Reformed Second Chamber

EDM number 425 in 2001-02, proposed by Austin Mitchell on 15/11/2001.

That this House, recognising that the only legitimate basis for a second chamber to replace the House of Lords should be directly elected on a regional basis by single transferable voting in each region, while half of the remaining members should be nominated by the party leaders in proportion of their share of the vote, to allow them to bring in experienced members and supporters to contribute their experience, with the other half chosen by an independent appointments panel to bring in members of stature from more diverse backgrounds who are not political partisans and may be unwilling to fight party political elections but who have experience, standing, wisdom and a different and independent contribution to make; further considers that the judges should be transferred to a new Supreme Court and the bishops replaced by a more representative range of religious leaders nominated by their faith; and suggests that members of the second chamber should be called legislative councillors, while the chamber itself should have the power of delay to allow it to give effective scrutiny to legislation and ask government to think again about legislation and proposals, as well as the ability to hold pre-legislation hearings on government proposals and post-legislative reviews of the effectiveness of laws passed and work on joint committees with the Commons to give Britain an effective, independent and distinguished second chamber capable of making its own independent contribution to good government.

This motion has been signed by a total of 4 MPs.