Sure, they dress funny, but what do they DO?

From Lords of the Blog, an experiment by members of Britain's House of Lords to explain how their house functions:

The impact of the House

Published October 7, 2008 Lord Norton 
Tags: agenda setting, Constitution Committee, Economic Affairs Committee, European Union Committee, House of Lords, legislative scrutiny, Science and Technology Committee

I see that in response to Lord Taylor’s recent post, Alex has commented:

“there is no point to the house of lords - they are unelected and just use up our taxes. their only power is to delay bills by one year”.

That completely misunderstands the House of Lords.  The cost to the public purse of a member of the House in the 2006-07 session was less than one-sixth the cost of an MP.  The House is extremely efficient and delivers significant outputs at relatively little cost. 

The impact of the House is seen in different ways.  The main one in respect of legislation is not delaying a Bill for a year - it rarely does that - but rather in achieving amendments to Bills.  Each year, between 2,000 and 4,000 amendments to Government Bills are secured the House of Lords, all bar a few by agreement: that is, the Government accepts that they improve a measure.  As a result, they are also acceptable to the House of Commons.  In so far as it is possible to calculate the difference, it has been estimated that the House of Lords makes twice the difference to legislation as that made by the House of Commons.

The House fulfils a range of other functions.  It scrutinises the actions and policy of government, as well as of the European Union.  Each week, through sub-committees of the EU Committee, more than seventy members of the House are engaged in scrutiny of EU proposals.  Other committees cover a range of important topics (including the constitution, economic affairs, communications, and science and technology).  The experience and expertise of the House enables the task to be fulfilled to effect.

The House fulfils a significant agenda-setting role.  Peers can raise issues through a variety of means (balloted debates, questions for short debate, Question Time). The issues may be important to particular sections of society but not have been raised before.  They may be on matters that enjoy little popularity, but deserve discussion.  Peers may return to the issues and, in time, the case for legislative change may be recognised by the House and by Government. 

The list is illustrative rather than exhaustive.  The composition of the House enables it look at issues from a different perspective to that of MPs.  As such, it does not duplicate the elected chamber but rather complements its activities.  In the past, the House has tended to hide its light under a bushel.  Now, there is a recognition that it should go out and explain what it is doing.  This blog is part of that activity.  So is the ‘Peers in Schools’ initiative.  We are keen to engage and explain.  I think we have something notably worthwhile to convey.