Summary: The Government believes that an effective and credible Second Chamber is essential to the health of our democracy. It has a valuable role to play in the legislative process of this country in revising legislation and reviewing and questioning the work of the House of Commons. The 2005 manifesto proposed to continue reform of the House of Lords to make it more effective, legitimate and representative, without challenging the primacy of the House of Commons. On 7 February 2007, the Government published a White Paper, The House of Lords: Reform, setting out proposals to create a part-elected, part-appointed House of Lords and to end the link between the peerage and a seat in Parliament. It presents an illustrative model of how the chamber might work if it had a 50pc directly-elected and 50pc appointed membership. The paper aims to secure the widest-possible consensus on future composition of the House of Lords, and to inform free votes on the composition of a reformed second chamber which are due to take place before Easter. Publication of the paper, which outlines a long, gradual process toward achieving reform of the second Chamber, follows the first Government-led cross-party talks on Lords reform for nearly four decades. This is a unique opportunity to create a more effective, legitimate and representative Chamber for the 21st century.
Territorial Extent
United Kingdom
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