House of Lords/Addendum

House of Lords Committees

• Constitution Committee (briefing paper).
• Economic Affairs Committee. (briefing paper).
• The European Union Committee.(briefing paper).
• Science and Technology Committee. (paper).
• Joint Committee on House of Lords Reform

House of Lords (Amendment) Bill

Main provisions

All recommendations for life peerages would be made by a Statutory Appointments Commission consisting of nine members nominated by the Speaker of the House of Commons and the Lord Speaker of the House of Lords. At least four members, including the chair, would be independent of any registered political party, and there would be a political balance among the other members. Proposals for new peers could be made to the Commission in the following categories:

• The leader of any registered political party with six or more seats in the House of Commons could nominate “party nominees”. The Commission would have to be satisfied that the procedure and criteria used by the party to choose the nominee were reasonable and consistent.
• The Prime Minister could nominate “prime ministerial nominees” (these would be separate from any “party nominees” the Prime Minister might nominate in his capacity as leader of a political party).
• Anybody else could nominate “non-party nominees”.

All nominees would have to demonstrate conspicuous merit and a willingness and capacity to make a contribution to the work of the House of Lords.

In determining how many new peers (if any) to recommend each year, the Commission would take the following principles into account:

• Not less than 20 per cent of the members of the House of Lords should be independent of any political party.
• No one party, nor a coalition of parties forming a government, should have a majority of members in the House of Lords.
• The government of the day (or the largest party in a coalition government) should be entitled to have a larger number of members than the official Opposition, but that majority should normally be no greater than 3 per cent of the total membership of the House of Lords.
• The House of Lords should not have more members than the House of Commons.

Existing hereditary peers would no longer be replaced when they die. Members could apply to take permanent leave of absence, which would be the equivalent of retiring from the House of Lords.

Members who did not attend the House of Lords during a parliamentary session would be deemed to have taken permanent leave of absence.