Introduction
1.The Lords Speaker’s committee on the size of the House, which was chaired by Lord Burns (the Burns Committee), was established in December 2016 and the Report of the Lord Speaker’s Committee on Size of the House (the Burns Report) was published on 31 October 2017. The House of Lords debated the Burns Report on Tuesday 19 December 2017. A total of 94 Members spoke in the debate. During this debate a great majority agreed with the proposals within the report.1 We launched our inquiry on the 23 January 2018 and held an evidence session with Lord Burns to explore the Burns Committee proposals, on 30 January 2018. We would like to thank Lord Burns for giving evidence to this inquiry.
2.Following this evidence session, the Prime Minister wrote to the Lord Speaker on 20 February 2018 to give her response to the Burns Report. On 24 October 2018 the Burns Committee published its second report, setting out the departures and appointment for the first year after the general election in June 2107. Our consideration of the Burns Committee proposals has taken all of these subsequent events into account. We have also drawn on the work of our predecessor Committee which was conducting the inquiry into An effective Second Chamber? The House of Lords inquiry. This inquiry was halted by the General Election in 2017 and a summary of its findings was published in Sixteenth Report of the Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee of session 2016–2017, The work of the Committee during the 2015–17 Parliament.2
2 Sixteenth Report of the Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee of session 2016–2017, The work of the Committee during the 2015–17 Parliament, HC 1151, 2 May 2017, para 23
Published: 19 November 2018