Lord Strathclyde’s report into the House of Lords and secondary legislation, commissioned following the row over tax credits, was published yesterday. Meg Russell discusses his proposals and argues that they may present an opportunity for a deal to be struck between the Lords and government – restraint in the use of Lords’ powers in return for restraint in appointments.

The report from Lord Strathclyde into the powers of the House of Lords was published on Thursday. This was precipitated by October’s row between the government and the Lords over tax credits, where the second chamber voted against a piece of ‘secondary legislation’ (which is frequently used to implement the detail of policy, under powers delegated in primary legislation – i.e. bills). Strathclyde was asked to investigate whether the Lords’ powers over such legislation should be reformed. His report, prepared with the support of a civil service secretariat and input from three former senior officials with specialist knowledge of the legislative process, presents three options for limiting the chamber’s powers. These received a very sceptical response from the opposition, and the legislation proposed by Strathclyde to implement his preferred option could prove very difficult to agree. So how reasonable are these proposals, and how much of a threat do they pose to the Lords? Could the government’s desire to make progress on the powers of the chamber instead be turned into an opportunity, to resolve wider issues of Lords reform?

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