Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answers by Lord True on 11 February (HL12711) and 8 March (HL13422), whether they will now answer the question put, namely, what is their assessment of the equivalent figures for (1) the Labour, and (2) the Liberal Democrat, Party when following a similar methodology to the one used to determine underrepresentation of the Conservative Party in the House of Lords.

Reflecting the method in my previous answers, the Liberal Democrat party is over-represented; the Conservative Party is significantly under-represented; the Labour Party has a proportion of seats in this House that is less than its seat share in the Commons, but not by a significant amount.

Notwithstanding that, there are different ways of assessing the issue. For example, one may wish to consider the share of this House excluding cross-benchers and bishops, or look at composition of peers taking a political whip. Under both measures, Liberal Democrats are significantly over-represented.

The noble Lord will be able to make his own further calculations from public domain information, if he wishes.