Procedure of the House

Debate between Lord Stoddart of Swindon and Lord Empey

Wednesday 9th January 2013 Lords Chamber

[Lord Stoddart of Swindon]

My Lords, I have a very brief question. I have sat through the whole of this debate and must say that, except for one contribution, there has been no support at all for the committee. Given the absence of support, I would like to know exactly how many people made representations to the committee and how many of them did it in writing.

[Lord Empey]

My Lords, I thank the committee for at least trying to address some of the issues that some of us have over this. I am a relatively new Member—although if the information given by the noble Lord, Lord Barnett, is correct, I may very well soon be able to describe myself as a veteran Member. The Chairman of Committees raised a point about distance. Whether people perhaps realise it or not, the House is very London-centric. The noble Lord, Lord Naseby, was able to say that he is 50 miles away but, as far as I am concerned, that is down the road. It takes me at least four hours door to door, plus the time before that to get up and so on. On a Monday, I find it extremely helpful to have a morning at home when I can work. That means that it is virtually impossible for me, without a lot of effort, to put a Question down then. However, I have tabled some Oral Questions and do not have an antipathy to queuing, as the noble Lord, Lord Reid, has said.

We have heard several Members here today say that they have not put Questions down because they do not particularly like the system. Those who said it are noble Lords of very great standing in your Lordships’ House, and I personally would like to see Questions coming from them. One statistic that the Chairman of Committees gave us was that a significant number of the Questions were asked by a very small number of noble Lords. Enthusiasm is a great thing but, whether we like it or not, the risk highlighted by the noble Lord, Lord Reid—of the Whips becoming involved in the Questions—has to be offset against not many people having a kind of a cartel that corners the Oral Question market. It is a question of getting a balance between those different things, and the committee has tried.

There are many more experienced Members here than me and I do not want to do anything that would make government less accountable. Question Time is one of the very good things in this House, but the proposal from the noble Lord, Lord Berkeley, is one that should be revisited. All the suggestions—such as that the Leader of the House should answer Questions, whether that is here or in a committee—are perfectly valid, and there is a whole range of things that we could look at. However, what we have now is not the perfect solution and it may not even be the best. One has to take account of why so many Members are prepared to participate in debates and become involved in legislation, and yet suddenly there is a very significant number who do not participate in Oral Questions. There is a whole reservoir of skill and ability out there that clearly does not seem to be content with the system. I presume that that is one of the reasons why the committee took the decisions and made the recommendations that it did.

We are making a bit too much heavy weather about a ballot. We already run ballots in this place. The other place and the devolved Administrations run ballots. Indeed, I spent quite a number of years, as have other noble Lords, answering and writing questions on the basis of ballots. It is not impossible to find a mechanism that will work. It is important that there is a consensus on the value and importance of the questioning process, but there appears to be a reticence among those who have participated in this debate to consent to the proposal of a trial. If we are going to change the system, it will inevitably have to be trialled—you would run a trial to iron out the gremlins. I thank the committee for making the attempt to take account of the concerns of some of us who travel from a distance.