House of Lords: Reform

Baroness Noakes Excerpts

Monday 11th October 2010 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Noakes]

My Lords, despite the views of the noble Lord, Lord Adonis, I believe that this House works remarkably well. Last week, as has already been mentioned, my noble friend the Leader of the House had an article in the House Magazine in which he set out some of our achievements. We saw off the attempt to kill trial by jury; we cut back the scope of identity cards, which we are now—I am proud to say—going to abolish; and we protected freedom of belief and speech. It is clear that this House serves the public interest. The Question of the noble Lord, Lord Hunt, is about the purpose of the House, though he spoke about powers. My answer as to the purpose of the House is simply that it is to serve the public interest. Any reform must not undermine that.

In my brief time today I will say what any reform of this Chamber should avoid if it is to continue to serve the public interest. First, this House must not become just another place of partisan politics in a pale, or even more highly coloured, version of another place. Elections, which will be controlled by the party machinery, will take us firmly in the direction of a politicised House.

Secondly, this House must not lose the wealth of expertise and experience that an appointments system delivers. We see this in particular on the Cross Benches but all parts of the House possess an extraordinary breadth of experience and knowledge. We must not forget the particular contributions of the Bishops’ Bench. Elections simply will not deliver what our current system does deliver.

Thirdly, we must not undermine the primacy of the House of Commons. As has been said today, it is inevitable that an elected upper Chamber will robustly challenge the conventions that preserve the current balance between the two Houses. We must ask ourselves whether it is more or less likely that another House of elected politicians, jostling for position with another place and stripped of the experience and expertise that we currently have, will achieve what we have achieved in the past. Will that serve the public interest? I think the answer to that is clear.