Conduct Committee

Lord Truscott Excerpts

Tuesday 9th June 2020 Lords Chamber

[Lord Newby (LD)]

My Lords, in normal times a suggestion that your Lordships’ House might move to electronic voting would occasion many days and hours of debate, in Committee and in the Chamber. This Motion is merely a supplementary or consequential Motion to the Motion we passed last week to introduce this revolutionary change with literally zero debate. Having sat through many discussions on minor changes to voting procedure, most of which failed through lack of consensus, I welcome this change, because it is a common-sense change. I congratulate all those who have worked so hard to put it in place so quickly and look forward to taking part in votes on this basis from next week.

We saw in the House of Commons a similar process adopted for a couple of weeks, then dropped. I very much hope that this change will not be dropped with such alacrity and that we will at the very least keep it in place while there are Members of your Lordships’ House who, for health reasons, are unable to attend. There may be arguments for keeping it in place for at least some people permanently, but I suspect that discussions about how we get out of this system will take a lot longer than the virtual lack of discussion about how we got into it. I am very pleased that we are doing this, and I am happy to support the Motion.

[Lord Truscott (Ind Lab)]

My Lords, like the noble Lord, Lord Newby, I support the report from the noble and learned Lord, Lord Mance, and the Conduct Committee, on remote voting. However, unlike the noble Lord, Lord Newby, I would be slightly concerned about remote voting in this House in the long term. It is essential for democracy that Members interact with one another in the Chamber and in the House, so that they can crystallise their views and opinions on the issues that come before the House, but I realise that the House has already voted for remote voting, for very good reasons.

The noble Lord, Lord Newby, and the noble and learned Lord, Lord Mance, made another point about electronic voting. I was a Member of the European Parliament when there were concerns about and cases of alleged misuse of electronic voting, so the Conduct Committee is right to be concerned about this matter. For that reason, I too support the report.

[Lord Mance [V]]

My Lords, I am grateful for the comments made by the noble Lords. The noble Lord, Lord Newby, rightly said that this is a supplemental measure. It is relevant while we have remote voting. I will not comment on whether it should be indefinite or, as it is at the moment, limited to the crisis in intention.