House of Lords: Relevance Debate
Full Debate: Read Full DebateDepartment: Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport
Lord Pack
Main Page: Lord Pack (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)Department Debates - View all Lord Pack's debates with the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport
House of Lords: Relevance
Lord Pack Excerpts(2 days, 5 hours ago)
Lords ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text Watch Debate Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
Baroness Twycross (Lab)
The Government are clear that we should have regional and national representation as part of whatever form your Lordships’ House takes going forward. We want to reform the appointments process—that is a manifesto commitment—to ensure the quality of new appointments, and seek to improve the national and regional balance of the second Chamber. As we work through potential reforms, this will remain a commitment from the Government.
Lord Pack (LD)
Does the Minister agree that an excellent way of reinforcing the relevance and reputation of this House in contemporary and modern Britain would be to finally deliver on the promise made in the Parliament Act 1911 and make this a democratic Chamber?
Baroness Twycross (Lab)
I am not clear that that would necessarily solve all the problems, and there are a number of arguments against that as well. At the moment, our focus as a Government is on considering the recommendations of the Retirement and Participation Committee. The overall objective is a smaller Chamber that better represents the UK’s regions and nations.