House of Lords Act 1999 (Amendment) Bill [HL]

Lord Purvis of Tweed Excerpts

Friday 9th September 2016 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Chisholm of Owlpen]

Let me finish. The new Leader looks forward to working with Peers to support incremental reform that commands consensus across the House. We feel that that is the way forward at the moment.

[Lord Purvis of Tweed (LD)]

My Lords—

[A noble Lord]

He has only just arrived.

[Lord Purvis of Tweed]

I have just heard from a noble Lord that I have just arrived. I do not know whether he means in this House three years ago, before he did, or in this debate. I have sat through the debate from the start.

If, as the Minister said from the Dispatch Box, we will be talking about this problem, could that discussion be informed by the Government saying what areas they would not consider core to the composition of the House in order for us to decide where we could make some of these incremental reforms?

[Baroness Chisholm of Owlpen]

I think I have said all I am going to say on the matter in my speech. We are not taking forward reforms during this Parliament. However, as I said, the new Leader looks forward to working with Peers to support incremental reform that commands consensus across the House. Once again, I thank all noble Lords for their contributions today.