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Lord Sentamu (CB)

Speaking in the House of Lords on 16 September 2026

Debate

Procedure and Privileges

Contribution

My Lords, I appeared in your Lordships’ House in 2006 and Questions were being asked. I had listened, time was nearly running out, and I spoke, but I had a piece of paper. All around the House, word went out: “Reading, reading, reading!” And I showed my piece of paper, which did not have a word on it. So, dear friends—I say “friends” because “Lords” sounds a little too grand here—for a self-regulating body to give power to the Lord Speaker to intervene in a debate is trying to imitate what happens in the other place. We need to discipline ourselves. For example, if there are only 20 seconds left of the 10 minutes at Question Time on a particular Question, people should not ask a question. We have been breaking the time limit, so we need to discipline ourselves, and I, for one, want to endorse the report of the committee that worked on this. Let us try it out and see what happens. Maybe next time when I hear a very long, read speech, I will stand up and say, “Reading, reading, reading!”

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