Member News
By Ned Simons - 17th November 2010
Peers will not be given redundancy payments as part of any deal to allow them to retire from the House of Lords.
Lord Strathclyde said yesterday that he was ruling out any retirement payments being made as "in the current context that would simply not be understood by the British public."
The leader of the House of Lords was speaking during a debate on proposals to reduce the size of the upper house.
There are currently 776 members of the House of Lords and this number is expected to grow when the coalition makes several new appointments.
Peers are appointed for life and there is currently no provision that permits them to permanently retire. There are measures in place to permit them to suspend their membership, but they are able to return at short notice.
As part of yesterday's debate peers discussed an interim report on the issue from a committee of peers chaired by Tory peer Lord Hunt.
There are a number of reasons for reducing the size of the House, including the shortage of seats in the chamber and the excessive size in comparison to the House of Commons.
There are also concerns about the potential damage done to the credibility of the House by the large number of members who take no active part in proceedings. In the 2009-10 session 79 out of the then total of 741 did not attend at all.
The report noted that some peers had suggested that to encourage a significant number of members to retire some financial provision might be appropriate.
Some peers felt a “single gratuity” payment could be made on retirement, while others suggested an annual payment for a fixed number of years.
But most peers who submitted ideas to the group suggested that any payments should not exceed the amount a retiring Lord would have been expected to have claimed in expenses if they had remained in the House, based on their previous pattern of attendance.
Members of the House of Lords are currently able to claim £300 a day if they attend Parliament.
But yesterday's remarks by Lord Strathclyde appear to have scotched any prospect of any payments for voluntary retirement.
One proposal to cut the number of peers is to introduce the position of "associate member". Peers with this position would retain their title and access to the facilities of the House, but would be barred from scrutinising or voting on legislation.
The government is expected to introduce legislation in the next parliamentary session that will pave the way for a mainly elected House of Lords.
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