Peers risk being victims of “institutional bullying” by the Government due to the heavy workload in the House of Lords, it has been claimed.
Several sittings have run late into the evening, including a near 13-hour day until 3.22am last month, as ministers attempted to get parliamentary approval for key pieces of complex legislation.
Labour’s Lord Griffiths of Burry Port, 80, said some peers have “struggled with the heavy legislative programme” and he complained it was unfair to keep them until the early hours, given their age.
He added a more civilised approach should be adopted for the scheduling of Lords business to avoid such lengthy days.
Lord Griffiths said peers are struggling with the heavy legislative programme
Parliament TV
As of January 19, the average age of peers was 71.
Lord Griffiths, speaking during a debate on digital technology and trust, said the leadership of the UK leaves “much to be desired in terms of integrity, honesty and openness”.
He told peers: “Let me just offer one example to take it away from the rather more personal observations I’ve just made.
“I’ve had occasion not to stay up until 3.30am. I see some of the demands that have been made on members of this House to be almost institutional bullying.
“To keep them until 3.30 at our age debating matters which for an extra parliamentary day could have been done in a more civilised way, there’s no point in shrugging it off or frowning about it, I’ve seen the result in some of the members of this House as day after day, week after week they’ve struggled with the heavy legislative programme that has been imposed upon us.”
The controversial Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill has been among the pieces of legislation to receive several days of line-by-line scrutiny as peers discussed amendments.
At the start of day 11 of the Bill’s committee stage, the Government’s Lords Chief Whip Lord Ashton of Hyde told peers: “I completely accept it might go quite late tonight.
“We have spent a lot of time on this Bill, I accept that.
“This is the committee stage, it can’t go on forever because if it goes on and on and on, the House of Lords looks as if in a position that it is preventing the Bills that have been passed by the House of Commons from going ahead.”
Baroness Jones of Moulsecoomb said peers don't want to stay up until 4am
Stefan Rousseau
Green peer Baroness Jones of Moulsecoomb raised concerns about expectations the debate could carry on until the early hours of the morning, saying at the time: “This is not the way to treat the House of Lords. Especially as we get older, we don’t want to stay up until 4am and quite honestly this was a Bill that should have been four Bills.”
The House of Lords is self-regulating, which includes peers determining how long they speak for during the committee stage of a Bill