Governance of Britain

My Lords, clearly we would very much welcome the contribution of the judiciary and Members of your Lordships’ House in commenting on the details in the consultation documents. The noble Lord is right about what my right honourable friend said yesterday. The position of the House of Lords is set out in a number of areas in these documents and the Government recognise that the House of Lords has an important role to play, albeit within the context of Commons primacy. On war powers, my right honourable friend was suggesting—and the paper refers to this—that there might be a mechanism whereby the House of Commons would normally, where appropriate, allow some time for this House to debate a question, perhaps on a take-note Motion, before the Commons voted on it. That would be entirely consistent with our role as an advising and revising Chamber.