Getting in on the Act

INTERESTING THINGS HAVE been afoot in the House of Lords. Excluded for nearly a century from debating key financial matters a Private Members Bill has been put forward to try to modernise the processes of Parliament.

Recently Lord Saatchi put forward a proposal to amend the Parliament Act 1911 which has prevented the House of Lords from having any role in the scrutiny of Money Bills ever since. This Act was brought in because of a self-interested veto by the Lords of a Bill which aimed to place a super-tax on the wealthy. With the removal of hereditary peers the argument is that the time is now ripe to allow the House of Lords take a more constructive role in scrutinising legislation. As Lord Strathclyde has noted:

'Nothing we propose affects the absolute right of the Commons to decide rates of tax and on whom tax should...