This week’s quiz is a straightforward one inviting you to identify some senior members of the House. Peers are drawn from a range of backgrounds. This week the focus is on ministerial background. As usual, the first two readers to supply the correct answers will be the winners. 1. I am a Conservative peer. I…
As Baroness Deech has explained, we had a long debate on Tuesday on the Second Reading of the Public Bodies Bill. We rose shortly before midnight. Over 55 speakers participated. Had each taken the 15 minutes to which they were entitled, we would have gone on for several more hours. In the event, most speakers…
This week’s quiz focuses again on committees, but this time on committee members. Readers are invited to look at page 17 of The House of Lords: A Guide to Business. This shows the Constitution Committee in the last Parliament taking evidence from Lord Chancellor and Justice Secretary, Jack Straw. The committee is chaired by Lord…
Both Baroness Murphy and Lord Soley have commented on the Public Bodies Bill, which comes up for its Second Reading on Tuesday. It is proving highly controversial and there is now a long speakers’ list for the debate. The principal problem with the Bill is what is known as an ‘Henry VIII’ provision: that is,…
Lord Knight has raised the issue of poor or inadequate ministerial responses. This is not a problem confined to the Lords (see my earlier post on last week’s debate in the Commons on reducing the number of ministers) or to this Parliament. It is an enduring issue. The problem in large part is because ministers enter…
