House of Lords: Leader's Group on Working Practices
House of Lords

Lord Butler of Brockwell (Crossbench)

To ask the Leader of the House which recommendations of the Leader's Group on Working Practices he has not yet brought forward for resolution by the House.

Lord Strathclyde (Leader of the House of Lords, House of Lords; Conservative)

A minority of the Leader's Group's recommendations can be implemented by means of a resolution of the House. Of those that can, the only recommendations that have not been put to the House for decision are recommendation 27-the adoption of a resolution affirming the House's intention to use votes on delegated legislation "to delay, rather than finally to defeat, such legislation"-and recommendation 55, which would introduce a 2 pm sitting time for the House on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays.

The majority of the Leader's Group's recommendations required further development, principally through the domestic committees of the House, before they could be put to the House for decision. At my instigation, the majority of recommendations from the Leader's Group were considered in this way. Some of them were subsequently put to the House for decision while others were rejected by the relevant committee before the House could take a view (see 8th, 10th and 11th Reports from the Procedure Committee, Session 2010-12; 3rd Report from the Liaison Committee, Session 2010-12; and the minutes of the relevant meetings).

Of those recommendations that have been put to the House for decision, the most significant recommendations-for example, recommendation 1 in respect of the role of the Lord Speaker and recommendation 20 in respect of the commitment of Bills to Grand Committee-have been rejected by the House.