In what ways has the House of Lords been reformed in recent years

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In what ways has the House of Lords been reformed
in recent years?
2
Timeline Lords Reform

• 1911 Parliament Act the first major
  restrictions on the Lords power, all money bills
  passed by the commons will become law without the
  Lords consent if passed by the Commons
• 1949 Parliament Act limits the delaying powers
  of the Lords still further, to 2 sessions and 1
  year
• 1970s-80s Labour party policy advocates total
  abolition of the House of Lords
• 1992 labour manifesto abandons abolition in
  favour of reform
• 1999 Blair abolishes the right of all but 92
  hereditary peers to sit and vote in Lords

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Timeline Lords Reform

• 1999 this meant 600 hereditary peers lost their
  place in the Lords
• The 92 remaining peers were allowed to carry on
  after been elected by their colleagues
• 2001 white paper published outlining next reforms

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Timeline Lords Reform

• The white paper promised a directly elected
  element of 20 in the new chamber
• However no-one was satisfied with these proposals
  and the government had to start again
• In 2005 the government announced it wanted to
  remove the remaining hereditaries and allow MPs a
  free vote on the Houses composition
• A joint committee is to be set up to review the
  conventions e.g. whether peers refrain from
  opposing manifesto commitments of the government

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Timeline Lords Reform

• Previous attempts at reform collapsed when MPs
  and peers failed to agree on any of 7 options
  from an all-appointed to a fully-elected second
  chamber

6
Wakeham Commission

• As Westminister debated the governments plans to
  abolish hereditary peers, Lord Wakehams
  Commission got to grips with the alternatives
• The result A House for the future published in
  2000

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Proposals for change

• It ducked the question of what to call a new
  upper chamber and proposed to leave the current
  balance of power between the gov, Commons and new
  upper house
• But it did acknowledge the following
• Statutory minimum proportion (30) female members
  are currently about 7, fair representation of
  ethnic minorities/religious representation,
  regional members and commission to appoint
  peers rather than PM

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Scrapped or Reformed?

• Monarchs role in decision making has disappeared
  many therefore support the House of Lords as the
  remaining relic of Britains feudal system

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Scrapped or Reformed? opposing views

• Democracy means rule by the majority, the commons
  is elected and therefore legitimate chamber
• Therefore the unelected HOL is illegitimate and
  should be abolished entirely

• Democracy is about a countrys whole political
  system, this means not every institution needs to
  be elected
• As long as the elected chamber HOC which is more
  powerful is democratic and the whole system
• HOL should be retained as a balance to the Commons

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Balance of power

• At the moment the Lords has limited powers and
  the government would like it to stay that way
• They argue a balance of power would cause
  legislative gridlock
• We can expect debate to continue

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Arguments for a directly elected second chamber

• If a different party is in control of the 2nd
  chamber it will oblige parties to enter into
  productive discussions
• people should decide who there representatives are

• Could be based on PR to act as a moderating
  influence on the HOC
• mid term elections could take account of public
  opinion on a more regular basis

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Arguments against a directly elected second
chamber

• Turnout for elections have been low, why elect
  more?
• Public have local councillors, MPs, MEPs MSPs
  why confuse people?
• An appointed representative group of peers could
  better reflect the peers of society
• mid term elections could bring US style
  gridlock to the country

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Power of House of Lords steadily eroded

• It can be argued this is an attempt to bring
  government closer to the people
• However it is also claimed that the influence of
  Parliament has declined as power has shifted to
  the PM and senior members of government