House of Lords Bill [HL]

The noble Baroness is quite right, and I stand admonished, of course. We are in Committee. I meant that we would discuss the clauses later in Committee. Of course, she is also right that this sounds more like a Second Reading debate, but that is precisely the effect that the noble Lord, Lord Steel, wanted. He wanted to discuss the purpose of the Bill, which is why he has proposed his purpose Bill. Clause 8 says exactly how many members of the commission there will be and the processes by which people will be proposed to it. The noble Lord may well say that he does not think that the commission should pick and choose from the political parties, but as that proposal is live in a cross-party group in another place, we must accept the danger that if this Bill were to go to another place, that is precisely how they would seek to amend it. It is therefore as well to be wise to the dangers of what another place might do to this Bill. I am very sorry that the noble Lord, Lord Steel, will not accept this amendment. It is a very small, very modest amendment that lays out rather neatly how I think the Appointments Commission should operate. It would choose every Member of this House and would meet in secret. No one is suggesting that it should hold public hearings.