House of Lords to increase sitting days

• In a letter to members from Lord McFall of Alcluith, Senior Deputy Speaker and chair of the Procedure Committee, he set out a number of changes to enable the House of Lords to conduct business and further scrutinise the governments response to the Covid-19 pandemic.
• These changes build on the second stage of virtual proceedings, which was implemented last week.
• This saw 225 members participate in 12 hours of business over two days, with a similar number of members contributing in questions virtually compared to proceedings in the chamber of the House.

Letter from Lord McFall of Alcluith to members of the House of Lords

• The Committee met yesterday for the third time in a month and will continue to meet regularly throughout this period.
• Our deliberations were informed by the experience of last week, which saw the introduction of stage two of virtual proceedings.
• Across the two sitting days last week we saw 225 members make contributions on 11 items of business, lasting 12 hours.
• And these figures compare favourably to the House of Commons, which sat for 10.5 hours over three days, with 173 members contributing.
• This change, which I hope will be welcomed by all members, requires a motion to be agreed by the House before taking effect.
• The changes to sign-up times for oral questions, PNQs and debates which were agreed yesterday merit particular attention from members.
• The House Administration are also undertaking work to plan and deliver hybrid proceedings in the House, following the decision of the House of Lords Commission on 7 May to move in this direction.
• Any return to members attending the House would need to be staged and in line with guidance from Public Health England.