Government: Draft Legislative Programme

rose to move, That this House takes note of The Government’s Draft Legislative Programme. The noble Lord said: My Lords, I am honoured to speak for the Government today in what I hope will be the first of a long series of annual debates. Noble Lords will recall that last week my right honourable friend the Prime Minister made a Statement in the other place on the Government’s current plans for legislation in the next Session of Parliament. My noble friend the Leader of the House repeated this Statement to your Lordships. To accompany the Statement a Command Paper was published setting out the thinking behind the publication of a draft programme and giving details of 23 Bills that the Government propose will form the bulk of the government legislation considered by Parliament in the next Session. In addition to today’s debate, a debate was held in the other place yesterday while the Commons Liaison Committee will take evidence on the draft programme. Furthermore, the Government are taking forward discussions with a wider constituency outside Parliament to seek views on the Government’s proposals. By any standards, this is a formidable programme of consideration for a process that has previously been shaped behind closed doors. It stems from the innovation of publishing a draft programme. It might therefore be helpful if I set out in a little more detail how this fits into the Government’s wider programme of reform. I shall also allude to a number of the proposed Bills which form it, and which the Prime Minister and I have put within the context of the Government’s political priorities. I wish to stress to the House that one of the main purposes of today’s debate is for the Government to hear the views of noble Lords from across the House. Therefore, I am very much in listening mode and will seek to address as many of the issues raised during the debate when winding up or through correspondence thereafter. The publication of the draft programme forms part of a wider package of proposals and reforms to renew our institutions, redefine the relationships between them and reinvigorate our democracy. The Government are proud of their record of constitutional reform. The reforms of the past 10 years are now embedded in our political culture and our institutions. They are also robust. The package of reforms set out more recently by the Prime Minister, and detailed in the Green Paper, The Governance of Britain, follow on from them.