Peers’ Entrance Security Door

Lord Harris of Haringey Excerpts

Wednesday 2nd July 2025 Lords Chamber

[The Senior Deputy Speaker (Lord Gardiner of Kimble)]

My Lords, that is part of the future programme. I am afraid that, as we have seen with the door and the fence, proposals are coming for more security operations in this part of the Palace, and one of the areas that is going to be addressed is the point that the noble Lord raised.

[Lord Harris of Haringey (Lab)]

My Lords, the Senior Deputy Speaker has faced several questions on this, but quite a number of them come back to the question of who makes decisions in this place. What are the lines of accountability? Is there a line of accountability through the Clerk of the Parliaments and, in this case, the clerk of the other place, as accounting officers, or is it through Members? Would it be possible for him to succinctly explain how this works and how decisions are made, and who therefore checks on these matters? There is a real danger that things will fall between matters for the administration and matters for Members—who is saying that Members want this?—and all those things.

[The Senior Deputy Speaker (Lord Gardiner of Kimble)]

The noble Lord makes a very valid point; this is something that has troubled me for some time. On the particular matter of the Peers’ Entrance, the project business case has undergone a process of standard professional scrutiny. The clerks of both Houses ultimately scrutinised and approved those costs following advice from the investment committee, which is chaired by the two finance directors of both Houses. As a result of what has happened, going forwards the Finance Committee in this House, which has received up-to-date reports on major programmes, will be asked to supplement its work with enhanced scrutiny of both costs and performance on a quarterly basis. I would say, however, as I am very close to my colleague, that the Clerk of the Parliaments is the accounting officer and legal officer, and in the end the responsibility is directly in his hands.