Constitution

My Lords, we, too, on these Benches thank the Minister and his colleagues for giving us a little advance notice of a very detailed Statement, White Paper and draft Bill. At the beginning of this process, the Prime Minister in his first speech in the other place said: "““The right of all the British people to have their voice heard is fundamental to our democracy””.—[Official Report, Commons, 3/7/07; col. 818.]" We certainly agree with that. We are encouraged to see, in the foreword to today’s White Paper, that the Lord Chancellor said that the objective is to, "““deliver the fairest possible distribution of power in our society””." In that context, frankly, the Statement today, the White Paper and even the draft Bill are mice. To wait for so long—from last July—for their gestation has been a frustrating exercise. We had hoped for more, because the purpose of the exercise is not a little tidying up, but to re-engage our fellow citizens in the democratic institutions of our country—both local and national—and to ““reinvigorate our democracy””. I do not think that there is quite enough here to do that. I shall turn to the detailed points in the Statement and the White Paper. We certainly support the abolition of the ridiculous crime that was introduced of a protest in and around Parliament. The Minister will recall that my noble friend Lady Miller of Chilthorne Domer introduced a Bill at the beginning of the year that would have done that very neatly; we would not have had to wait for a Joint Committee or a draft Bill, or had any other delay. This is yet another example of where legislating for a knee-jerk reaction means that we all repent at leisure. We have some concerns—they were expressed again by the noble Lord, Lord Kingsland—about precisely to whom the Attorney-General is to be responsible and accountable. Is it to Parliament as a whole, or is he or she still adviser to the political party that happens to be in government at the time? There are clearly circumstances where the exclusion for national security, which was referred to in the Statement, might include such highly charged political issues as the BAE Systems contract with the Saudi Government or the difficult situation that arose in the run-up to the Iraq war. The White Paper does not adequately address the concerns that came from the resignation letter of Elizabeth Wilmshurst, which noble Lords will recall raised important questions about apparent political bias in the way in which the Attorney-General gave advice to the Government. We have an anxiety that, for public and to some extent judicial appointments, Secretaries of State—not just those who happen to be heads of quangos or have other appointments under the state—should have to answer to parliamentary scrutiny and accountability. The Secretary of State should be the one brought to a Select Committee—perhaps a joint one—on the appropriate department, so that there could be a proper interrogation of his or her intentions in that department. If we are to have new, confirmatory hearings, surely they should be within Parliament, of parliamentarians. It was significant that the Minister had to make a mini-introduction to his Statement to emphasise that, every time ““this House”” was referred to in the Statement to the other place, it did not mean your Lordships' House. It is true that the Statement and the White Paper do not explain the exact role of your Lordships' House in relation to the ratification of treaties. It is clear that the other place has a right to veto ratification, but what is the responsibility of your Lordships' House in that matter? I hope that we can have an explanation. Similarly, on war powers, I was a Member of the other place at the time of the debate on the decision by the Government to go to war in Iraq. I have no regrets whatever for voting against that, but I was conscious at the time that there was expertise and great concern in your Lordships' House. What role will there be in future if that proposal goes forward and the prerogative power is modified or removed? There will be wide concern about the role of special advisers in possible instruction or direction of professional civil servants. I do not see a clear statement of what change is to take place on that in the draft Bill when we put the Civil Service on a statutory basis, welcome though that obviously is. As has already been said on the role of Parliament in relation to dissolution or recall of Parliament, assuming that the Government of the day have a majority in the other place, it is to some extent a fig-leaf and not a real change. In certain circumstances, it might constrain the role of the monarch. If the other place has no overall majority, as is the case in your Lordships' House, that might be a more meaningful vote; perhaps we should have a vote in this House as to whether the other House should be dissolved or recalled. The gaping hole is the lack of a single reference to the very recent and very useful government report on voting systems, which must surely be at the heart of a representative democracy. As became apparent when we had a debate just 10 days or so ago, it is extraordinary that only about a third of those elected to the other place these days can claim to represent a majority of those who voted in their constituencies, and not one single Member of Parliament now can claim to have a majority supporting him from the whole of his registered electorate. If we are going to have a British Bill of Rights, surely a very basic right of a British citizen is to be able to see his or her vote as having equal value to everybody else’s. Can the Minister confirm or deny the report on the front page of yesterday’s Guardian that the Government are considering a reform of the voting system? If so, why was that leaked to the media rather than given as a Statement to your Lordships’ House when the Minister addressed us on 13 March? True or false, perhaps he would like to confirm that there have been no discussions or consultation with other parties—certainly not with the Liberal Democrats. If Parliament is to be, "““the seat of our democracy””," as the Statement says, surely the confidence of our fellow citizens that they are truly and fairly represented in Parliament is a critical factor if we are to renew confidence in our parliamentary systems. This Statement goes a very small way to reviving interest in our parliamentary institutions but that revival will not be sufficient to re-engage the public unless it is a great deal more radical in future.