Long Table: Lord Hannay

David Hannay | Issue 6 | Magazine

From the Archive

23rd January 1985: The House of Lords during its first televised debate. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

The veteran peer on why reforming long-established institutions can be a daunting and thankless task

Reform in the House of Lords is not a subject for the faint-hearted. You have to operate within the institutional framework and, frankly, it can be terribly depressing. I tried to reform the European Union (EU) for many years, with some success. I tried to reform the United Nations for some years, with somewhat less success. And I’ve given up trying to reform the House of Lords, because I’ve had absolutely zero success.

Since entering the Lords in 2001, I’ve spent a lot of time on different European committees. I’m currently on the post-Brexit European Affairs Committee, which replaced a single, overarching European committee with six sub-committees covering every bit of EU policy. Now we’re no longer members, we’re doing the whole thing in one committee and just one sub-committee (on Northern Ireland).

But the House of Lords has no real power, so committees have little genuine influence. That said, the government is compelled to give an answer to any recommendations in our reports – a written answer, within two months, and it can’t just be waffle! These used to be followed by debates, but they have stopped because of Covid. Ultimately, committees have no statutory authority.

The EU was easier to reform than the Lords. When the UK was a principal member state (one of three or four), we could get things done, as long as we applied ourselves for a serious period of time. What …

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