In the House of Commons, it is possible to raise a point of order with the Speaker. One cannot do that in the Lords. We are a self-regulating chamber, so formally the authority figure for appeal and enforcement comprises the the House itself. Any member can rise to call attention to a transgression of the rules, but one…
Lord Knight mentions that it is a convention that the House of Lords does not reject delegated legislation. As I pointed out in the House recently, when this issue, came up, it has been the usual practice of the House to agree to orders but it has not amounted to a convention. As the Companion…
I was surprised to see a comment on another blog which appeared to suggest that peers enjoy immunity from prosecution. Some members of other legislatures do enjoy significant legal immunity, but parliamentarians in the UK do not. Parliamentary privilege exists to protect parliamentarians in the fulfilment of their parliamentary duties. Speeches made in the course of…
In response to my earlier post on ‘Adding Value’, Bedd Gelert asked how he could find information on the various procedural rules of the House. I replied that our basic guide is the Companion – or the Companion to the Standing Orders and the Guide to the Proceedings of the House of Lords to give it its…
