Restoring trust in the House of Lords
Recent events in the House of Lords regarding conduct have raised serious questions about standards of conduct within the second chamber, including questions around allowances, peers' external interests and enforcement of sanctions for misconduct. This new briefing paper from the Hansard Society explores these issues and sets out a range of measures and recommendations for reinstating public trust in the House of Lords. Key recommendations include:
- Empowering the office of the Lord Speaker
to be able to better represent and act on behalf of the House and take forward
a mandate for reform.
- Significant revision of the Code of Conduct,
including setting out a clear ethos and mission for the House of Lords and
extending the Code to cover the use of allowances and expenses.
- Consideration of the introduction of a
hybrid payments system for allowances and expenses to better reflect the degree
of each peer's involvement in the work of the House.
- Establishing a hierarchy of possible
sanctions that may be applied for breaches of a new Code of Conduct up to and
including permanent expulsion from the House.
- Establishing a system of external
independent regulation for the management of the Lords allowances and expenses
system and enforcement of the Code of Conduct.
Download the full briefing paper.