Lord Adonis: how the House of Lords can do its job better

2 Nov 2010 03:53 PM

Andrew Adonis has written to the Chair of the House of Lords Working Group on Procedures setting out his proposals for reforming the House. (PDF, 2.69MB)

Lord Adonis was invited to set out his thoughts by Lord Goodlad, who chairs the working group, following an article in The House magazine on 25 October.

In the article, he argued it was urgent to debate how the House can do its job better, as it "performs its functions haphazardly at best, not least because it makes such poor use of its members. I know of no institution which possesses so much talent, and makes so little use of it."

The Institute for Government Director has proposed three sets of reforms:

1. Creating cross-cutting select committees  to cover public services, national infrastructure and welfare – to make better use of member’s talent and expertise on domestic policy
2. The Grand Committee to scrutinise all bills (except major constitutional bills) – to free up the chamber for more topical debates and questions
3. Changes to bring order and efficiency to House business – for example, the Lord Speaker calling speakers at Question Time, instead of peers currently competing to ask questions.

You can read the letter in full below.