Peers’ Entrance Security Door

Lord Watts Excerpts

Wednesday 2nd July 2025 Lords Chamber

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

My Lords, this is a very serious matter. As I have said before, the backdrop to this is that the Murphy review, as validated by the Centre for the Protection of National Infrastructure, found that the West Front and this part of the Palace had considerable vulnerabilities. The director of security and the director of strategic estates, who were responsible for the programme with two outside contractors, report to the Clerk of the Parliaments and the Clerk of the House, who are the accounting officers.

The Lord Speaker has written to the noble Lord, Lord Morse, to request that he, given his experience of 10 years as Comptroller and Auditor-General of the National Audit Office, looks into the Peers’ Entrance works to examine the programme specifications and the cost. I will place a copy of the Lord Speaker’s letter in the Library so that noble Lords can have a look.

[Lord Watts (Lab)]

Is the Senior Deputy Speaker able to tell the House how much the estimate was for the development in the first place? He has told us how much it finally cost, but can he tell us how much the estimate was originally?

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

My Lords, again I have to preface this with what the noble Lord, Lord Robathan, said. I am not directly responsible for all this. My understanding is that the cost originally was £6.1 million. There were changes because of planned patterns of work and technical issues. One of the particular problems was that gas mains below ground, which originally passed through the entrance structure, had to be diverted. There were some other security capabilities and the cost of significant structural and ground works. There were additional costs, but my understanding is that the first sum was £6.1 million.