Governance of Britain

My Lords, I shall respond to the Front Benches first and then we have 20 minutes for other noble Lords to make their points. The consultation paper looks at the very issues that the noble Lord, Lord Kingsland, raises. It also suggests that an appropriate Joint Committee of both Houses might consider some of the more sensitive information. However, I have no hesitation in saying to him that this is a matter to which we must give very great attention. The noble Lord, Lord Kingsland, made other extremely important points. As regards treaty ratification, often a long time may elapse between original discussions and actual ratification. It is important that parliamentarians are able to debate the principles at the beginning of the process as well as ratification of the treaty at the end. Ratification is very much at the end of the process. It has been the practice of successive Governments to make changes in domestic legislation to ensure that they comply with the treaty before the ratification process is brought to Parliament. My experience of treaties that I have been involved in relating to health and children is that there have been many opportunities for noble Lords and Members in the other place to debate these matters. The noble Lord, Lord Kingsland, referred to judicial appointments and we again discussed the issue that we debated during proceedings on the Legal Services Bill. I echo what he said about the importance of the independence of the judiciary. The consultative paper presents a number of options for reducing the role of the Executive in the judicial appointments system; for example, the ability of the Lord Chancellor to reject a selection by the Judicial Appointments Commission could be reduced. The ability of the Lord Chancellor to require the Judicial Appointments Commission to reconsider could be reduced or removed. The Lord Chancellor’s role could be reduced to a largely formal one, although he could question the process used by the Judicial Appointments Commission. There could be a complete surrender of the Executive’s role with responsibility transferred to, for example, the Judicial Appointments Commission. Those are all options that will fall to be considered. The noble Lord, Lord Kingsland, raised a very interesting point about the role of Parliament. In the consultative paper the Government say that they have serious doubts about pre-employment hearings as a way to identify the best candidates on merit. They are concerned about the risk of politicisation in that process. They have concerns about non-binding hearings before confirmation but after the appointments process for the same reason. They go on to say that some form of hearing might be more suitable for very senior judges, not in the context of what are described as post-appointment hearings but more to allow those senior judiciary appointments to discuss issues in relation to the administration of justice. I am very happy to take on board the comments of the noble Lord, Lord Kingsland, on this, and I am sure that he will want to contribute further. I am grateful for the welcome that the noble Lord, Lord Tyler, gave to some aspects of the papers. He is right to stress that extreme care must be taken with judicial appointments. I hope that he will read the paper with great interest. I look forward to debating it with him. As regards confirmatory hearings, I am not sure that I completely agree with his remarks about a new Secretary of State, and I am not sure that I would want that extended to your Lordships' House for rather more junior Members of the Government. But clearly the Government have signalled that they are interested in the principle of hearings by appropriate Select Committees for certain very important public offices, and we will pursue that matter. I welcome his comments on freedom of information. Again, much effort will be made to engage noble Lords and Members of the other place in that matter. As regards House of Lords reform, in the light of the vote taken by the House of Commons and the work of the joint group, my right honourable friend the Prime Minister said at the Labour Party conference that the next Labour Government manifesto—whenever that is produced—would contain a commitment to the principle of election. There is much to be discussed between now and then and I look forward to all noble Lords taking part in those discussions and informing the work of the joint group. The new Local Government Bill, which your Lordships’ House debated recently, and the concordat indicate that a much more grown-up relationship is developing between central and local government. The terms of reference and the timing for the Speaker’s Conference are being discussed at the moment. I cannot tell noble Lords any more than that, but the details will be published shortly. On the voting system report, I am still sticking to the end of the year; we have some way to go. As far as what the noble Lord called ““representative democracy”” is concerned—he meant proportional representation and the political fortunes of the Liberal Democrat party—I remain a first past the post-er. Again, certainly in relation to discussions on reform of your Lordships’ House, I have no doubt that we will have every opportunity to discuss these matters very fully.