House of Lords: Reform

Debate between Lord Marks of Henley-on-Thames and Lord Shutt of Greetland

Tuesday 21st June 2011 Lords Chamber

[Lord Selsdon]

The noble Lord has only recently joined the House—

[Lord Shutt of Greetland]

My Lords, I suggest to my noble friend that the feeling of the House is that he should conclude. I have every sympathy with him in view of the interruptions that he has had to take, but I feel that it is now time for him to conclude, because he has had 13 minutes.

[Lord Marks of Henley-on-Thames]

So be it. Perhaps I may make one more point concerning the conventions of the House. If a future Parliament were of the view that the conventions needed explicitly codifying in order to protect their efficacy, legislation could be brought forward to bring that about, as was proposed in the 2005 Labour manifesto. I suggest that the primacy of the House of Commons is not threatened.