Downing Street Says » House of Lords reform

» Thursday, December 7, 2006

House of Lords reform

Asked to indicate the envisaged timetable, Mr Straw said that the Government’s response to the Joint Committee on Conventions, chaired by Lord Cunningham, was due before Christmas. It would be followed by a debate on it in the House of Lords where part of the outcome would be a Message to the House of Commons on the conclusion of the Upper House. MPs would then debate it, provisionally, during the first few weeks after the recess.
The Leader mentioned that cross-party group was meeting on the issue of the future composition. He hoped that there could be a White Paper by the end of January or early February, followed by a free vote on composition two or three weeks later, to enable time for it to be digested.
The Government, at that stage, would have to make a judgement whether there was a sufficient consensus to proceed, quite quickly, with a Bill or whether it drew breath. The Leader said that the Joint Committee had managed to achieve a consensus and its report had described the conventions of the relationship between the Houses in greater detail. The issue had been discussed within the cross-party talks.

1 Comment »

i hate tony blair
Comment by Rose Cox — 26 Jan 2007 on 1:06 pm | Link

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