Baroness Donaghy (Lab)

My Lords, I chair the Steering Group for Change, which advises and supports the House of Lords Commission and the management board on continued efforts to improve the workplace culture of the House. We create a space where Members and staff can work together in an open and collaborative way. The effectiveness of the House of Lords relies on strong working relationships between Members of the House and the administration to strengthen the House as an institution. It also has the potential to build positive public perceptions of this House. The steering group considered the recommendations of the review. We are grateful to the chair of the Conduct Committee, the noble Baroness, Lady Manningham-Buller, for attending our meeting last week, and to the Conduct Committee and its officers for the enormous amount of work carried out to produce this substantial report. We see this as a protection for Members and not a threat. It will reassure staff that everyone on the estate will be treated equally, and it will be a signal to members of the public that we have a fair, independent and robust system for dealing with conduct issues. The right revered Prelate the Bishop of Derby, who is a member of our steering group, had originally intended to speak but cannot because of family health. She has asked me to say on her behalf: “My own expectation that in this place of work, that having a robust code backed up by clear guidance is really important for the expression of the culture of who we want to be, expressed in the way of how we’re going to do it, and that is important for every person at every point of this organisation and it should just be a given”. The amendment from the noble Lord, Lord Hamilton, to prevent Peers submitting complaints against each other would go against the grain of equal treatment for all on the Parliamentary Estate. It would drive a coach and horses through the behaviour code. Of course there are risks that a complainant might be playing politics. That is why we have independent and impartial commissioners. Members of the Conduct Committee are not naive about the political nature of our work. That is why the three main parties and the Cross Benches are represented on it. Finally, on the amendment from the noble Viscount, Lord Hailsham, to introduce an adversarial system to deal with conduct issues, this has been considered many times before and rejected consistently by this House. It would put us at odds with the House of Commons, the Scottish Parliament, the Senedd and the Northern Ireland Assembly. My concern is also echoed in the words of the noble Baroness, Lady Manningham-Buller, that it would increase the length and expense of investigation. I hope very much that we will give wholehearted support to the Conduct Committee’s report and our thanks to the noble Baroness for her most distinguished chairing of this committee in the last few years.