Asked by: Lord Hayward (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Taylor of Stevenage on 3 November (HL11135), whether they will take into consideration the burden that monitoring the proposed pilots of flexible voting methods at the May 2026 elections in England will impose on police forces when selecting the local authorities to carry out those pilots.
Answered by Baroness Taylor of Stevenage - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The Government is exploring ways to make voting in person more efficient, more convenient, and better aligned with the expectations of today’s electors.
Local authorities were invited to submit applications to pilot a range of flexible voting methods at the May 2026 elections in England. We are working with individual local authorities to shape the detail of their flexible voting pilots. We will continue to work with key stakeholders and local authorities throughout development and delivery of the pilots.
We are currently reviewing applications from local authorities wishing to pilot at the May 2026 elections and we will share further details in due course.
Asked by: Lord Hayward (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Taylor of Stevenage on 3 November (HL11135), which local authorities have applied to pilot flexible voting methods at the May 2026 elections in England; which voting methods will be piloted; and what criteria will be applied when selecting the local authorities to operate these pilots.
Answered by Baroness Taylor of Stevenage - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The Government is exploring ways to make voting in person more efficient, more convenient, and better aligned with the expectations of today’s electors.
Local authorities were invited to submit applications to pilot a range of flexible voting methods at the May 2026 elections in England. We are working with individual local authorities to shape the detail of their flexible voting pilots. We will continue to work with key stakeholders and local authorities throughout development and delivery of the pilots.
We are currently reviewing applications from local authorities wishing to pilot at the May 2026 elections and we will share further details in due course.
Asked by: Lord Hayward (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Taylor of Stevenage on 3 November (HL11135), which organisations and political parties have been consulted on the election pilots.
Answered by Baroness Taylor of Stevenage - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The Government is exploring ways to make voting in person more efficient, more convenient, and better aligned with the expectations of today’s electors.
Local authorities were invited to submit applications to pilot a range of flexible voting methods at the May 2026 elections in England. We are working with individual local authorities to shape the detail of their flexible voting pilots. We will continue to work with key stakeholders and local authorities throughout development and delivery of the pilots.
We are currently reviewing applications from local authorities wishing to pilot at the May 2026 elections and we will share further details in due course.
Asked by: Lord Hayward (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they plan to carry out voting system trials in the May 2026 local elections; and if so, which voting systems they will trial, and in which local authorities those trials will take place.
Answered by Baroness Taylor of Stevenage - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The Government committed in its manifesto to encourage greater participation in democracy. To support this, the Government is exploring ways to make voting in person more efficient, more convenient, and better aligned with the expectations of today’s electors.
Local authorities were invited to submit applications to pilot a range of flexible voting methods at the May 2026 elections in England, and these are being considered for approval.
Asked by: Lord Hayward (Conservative - Life peer)
Question
To ask the Senior Deputy Speaker whether he will publish the percentage change in staff headcount in each House of Lords Administration department over the past 5 years.
Answered by Lord Gardiner of Kimble
The table below shows the percentage change in the number of staff employed by the House of Lords Administration between 31 March 2020 and 31 March 2025. This provides a snapshot of the number of people employed on these two dates, including any short-term appointments. The overall staff headcount in the Administration increased by 16% between these two dates with increases in eight offices and reductions in five.
Changes in the organisational structures such as teams moving between offices can make office-level comparisons more difficult. Figures are also not available for Parliamentary Knowledge and Information, which was created on 1 April 2024. The Parliamentary Commercial Directorate (PCD) was part of the Finance Office in 2020 and will become a joint department on 1 October 2025; if PCD is excluded from these 2025 figures, the overall increase in staffing since 2020 is 3%.
House of Lords Administration Office | Change in Staffing Headcount between 2020 and 2025 |
|
Archives Relocation Programme/ Parliamentary Archives | -20% | -8 |
Black Rod's Office | -4% | -1 |
Catering and Retail Services | 7% | 11 |
Clerk of the Parliament's Office/Lord Speaker's Office* | 16% | 7 |
Committee Office | 25% | 18 |
Communications | 32% | 6 |
Finance Department | -24% | -10 |
Parliamentary Commerical Directorate |
|
|
Parliamentary Knowledge and Information |
|
|
Hansard | -14% | -9 |
Human Resources Office | 46% | 11 |
Journal Office | 33% | 8 |
Legislation Office | 47% | 9 |
Library | 13% | 6 |
Property & Office Services | -11% | -6 |
Total | 16% |
|
*The Lord Speaker's Office became a standalone office in 2022.
Asked by: Lord Hayward (Conservative - Life peer)
Question
To ask the Senior Deputy Speaker whether the House of Lords Administration plan to reduce staff headcount in line with the planned reduction in Civil Service jobs by 2030.
Answered by Lord Gardiner of Kimble
The House of Lords Commission agreed in May 2025 to the Administration's recommendation not to increase in real terms its resource budget from 2026-27 for three years, subject to the need to maintain the ability of the House and its Members to carry out their parliamentary duties, and any exceptional external factors. There is no specific staaff headcount reduction target within that.
Asked by: Lord Hayward (Conservative - Life peer)
Question
To ask the Senior Deputy Speaker whether it is the policy of the House of Lords Administration to withdraw an employment role that has been vacant for one year.
Answered by Lord Gardiner of Kimble
Heads of Office in the House of Lords Administration review their staffing and vacancies on a quarterly basis, working with Finance and HR teams to remove any vacant posts that are no longer needed. Vacant posts can be removed as soon as they are no longer needed, and the overall vacancy rate is reguarly monitered by the Lords Management Board anf Finance Committee.
Asked by: Lord Hayward (Conservative - Life peer)
Question
To ask the Senior Deputy Speaker what the new roles are of the security staff who were previously allocated to Peers' Entrance.
Answered by Lord Gardiner of Kimble
The operation of Peers' Entrance was met from existing pools of staff. Security officers are allocated to posts flexibly in accordance with the needs of Parliament on any given day. There has been no change to the role of those officers, who continue to be assigned to posts elsewhere on the Parliamentary Estate as required.
Asked by: Lord Hayward (Conservative - Life peer)
Question
To ask the Senior Deputy Speaker, further to his letter placed in the Library of the House on 7 July concerning staffing the Peers’ Entrance, which operations he used as comparators in stating that “It is normal within an operation the size of the Parliamentary Security Department to be able to temporarily reassign resources”.
Answered by Lord Gardiner of Kimble
My letter, dated 7 July 2025, reflected the information presented to me based on the professional judgement and experience of Parliament’s security advisors of the importance of maintaining a flexible security posture. This flexibility has allowed for the temporary reassignment of security staff to the Peers’ Entrance from our existing numbers, at no additional cost to the taxpayer.
Asked by: Lord Hayward (Conservative - Life peer)
Question
To ask the Senior Deputy Speaker on what date he expects Lord Morse to complete his report on costs associated with the Peers’ Entrance.
Answered by Lord Gardiner of Kimble
Lord Morse’s review into the programme specifications and the cost increases associated with the works at Peers’ Entrance will be reported to the House of Lords Commission on 17 September 2025.