House of Lords written statement – made at on 7 July 2010.
Lord Strathclyde
Leader of the House of Lords and Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster
On
"That this House calls on Her Majesty's Government, notwithstanding their proposals for Lords reform whose legislative timetable is unclear, to table Motions before the Summer Recess enabling the House to approve or disapprove:
(a) a scheme to enable Members of the House to retire,
(b) the abolition of by-elections for hereditary Peers,
(c) the removal of Members convicted of serious criminal offices,
(d) the creation of a statutory appointments commission".
The Motion was carried by 44 votes to 29.
The Government take seriously the views of the House and have considered the next steps. The Deputy prime minister has already established a cross-party committee which has been charged with producing a draft Bill for a wholly or mainly elected second chamber on the basis of proportional representation. The draft Bill will then be subject to pre-legislative scrutiny. The Government hope this will be by a Joint Committee of both Houses. In addition, I have set up a Leaders' Group chaired by Lord Hunt of Wirral to identify options for allowing Members to leave the House of Lords permanently.
The cross-party committee will be considering all the issues raised in Lord Steel's Motion and a draft Bill will be published around the end of the year. The Government therefore do not consider it appropriate to table Motions before the Summer Recess on these issues.
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.
The office of Deputy Prime Minister is one that has only existed occasionally in the history of the United Kingdom. Unlike analogous offices in other nations, the Deputy Prime Minister does not have any of the powers of the Prime Minister in the latter's absence and there is no presumption that the Deputy Prime Minister will succeed the Prime Minister.
The post has existed intermittently and there have been a number of disputed occasions as to whether or not the title has actually been conferred.
More from wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deputy_Prime_Minister_of_the_United_Kingdom
