Conduct Committee

Lord Shinkwin Excerpts

Wednesday 5th March 2025 Lords Chamber

[Lord Shinkwin (Con)]

I thank the noble Baroness, Lady Manningham-Buller, and the committee for the review of the code and the guide. I want to pick up on an issue that the noble Baroness, Lady Deech, touched on when she referred to how being notified of a Conduct Committee investigation sends shivers down the spine of a Member. I refer, of course, to an issue that affects many of us at some point in our lives, our mental health, and how it is addressed in the review. It is touched on obliquely, in both paragraph 58 of Annexe 3 to the review relating to the “Enforcement Procedure (General)” and paragraph 54 of Annexe 4 relating to the “Enforcement Procedure” specifically for bullying, harassment and sexual misconduct. Both state:

“Members can contact the Parliamentary Health and Wellbeing Service for advice, guidance and support with mental and physical health”.


Is that really adequate or appropriate when a Member is perhaps experiencing a mental health crisis at the prospect of their reputation being effectively trashed in the media or, indeed, as a result of that having happened—in either case, by virtue of their high public profile as a Member of your Lordships’ House, and thus being seen as fair game? I suspect that having to contact another body related to Parliament as a conduit to advice, guidance and support is the last thing that some Members would want or feel able to do when, for example, mulling over whether they have the mental resilience to make an appeal against the commissioner’s findings. This is important because a failure to do so can count against them and imply an admission of guilt.

I therefore wonder if thought can be given to establishing a source of support that is completely independent of Parliament from the outset and sensitive to the stress of public office holders with a high public profile, such as Members of your Lordships’ House. I make that suggestion not to imply that any of us are more important but because that high public profile increases our vulnerability to mental health challenges.