The Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill – commonly known as the assisted dying bill – is now very unlikely to pass in this session. Its supporters have accused opponents of filibustering – a charge which they strongly deny. Lisa James looks at how delay tactics work in the House of Lords, where they have been used in the past, and what peers could do to stop individuals using procedure to block bills rather than allowing them to stand or fall on their merits.
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The government has publicly committed to removing Lord (Peter) Mandelson’s peerage following additional revelations about his connections to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Robert Hazell considers potential mechanisms for achieving this, and argues that if it is to be done by legislation, then the government should consider carefully how wide its scope should be, what criteria should trigger the removal process, and whether its provisions should be retrospective.
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The government’s House of Lords (Hereditary Peers) Bill reaches its report stage in the chamber this week – presenting a serious moment for possible amendments. Meg Russell argues that peers should amend the bill to place constraints on the Prime Minister’s ability to appoint unlimited numbers of members to the chamber. This level of unconstrained patronage power is inappropriate in a modern age, and brings the House of Lords and politics as a whole into disrepute. It drives the chamber’s ever-increasing size (now standing at over 850), which should be capped at no larger than the House of Commons. Public opinion overwhelmingly supports this change, and it has long been the settled view of the House of Lords. Another legislative vehicle to implement this essential change may not present itself for decades, so peers should seize the opportunity while they can.
Continue readingThe House of Lords (Hereditary Peers) Bill is currently being debated in the Lords itself, and has reached a crucial moment. In this second post of a two-part series, Constitution Unit Director Meg Russell reviews the prospects for using the bill to achieve other long-awaited Lords reforms, beyond removing the hereditary peers. She argues that key changes, particularly to limit the size of the chamber, and improve the appointments process, should be made to the bill, as history suggests that further government legislation is unlikely to follow. These changes are in tune with public opinion, and would be consistent with promises made in Labour’s manifesto.
Continue readingA bill based on Labour’s manifesto commitment to remove the remaining hereditary peers from the House of Lords has already passed through the House of Commons, and is now being considered in the Lords itself. In this post, the first in a two-part series, Constitution Unit Director Meg Russell reviews the background to the bill, and progress up to the end of its Lords committee stage. In a second post, she will argue that the ability to amend the bill at its coming report stage offers a rare opportunity to make progress on other small and widely supported Lords reforms – and that this should be seized.
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