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Elected second chamber

Date: 14 July 2008

The proposals are based on last year's House of Commons votes for an 80% or 100% elected second chamber and follow cross-party talks on how this could be achieved.

The White Paper makes proposals for reform in a number of areas:

• Role and composition
  The House of Lords plays a valuable role in holding the government to account and revising legislation. The reforms would strengthen those roles and make the second chamber more accountable. The House of Commons would continue to be the primary chamber in the UK legislature.
• Membership of the chamber
  The proposed reforms would create a second chamber with directly elected members, which would be smaller than the House of Commons. The remaining rights of hereditary peers to sit and vote in the second chamber would be removed.
• Powers of the new chamber
  The government proposes no changes to the powers of a reformed second chamber.
• The possible role of appointed members to ensure independence
  If it is decided that there should be a 20% appointed element, the government proposes that its key purpose be to provide a significant independent element in the second chamber. A statutory appointments commission would seek nominations and applications for membership, against published criteria.
  

The government is also proposing changes to the arrangements for eligibility, remuneration and accountability.

 

• An elected second chamber (PDF 0.61mb 89 pages)
• An elected second chamber - annexes (PDF 0.96mb 50 pages)