A Bill to make provision for the appointment of a Commission to make recommendations to the Crown for the creation of life peerages; to restrict membership of the House of Lords by virtue of hereditary peerage; to make provision for permanent leave of absence from the House of Lords; to provide for the expulsion of members of the House of Lords in specified circumstances; and for connected purposes.
The purpose of this Bill is to reform the membership of the House of Lords. All recommendations for life peerages would be made by a Statutory Appointments Commission. Existing hereditary peers would no longer be replaced when they die. Members could apply to take permanent leave of absence, which would be the equivalent of retiring from the House of Lords. Members who failed to attend the House of Lords would be viewed as having taken permanent leave of absence. Members sentenced to more than a year in prison would no longer be members of the House of Lords.
Lord Steel of Aikwood has introduced similar Bills during several previous parliamentary sessions—the House of Lords Bill [HL] 2008–09 reached the committee stage in the House of Lords on 19 March 2009; the House of Lords Bill [HL] 2007–08 received its second reading in the House of Lords on 30 November 2007; and the House of Lords Bill [HL] 2006–07 received its second reading in the House of Lords on 20 July 2007.
When the Constitutional Reform and Governance Bill 2009–10 was introduced in July 2009, it contained provisions to end the by-elections for hereditary peers and to allow for the suspension, resignation and expulsion of Members of the House of Lords. However, these provisions were excluded from the final version of the Bill which received Royal Assent on 8 April 2010. Lord Steel said during this Bill’s committee stage in the House of Lords on 7 April 2010 that if the these provisions were not brought back to parliament after the general election, he would reintroduce his Private Member’s Bill.
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