Speeches by Cane.

“Moving on to the thorny issue of disgraced peers, you committed to tackling the issue of how we remove them. What plans have you got to address that?”

“You are an historian; you like to have your documents tidy. I am an archaeologist, so I am used to digging them out, but never mind. Part of the reason for these citations is that you think expertise is the strength of the Lords and you want to explain. Normally, when you are trying to fill gaps, there is some sort of …”

“You are now publishing the new appointment citations on gov.uk, but—and it sounds like you have found this problem as well—there doesn’t seem to be a single location where you can find all the citations. Would it be useful to have a single page so that they can all be seen?”

“Some historical citations have been released. Do you think it would be useful to release all of them so that people can get a sense of why people have been appointed historically?”

“To follow up on the citations, they are basically 150 words. Does that really provide enough information about why that person has been appointed?”

“Once you have removed the hereditary peers, the bishops will still have their direct route in, but all the other routes will be through prime ministerial patronage. Your manifesto committed to reforming the appointments system, so what are your plans to reform it?”

“Let’s say that you manage to get the Lords down to whatever you consider a reasonable number. Do you have any plans in place for making sure that it doesn’t creep up again?”

“Talking about appointing peers, the Prime Minister is appointing them faster than at any other time since 1999. He has already appointed more life peers than there are currently hereditary peers, so he has increased the numbers. The Government identified the size of the House of Lords as an issue; are they not keen to …”

“That creates a kind of arms race in the size of the House of Lords. You talked about looking at—effectively—retirement ages, but what other mechanisms do you have in mind for reducing the size?”

“Do you think that anything needs to be done to address that?”

“There have been some reports that, in response to the Bill, some of the Lords have sought to slow down other aspects of the Government’s legislative agenda. Do you share that assessment? If so, do you think it is problematic?”

“You set out last year that the Government’s first priority in reforming the House of Lords was to remove hereditary peers. That has not yet been achieved. Are you disappointed that that has not yet been agreed between the two Houses?”

“I welcome the hardship grants. I would ask that you send all MPs details of that. I am sure we have all got it in our inbox—I have at least two people in that situation. I would also like you to consider whether people could get some sort of compensation, because those two people had made financial commitments on the e…”

“It a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Mrs Barker. I congratulate the petitioners on securing the debate and my hon. Friend the Member for South Cotswolds (Dr Savage) on her excellent speech introducing it. We have already heard some great speeches on the benefits of including play in key stage 1 education. We ha…”

“I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Stratford-on-Avon (Manuela Perteghella) on securing the debate and I thank the Backbench Business Committee for making time for it. As we approach the six-year anniversary of the first lockdown, I am sure that many colleagues will agree that the time of face masks, social di…”

“I agree. When we set up something to deal with an initial crisis, it is really important that we do not take it away too quickly when the crisis may be over but the economy, as the hon. Member said, still has not bounced back. After facing the turmoil of the pandemic, small businesses, many of whose directors were also…”

“It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Mrs Harris. I congratulate the hon. Member for Montgomeryshire and Glyndŵr (Steve Witherden) on securing the debate and on his excellent opening speech. Indeed, his speech and all the speeches we have heard today have been really enthusiastic, and that is the whole point …”

“Do you think there is a risk of mission creep becoming outright politicisation?”

“In your report you also talk about the possibility of mission creep in arm’s length bodies. How big a problem do you think that is? Do you have any specific examples?”

“I hear that, although if you have the nuclear option, as it were, the other side knows that as well. There is room in the middle for quite a bit of influence and control.”