Member

Bearing in mind that the Cross Benches are not meant to be partisan, nor in any way obliged to any Prime Minister and that, as we have already discussed this evening, the Cross Benches are about to lose a significant number from their ranks, and the noble Baroness the Leader of the House is concerned about balance, I want to take this opportunity to ask some questions. I do not expect the noble Baroness to signal now how many new Cross-Bench Peers she expects the Prime Minister to create over this Parliament, but it would be helpful to get some sense of where she envisages the split to be between the number of Cross-Benchers nominated via the HOLAC process and the number of nominations she expects the Prime Minister to make directly.