House of Lords written statement – made at on 25 June 2009.
Baroness Royall of Blaisdon
Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, House of Lords, Leader of the House of Lords and Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster
The following Statement is dated
I would like to inform the House of the proposals for the scrutiny of national policy statements, which have been agreed with the usual channels and which I intend to submit to the Procedure Committee for approval.
Under Section 9(2) of the Planning Act 2008, each national policy statement (NPS) must be laid before Parliament. In relation to an NPS, the Secretary of State will specify a relevant period for parliamentary scrutiny. During that period, the Government will offer a debate on an NPS in the Grand Committee, for up to four hours. At the end of the debate, the Minister would respond. In order to facilitate debate, it is envisaged that a list of speakers would be opened for each NPS debate in the Grand Committee.
As was made clear during deliberations on the Planning Act in this House, it is important that Members have the opportunity to scrutinise national policy statements and that the Government respond to Members' views. I hope therefore that the House will welcome these proposals.
The house of Lords is the upper chamber of the Houses of Parliament. It is filled with Lords (I.E. Lords, Dukes, Baron/esses, Earls, Marquis/esses, Viscounts, Count/esses, etc.) The Lords consider proposals from the EU or from the commons. They can then reject a bill, accept it, or make amendments. If a bill is rejected, the commons can send it back to the lords for re-discussion. The Lords cannot stop a bill for longer than one parliamentary session. If a bill is accepted, it is forwarded to the Queen, who will then sign it and make it law. If a bill is amended, the amended bill is sent back to the House of Commons for discussion.
The Lords are not elected; they are appointed. Lords can take a "whip", that is to say, they can choose a party to represent. Currently, most Peers are Conservative.
Secretary of State was originally the title given to the two officials who conducted the Royal Correspondence under Elizabeth I. Now it is the title held by some of the more important Government Ministers, for example the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs.
http://www.parliament.uk/parliamentary_committees/procedure_committee.cfm
Ministers make up the Government and almost all are members of the House of Lords or the House of Commons. There are three main types of Minister. Departmental Ministers are in charge of Government Departments. The Government is divided into different Departments which have responsibilities for different areas. For example the Treasury is in charge of Government spending. Departmental Ministers in the Cabinet are generally called 'Secretary of State' but some have special titles such as Chancellor of the Exchequer. Ministers of State and Junior Ministers assist the ministers in charge of the department. They normally have responsibility for a particular area within the department and are sometimes given a title that reflects this - for example Minister of Transport.
