This is a draft Bill and white paper on proposals to change the House of Lords into a more democratically elected second chamber. A cross-party Committee met seven times from June to December 2010 and considered all reform issues related to the House of Lords. Agreement was reached on a large number of issues but differences in opinion remain on the size of the elected element and the type of electoral system. The Government now wants to take the discussion forward to a debate on the detail. Proposals include an 80 percent elected House of Lords but a wholly elected House of Lords has not been ruled out. The Draft Bill sets out elections using the Single Transferable Vote system but it is recognised that a case can be made for other proportional systems too. Other proposals, name, size, functions, powers and term length are some of several issues discussed.

This publication contains the Standing Orders of the House of Lords which set out information on the procedure and working of the House, under a range of headings including: Lords and the manner of their introduction; excepted hereditary peers; the Speaker; general observances; debates; arrangement of business; bills; divisions; committees; parliamentary papers; public petitions; privilege; making or suspending of Standing Orders.

The history of reform of the House of Lords has a long history since the Parliament Act 1911, and since the House of Lords Act 1999 removed the right of all but 92 hereditary peers to sit in the Lords, there has been a number of initiatives to further the debate on reform. The latest proposals are contained in the draft Bill (Cm. 8077, ISBN 9780101807722) published in May 2011, which was referred to the Joint Committee. In this report the Joint Committee acknowledges the controversial aspects of certain of the proposals and the members of the Committee reflect wider differences of opinion, many of the report's recommendations being decided by a majority. The majority supports the need for an electoral mandate, provided the House has commensurate powers. The current functions and role would continue, but the House would probably seek to be more assertive, to an extent that cannot be predicted. The Committee recommends a House of 450 members, 80% elected on a system of Single Transferable Voting (preferably that used in New South Wales, not the one proposed in the Bill) for a 15 year term.The main sections of the report cover: functions, role, primacy of the Commons and conventions; electoral system, size, voting system and constituencies; appointments, bishops and ministers; transition, salaries, IPSA, disqualification. The Committee recommends that, in view of the significance of the constitutional change, the Government should submit the decision to a referendum.

Dated November 2015. Print and web pdfs available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications Web ISBN=9781474125666

Parliament and the legislative Process : 14th report of session 2003-04, Vol. 2: Evidence

This book is the only one of its kind, providing a clear and exhaustive analysis of the different approaches to the future of Britain's second chamber. The House of Lords has long been the subject of proposals for reform some successful, others not and calls for the existing membership to be replaced by elected members have been a staple of political debate. The debate has been characterised by heat rather than light, proponents and opponents of change often talking past one another. This work gives shape to the debate, drawing out the role of the House of Lords, previous attempts at reform, and the different approaches to the future of the House. It develops the argument for each and analyses the current state of the debate about the future of the upper house in Britain's political system.

In Distilling the Frenzy, the UK's leading contemporary historian examines the special considerations that apply to writing the history of one's own times, and revisits the grand themes running through the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. He looks at Britain's persistent impulse to punch well above its weight in the world; at the sustenance of the nuclear weapons policy which has accompanied that impulse; and at the intelligence operations which underpin it. For the human perspective on these huge issues, he applies his trademark blend of scholarship and wit to assess the contrasting styles and achievements of post-war prime ministers from Clement Attlee to David Cameron. As one of Britain's foremost constitutional experts (and now a cross-bench peer) Peter Hennessy brings a unique perspective to the question of reform of the House of Lords, that irritation to the body politic once again at the very forefront of political debate. Shot through with a thread of autobiography that gives the book an especial immediacy, Distilling the Frenzy is a major work of contemporary history.