Liaison Committee

Baroness Falkner of Margravine Excerpts

Monday 1st July 2019 Lords Chamber

My second point in respect of the third group of Motions—my noble friend Lord Forsyth has touched on it—is to ask how these committees are selected. “By the usual channels”, somebody murmurs sotto voce behind me. Have we not reached the stage where your Lordships’ House, which prides itself on its expertise and experience, should be able to choose Members to sit on its committees in a rather different manner? The other place has moved over to electing not only the chairmen of Select Committees but all their members. I suggest that the time has come when perhaps there should be a committee, presided over by the Lord Speaker, which is not just the usual channels but has the chance to cast its eyes a little wider than is sometimes the case and to avoid the sort of anomaly to which my noble friend Lord Forsyth referred when he said that he had six good men and true. I am sure that they are, but it does not reflect the diversity of your Lordships’ House and it does not reflect modern practice. I hope that the Senior Deputy Speaker will feel able to take these points on board, because they are worthy of consideration.

[Baroness Falkner of Margravine (LD)]

My Lords, the Senior Deputy Speaker has been asked quite a lot of questions to answer today, but I want briefly to express support for the remarks of the noble Lord, Lord Forsyth, on how selection is carried out in terms of the balance of gender—and diversity, if I may add to his list.

When the European affairs committee was appointed in 2015, we discussed the lack of gender balance on it. I carried out in the service of the committee an analysis of the number of men and women on each sub-committee. I see that some of those issues remain, four years later. At the time, we were assured that greater efforts would be made by the political parties to achieve balance not just in gender but in diversity.

The noble Lord, Lord Cormack, pointed out that from a total membership of some 73 or 74 members—I must say that I am affected, but I do not speak in my own interest; I should make that clear and perhaps I should be speaking on this at all—a European Union Committee facing 31 October will lose 34 members in one fell swoop. That will undoubtedly have an impact on its principal work, which is considering how we will deal with either a managed Brexit or a no-deal Brexit.

My final point to the Senior Deputy Speaker is that our understanding of the way in which the composition of Select Committees is determined is that Front-Benchers in the political parties will not be assigned additional roles as members of Select Committees, yet we notice in the list before us today that Front-Benchers are being appointed. My understanding from many years ago was that the rotation rule was put in place to allow more Back-Bench Members of the House of Lords to participate in the extremely serious and important work of Select Committees. That seems to be being eroded and I wonder what the answer to that is. It may be a point of principle, but perhaps that is what a convention is.

[Lord Howell of Guildford (Con)]

My Lords, I am sure that all the new committee members will be quite excellent, but I wonder whether my noble friend Lord Forsyth has a point: these committees are concerned with ongoing work. I also endorse the work of the Senior Deputy Speaker, who has been excellent in trying to develop a new shape for our committees for the new age in which we live. These committees have ongoing work, some of it complex and needing some continuation. Might it not be more useful, and possibly a courtesy, for the chairmen of such committees, including the outgoing chairman—which happens to be me in one case—to be consulted and possibly allowed to exchange advice on the shape of the new membership and who might best contribute? Would this not be to the advantage of the committees and of your Lordships’ House generally?