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Private Members’ Bills
It is not just in the Commons that Private Members’ Bills attract interest. In the Lords, there is no ballot at the beginning of the session (or rather, taking up Lord Tyler’s earlier point, no random...
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Prisoner voting rights
A number of Bills each year are now published in draft and subject to pre-legislative scrutiny. The scrutiny is usually undertaken by the relevant Departmental Select Committees in the Commons, but...
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Marriage (Same-sex Couples) Bill
The Marriage (Same-sex Couples) Bill has completed its passage through the Commons. It was given a Third Reading by 366 votes to 161. It has now arrived in the Lords, having been given its formal...
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Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Bill
The House completed a two-day debate on the Second Reading of the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Bill yesterday. Cross-bench peer Lord Dear moved an amendment to reject the Bill. There was a packed...
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Quiz: Same-sex marriage debate
As debate in the House of Lords this week was dominated by the two-day debate on the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Bill, I thought this quiz might usefully focus on the debate and those who participated....
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A confusion of titles
Sometimes a peer has to add a territorial title to their name if there is already a peer using the same surname. When I received my peerage, there was already a Lord Norton, a hereditary peer. As I...
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Third Reading of Bills
Bills have to go through the same stages in both Houses. However, procedures differ considerably. In the Lords, for example, there are no guillotine or programme motions and no selection of...
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Bringing Acts into effect
I penned an earlier post on the procedure for Third Reading in the Lords in response to clear interest shown in it during passage of the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Bill. Many people outside the...
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The cost of the House
Each year, a question is usually tabled to find out the annual total costs, and the cost per member, of the House of Commons, the House of Lords and the European Parliament. At the end of last month,...
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Legislating without effect
After Parliament has passed a Bill, it receives Royal Assent and becomes an Act of Parliament. Provisions of an Act take effect upon Royal Assent unless provided otherwise. In practice, it is common...
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Continuing decline of snail mail
The volume of correspondence received in the Palace of Westminster continues to decline. Each year, I table a question to find out how many items of correspondence were received in the Palace of...
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Different ways of doing things
Procedures in the Lords are different to those in the Commons, not least in term of the rules governing votes. For example, if an MP votes in both lobbies during a division, his or her name is shown...
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Attitudes towards conduct in public life
On Tuesday, the House had a question for short debate (QSD) on the recent report of the Committee on Standards in Public Life (CSPL) on its survey of public attitudes towards standards in public life....
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Changing constitutional conventions
The Constitution Committee of the House has today published its report on Constitutional implications of coalition government. You can read the report here. Among its recommendations are that as far...
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Provisions for same-sex marriage
On Thursday, the House of Lords approved various orders under the Marriage (Same-Sex Couples) Act 2013 to enable same-sex marriages to take place. You can read the debate here. The Government has...
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Debating parliamentary privilege
The House yesterday debated the report from the Joint Committee on Parliamentary Privilege. I was one of those who spoke in the debate. (You can read the speech here.) The report was a measured and...
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Enhancing electoral engagement by British expatriates
There are estimated to be more than 5 million British nationals living abroad, with about 3 million of these being entitled to be on the electoral register in the UK. At the end of 2011, fewer than...
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Making progress on the Byles Bill
Yesterday (Friday), the House gave an unopposed Second Reading to the House of Lords Reform (No. 2) Bill. You can read the debate here. The Bill has already been taken through the House of Commons by...
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Finding out about the House of Lords
The House of Lords has a strong commitment to outreach and engagement. This includes the ‘Peers in Schools’ programme as well as this blog, a unique collaboration of members drawn from different...
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Supporting same-sex marriage
Last year, the House of Lords voted for the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Bill by an overwhelming majority, taking commentators – and many peers – by surprise. The scale of support was greater than in...
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