Mark Valladares

Next week in the Lords: 8-11 January

By | Fri 4th January 2013 - 5:51 pm

Whilst rumours of a list of new Peers swirls around the Palace of Westminster, the Lords returns to work on Tuesday, and a somewhat lop-sided week continues through to Friday in order to fit in the postponed debate on Leveson.
 
Never let it be said though that the Lords needs a gentle warm-up before asking the difficult questions. Tuesday sees oral questions on airport capacity in London, housebuilding in South East England and the effect of the ‘fiscal cliff’ solution on the UK economy, before the Growth and Infrastructure Bill receives its Second Reading. Yes, that’s the one that proposes, amongst other things, to offer employees the opportunity to sign away their employment rights in exchange for shares. I can’t frankly see it having much positive impact, although it might offer another opportunity for bad employers to abuse their staff further.
 
Elsewhere, the Orders abolishing British Shipbuilders and the Aircraft and Shipbuilding Industries Arbitration Tribunal are in Grand Committee as part of the ‘bonfire of quangos’ that was promised. Didn’t make a huge impact on the public consciousness, did it? And, on the committee corridors, the European Union Committee continues its evidence gathering on EU Enlargement.
 
On Wednesday, Dick Newby takes the Public Service Pensions Bill through its Committee Stage. I won’t comment, given my blatant conflict of interest, but needless to say, the public sector unions aren’t terribly happy. Anthony Lester ends the day with a debate on UK government-funded medical care for women and girls impregnated by rape in armed conflict. In Grand Committee, meanwhile, the Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Bill enters Day 6 of its Committee Stage but the most entertainment is likely to be had at the Constitution Committee, who will be grilling someone called Nick Clegg about the success of the Government’s constitutional reform agenda. Seriously though, this is an annual evidence session, and provides a platform for Nick to outline what is intended for 2013’s legislative schedule.
 
Curiously, the legislative programme for Thursday is all in Grand Committee, with two pieces of European legislation, the European Union (Croatian Accession and Irish Protocol) Bill and the European Union (Approvals) Bill going through their Committee stages, whilst in the Main Chamber, debates on disability services for people from black and minority ethnic backgrounds and bees are scheduled. However, those interested in diversity issues will be drawn to the recommendation for a Reasoned Opinion on the EU Committee’s report on women on boards.
 
The EU Protocol on the Application of the Principles of Subsidiarity and Proportionality provides for national parliaments to scrutinise draft legislation specifically on the issue of compliance with the principle of subsidiarity, and for a reasoned opinion procedure where a proposal is found not to comply with the principle. Any chamber of a national parliament may submit a reasoned opinion (Article 6 of the Protocol). If there are enough of them, a review of the proposal will be triggered (the “yellow or orange card”) in accordance with Article 7 of the Protocol.
 
The EU Committee has concluded that the proposal from Brussels that there should be mandatory quotas for women on boards is a breach of the Protocol, and wishes to have it reviewed.
 
And finally, Friday sees the postponed debate on the Lord Justice Leveson report on the culture, practices and ethics of the press. Expect an awful lot of unhappiness about press standards, especially as the noble Lord Prescott is likely to intervene.

* Mark Valladares subscribes to the Letter of the Lords, and thinks that you should too…

Read more by or more about , , , or .
This entry was posted in News and Parliament.
Advert

One Comment

Post a Comment

Lib Dem Voice welcomes comments from everyone but we ask you to be polite, to be on topic and to be who you say you are. You can read our comments policy in full here. Please respect it and all readers of the site.

If you are a member of the party, you can have the Lib Dem Logo appear next to your comments to show this. You must be registered for our forum and can then login on this public site with the same username and password.

To have your photo next to your comment please signup your email address with Gravatar.

Your email is never published. Required fields are marked *

*
*
Please complete the name of this site, Liberal Democrat ...?

Advert



Recent Comments

  • Little Jackie Paper
    Peter Martin On the EU at some point those in Labour who want to pursue rejoin are going to have to confront that rejoining will mean selling the single curr...
  • Brian Ellis
    Fantastic set of results. I had a relation living in this County back in the 1970's the area was totally blue and these results have been achieved by hard graft...
  • John Roffey
    Roger Lake: I should have been more precise with my last post. I was referring to the Greens when I wrote 'this vacuum will be filled by another [party]. Thi...
  • Michael 1
    Layla Moran has tweeted that this is the biggest group we have *ever* had on Oxfordshire County Council. https://twitter.com/LaylaMoran/status/1391435092447...
  • Michael 1
    @Frank You might be able to get someone to pick up a blank form for you, you fill it (and basically my GP practice only asked for a couple of details - essen...