Labour plans to remove peers who do not contribute enough to the House of Lords and to press ahead with plans for a retirement age of 80 from the upper house.
Writing for the Telegraph, the leader of the House of Lords, Angela Smith, said a select committee would consider the next stage of Lords reform after the abolition of hereditary peers.
Lady Smith said that removing the last hereditary peers was “by no means the limit of the government’s Lords reform ambitions” but said the new committee would consider carefully how the next phase would work.
The final stages of the bill, which will abolish the seats for the 86 remaining hereditary peers, will go through parliament this year.
“The introduction of a mandatory retirement age for peers and a participation requirement are both clear among our stage-two manifesto commitments,” Smith said in her article, but said there should be a “collaborative way forward”.
The committee will be made up of cross-party peers and consider ways to implement the retirement age and the measure of participation which will be required.
She wrote: “Most peers agree the current membership is too high and that there are those who rarely attend. The committee will, in turn, be able to look at what might be done with or without legislation. I hope the select committee will also anticipate any unintended consequences.”
But she suggested that a pure measure of speaking contributions would not be a fair way of considering participation overall.
“Those who regularly contribute to the work of the Lords have a clear feel for what this might be. It would recognise contributions in the main chamber as well as the solid, often unnoticed, work done in our impressive system of committees – but it is hard to quantify,” she said.
Smith said the implementation of a retirement age would “avoid any possible cliff-edge moment”.
“Most peers do not want these issues kicked into the long grass, and I am keen to see if we can act more quickly to bring about the necessary and important changes that this government is set on delivering. I am proud of the work of the Lords,” she wrote.
“At its best, it plays a vital role in our constitution as a scrutinising and revising chamber; and we need to ensure that we fulfil that responsibility in order to deliver effectively for the people of this country. But like all such institutions, ongoing improvements and considered reform must ensure it remains fit for purpose and provides for those we serve.”
