legislative scrutiny, a trend which continued last Session, with five such Joint Committees appointed.
As Leader of this House, I am keen to provide opportunities for as many Peers as possible to participate in our work, especially newer Members or Members who are able to attend less frequently, so that as a Chamber we are able to make the most of their contributions. As part of this, I look forward not only to the House’s legislative work in the next Session but to the establishment of a series of new Select Committees, including three ad hoc committees and two post-legislative scrutiny committees, which will allow a wider range of Members to serve on a committee. We will also be creating new opportunities for Back-Bench Members to lead debates. This will include a regular weekly slot for a topical short debate on the Floor of the House as well as making more use of the Moses Room for short debates to double the number of opportunities for Members to have debates there, so I can safely say that we will be busy in this new Session. We will be busy with legislation, busy with scrutiny and busy in shaping our country’s political debate. As we set about those tasks, I look forward to working with the Leaders and Members of all Benches in your Lordships’ House. It is in that spirit that I am delighted to support the noble Baroness’s Motion to adjourn the debate.