Lord Chancellor (Transfer of Functions and Supplementary Provisions) (No. 3) Order 2006

rose to move, That the draft order laid before the House on 17 May be approved [27th Report from the Joint Committee]. The noble Baroness said: My Lords, this order is the last piece of the jigsaw that we need to put in place to enable the House to elect a Speaker. The main purpose of the order is to implement decisions the House has already taken about the Speaker’s pay and pension. The Select Committee on the Speakership, chaired by the noble and learned Lord, Lord Lloyd of Berwick, recommended that the Senior Salaries Review Body should be invited to propose appropriate salary and pension arrangements for the post of Lord Speaker. In March this year the SSRB recommended that the Lord Speaker should receive the same salary as a Cabinet Minister, then £101,668, subject to annual uprating on 1 April each year. The SSRB also recommended that the Lord Speaker should receive the same pension arrangements as those applying to Ministers, MPs and the Chairman and Principal Deputy Chairman of Committees. On 2 May, after a Division, the House agreed these recommendations. The House also agreed that the Lord Speaker should be entitled to claim the same expenses as other paid office holders in the House. Today’s order gives effect to those decisions. The details are set out in Schedule 2. Noble Lords will notice that the maximum salary is set at £103,701. That is slightly higher than the figure proposed by the SSRB back in March because of the annual uprating arrangements that apply on 1 April each year. Paragraph 5 enables the Lord Speaker to join the parliamentary pension scheme and to receive a pension from that fund. My right honourable friend the Leader of the other place will in due course bring forward regulations to put in place the detailed arrangements for that. Paragraphs 6 to 8 deal with severance payments and allowances. In Schedule 1, the order transfers some minor statutory functions from the Lord Chancellor to the Lord Speaker. Paragraph 1 provides that the Lord Speaker should have the power to recall the House to consider emergency orders made under the Civil Contingencies Act. There is one additional duty that has not been discussed in the House before. At the request of the Church Commissioners, paragraph 2 provides that the Lord Speaker shall be an ex officio Church Commissioner. As such, the Lord Speaker will not be a member of the board of governors, but will be invited to the annual general meeting. Finally, paragraph 3 provides that it will be the Lord Speaker, along with Mr Speaker from another place, who will have the function of nominating the members of the Statutory Instruments Reference Committee. I beg to move. Moved, That the draft order laid before the House on 17 May be approved [27th Report from the Joint Committee].—(Baroness Amos.)