Constitutional Reform and Governance Bill

Okay, then, I shall do exactly that. I now turn to clause 31. This provides a power for the House of Lords to make Standing Orders to allow it to pass a resolution to expel a peer or to suspend a peer for any length of time specified in the resolution. This resolution may be passed when the House considers that the conduct of the Member has damaged the reputation of the House. The intention is to replicate, as far as possible, the sanctions of suspension and expulsion that already exist in the House of Commons and that the House of Commons has at its disposal to deal with misconduct by MPs. As in this House, the intention is to uphold the fundamental principle of parliamentary privilege, which permits each House to regulate its own affairs. In 1999, the Joint Committee on Privileges said:""As far as members are concerned, there can be no doubt that each House should remain responsible for disciplining its own members. The Joint Committee has taken this as axiomatic. It is inconceivable that power to suspend or expel a member of either House should be exercisable by the courts or some other outside body."" In keeping with that principle, the criteria for exercise of the power is non-prescriptive. It requires that the House must find that the Member's conduct brings the House into disrepute. Subsection (1) provides the House of Lords with the power to make in Standing Orders such provisions as are necessary for it to exercise a power to suspend or expel Members by resolution. The precise framework within which the power will be exercised is therefore delegated to the House of Lords. This delegated power will allow the House to elaborate the principal basis for any sanctions as well as the details of the procedural mechanism by which any sanction will be applied.