Asked by: Lord Lexden (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they are taking to prevent future Honours Lists being prematurely disclosed.
Answered by Lord Bridges of Headley
The Cabinet Office will continue to reiterate clear instructions for handling embargoed material.
Asked by: Lord Lexden (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answers by Lord Bridges of Headley on 17 November (HL3184) and 7 December (HL2794), whether public engagement strategies are produced by electoral registration officers and made publicly available, and how the success of their work with local education institutions to increase voter registration is measured.
Answered by Lord Bridges of Headley
The Electoral Commission’s guidance requires that Electoral Registration Officers (EROs) produce a public engagement strategy. There is no requirement that these be made publicly available.
As part of the performance standards framework, the Electoral Commission encourages EROs to monitor and adapt their public engagement strategy where needed to meet local challenges. Evaluation of the success of this work is carried out by EROs at a local level.
Asked by: Lord Lexden (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Bridges of Headley on 17 November (HL3184), how many electoral registration officers have visited schools and colleges in the last twelve months; and what proportion of the total number of electoral registration officers that figure represents.
Answered by Lord Bridges of Headley
This information is not collected centrally.
Asked by: Lord Lexden (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they will ensure that local electoral registration offices in England and Wales work closely with schools, as has been done in Northern Ireland, to increase the number of young people registered to vote.
Answered by Lord Bridges of Headley
Electoral Registration Officers (EROs) in Great Britain already work with their local schools and colleges to identify and register young people.
In a report before the start of the current canvass of electors in Great Britain, the Electoral Commission called on all EROs to update their local public engagement strategies for the canvass. The Commission noted that strategies should reflect the activity EROs intended to carry out to target under-registered groups, such as attainers.
Asked by: Lord Lexden (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Bridges of Headley on 22 September (HL2151), on what date the convention that peers who are ministerial special advisers do not speak on the floor of the House was first established.
Answered by Baroness Stowell of Beeston
Lord Hart of Chilton entered the House in 2004 and made his maiden speech only after ceasing to be a ministerial special adviser in 2007. This approach, based on advice from the then Clerk of the Parliaments, has been accepted practice since then.
Asked by: Lord Lexden (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government when the convention that peers who are ministerial special advisers do not speak on the floor of the House was first established.
Answered by Lord Bridges of Headley
It has been accepted practice under successive administrations that special advisers can vote but not speak.
Asked by: Lord Lexden (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government when they plan to respond to the report by the Constitution Committee published on 27 March, <i>Inter-governmental relations in the United Kingdom</i>.
Answered by Lord Bridges of Headley
The Lords’ Constitution Committee report on Intergovernmental Relations in the United Kingdom followed soon after a Plenary meeting of the Joint Ministerial Committee, at which the Heads of all four of the UK administrations agreed to begin work on a revised Memorandum of Understanding. As part of this process the administrations are considering the recommendations of the Silk and Smith Commissions, as well as other recent reports on intergovernmental relations including the Constitution Committee’s report.
The process is continuing and will require careful consideration and discussion between all four administrations of the UK. We therefore do not know exactly how long this might take and should be cautious to avoid prejudging its conclusions. The four administrations will jointly set out the conclusions of this process in due course, and will of course keep the House updated of developments.
Asked by: Lord Lexden (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they plan to advise Her Majesty that an upper limit should be set on the size of the Privy Council.
Answered by Lord Bridges of Headley
There are currently no plans to advise Her Majesty to set an upper limit on the size of the Privy Council.
Appointment to the Privy Council is for life, but only serving Government ministers have a role in advising on Privy Council matters. Therefore the majority of Counsellors play no part in the Privy Council’s day-to-day business. Setting an upper limit could risk restricting essential new appointments, for example, in the event of a reshuffle or change of Government, as each member of the Cabinet must be a member of the Privy Council.
Asked by: Lord Lexden (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what the size of the Privy Council was on (1) 6 February 1952, and (2) 15 June 2015; and how many new members have been appointed since 7 May 2010.
Answered by Lord Bridges of Headley
The information is set out in the table below.
Date | Number of Privy Counsellors |
6th February 1952 | 281 |
15th June 2015 | 657 |
Appointments since 7th May 2010 | 170 |
Asked by: Lord Lexden (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the remarks by Baroness Chisholm of Owlpen on 4 June (HL Deb, cols 916–18), how many complaints were made by registered electors overseas who failed to receive the postal votes for which they had applied because of maladministration by electoral offices in the United Kingdom.
Answered by Lord Bridges of Headley
The information requested is not held centrally. The Electoral Commission will produce a report on the General Election in the coming months and this will cover any concerns that arise around the use of postal votes by overseas electors.