Why peers shouldn’t be reluctant to resign

In recent years, the Upper House has made significant interventions on identity cards, detention without charge, judicial review and banning smoking in cars with children present, to name just a few. These interventions won concessions from government because they emerged from debates involving some of our leading voices on human rights, policing, legal affairs and health. The Lords, uniquely, can bring specialist knowledge and experience to topics ranging from intervention in Syria through nuclear energy to regenerative medicine. In a recent debate on mitochondrial donation, it was able to call on expertise from those intimately involved with the progress of human fertilisation and embryology legislation over the past 25 years.

But, as Ive argued before, we cant perform this valuable work in splendid isolation from public opinion. And I would also argue that the Lords image problem lies more in its composition than in its work. Membership has been growing steadily since the reform of 1999, and while we are some way from the situation back then, when the House had over 1,200 members, we cannot continue on this ever upward trend. So we must seek a way of optimising the expertise the Lords brings to Parliament, while also addressing public concerns over our numbers.

The history of Lords reform illustrates the difficulties in achieving this through legislative means. So in the absence of more significant reform, the House needs to find a different way of refining and renewing its membership. Last years Act gives us one outlet: peers can now simply choose to retire. It may sound like small beans, but it can have a lasting and positive effect. As members retire, new appointees can replace them, bringing fresh expertise and plugging gaps in professional experience, without placing undue pressure on the administration of the House and its proceedings. A Chamber whose membership is in a state of steady but constant flux, where members are always reflecting upon the value they can bring to parliamentary proceedings, would help give the lie to the popular but inaccurate image of a hidebound and moribund Upper House.

I have made it clear that I want members feel able to retire when they are satisfied that they have contributed all they wanted to and achieved all that they set out to - or simply when they feel they are no longer able to contribute meaningfully. Indeed, Lord Ashcroft said this was a key factor in his own decision.

One of the ways to foster this culture is by continuing to provide some access and privileges to members who stand down; Lord Ashcroft tweeted something to this effect when he made his announcement. By providing this we want to acknowledge the contribution that these members have made to the House. But at the same time the specific privileges have been carefully designed to avoid cost to the taxpayer or any detrimentally effect on the provision of services to current members.

There is more that we could do to maximise the benefits of the retirement legislation, to boost our expertise and challenge our popular image. And while doing so, we could amass a reservoir of potential peers, already vetted by the Appointments Commission, who only actually join the House when a vacancy is freed up by a retirement. The one in one out principle might not reduce the size of the House, but it would at least limit its expansion.

Regardless of what further steps we take, retirement at the right time should be seen as a condition of membership of the House of Lords a duty as well as a right. Lord Ashcroft and the other peers who have chosen to go have acknowledged this. Similarly, I have committed to leave the House during the 2020 Parliament. I would encourage other members who feel they can no longer contribute to the work of the House in the way they have previously, to also consider this. After all, membership is now a career and a public service - not a lifetime commitment.

Baroness DSouza is Lord Speaker

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Why peers shouldn't be reluctant to resign