House of Lords Reform Bill [HL]

Lord Bishop of Leicester Excerpts

Friday 21st October 2011 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Royall of Blaisdon]

My Lords, that is an excellent proposal from the noble Viscount, Lord Tenby: we should refer to the Bill as the “Improvement to the House of Lords Bill”. That is exactly what it is. I fully support the Motion of the noble Lord, Lord Steel. While the noble Earl is correct to say that it will not prevent our discussing Part 1 of the Bill, it will ensure that those discussions do not impede discussion of the other, essential elements of the Bill, which my party fully supports. I support both the principle and the practicalities mentioned by the noble Lord. We have had many frustrations with the lack of progress on the Bill. We need to get on with it and the best way to expedite progress is to support the noble Lord in his Motion.

[The Lord Bishop of Leicester]

My Lords, the position of this Bench has consistently been, over many years, that considerations of Lords reform should pay careful attention to both the effectiveness of this Chamber and questions of the people’s confidence in the parliamentary system. What is proposed by the noble Lord, Lord Steel, addresses both those issues effectively. We have a responsibility to the House to support the Motion and proceed with it as quickly as we reasonably can today.

[Lady Saltoun of Abernethy]

My Lords, it is about time that somebody else spoke in favour of the noble Earl, Lord Caithness, and the noble Lord, Lord Trefgarne. It is quite unacceptable to have a Motion of this kind brought forward at the very last minute when we have all worked on the assumption that the amendments would be taken in the normal order, starting at the beginning of the Bill and going on to the end.