New Lords Conduct Committee proposed to deal with complaints of bullying, harassment and sexual misconduct – Committee to include external members with full voting rights

The report recommends the Committee be made up of nine members all with equal voting rights. Five places would be taken by Members of the House of Lords and four by external members. The five places for Members of the Lords would be taken up by backbench party Peers and crossbench Peers. The new Committee would act as the appeal body for both a complainant and for the member who was subject of a complaint related to bullying or harassment.

The report recommends that in future the independent Commissioner for Standards will both establish any breach of the Code of Conduct and propose an appropriate sanction, removing the role of the Sub-Committee on Lords Conduct which currently proposes sanctions.

The report also proposes changes to the House of Lords Code of Conduct to incorporate the parliamentary Behaviour Code, which would make behaviour which constitutes bullying, harassment or sexual misconduct a breach of the Code. The Committee also proposes that the requirement on Members to act on their personal honour should be extended to cover their parliamentary activities as well as their parliamentary duties.

The Committee recommends a new Standing Order be agreed by the House to make clear that reports from the Conduct Committee relating to the behaviour of individual Members, including those proposing sanctions, should be decided by the House without debate.

Commenting, Lord McFall, Chairman of the House of Lords Privileges and Conduct Committee said:

“Today's report represents a significant change in the way the House will deal with allegations of bullying, harassment or sexual misconduct against Members. It will ensure we have an appropriate system to respond to complaints of that nature that everyone can feel confident in.

“It introduces much more independence, with investigators in place to assist the independent Commissioner, sanctions for breaches of the Code being proposed by the Commissioner rather than a Committee of Members, and a new Conduct Committee – with external Members with full voting rights – acting as the body which considers appeals.

“It will be necessary to continue to review how we can make improvements to these arrangements, particularly once we have the report from Naomi Ellenbogen QC. However, the proposals we are putting forward today represent a step change in improving how we handle allegations of bullying and harassment and making those processes more independent of Members of the House. I hope this will reassure staff and others that they can feel confident to report inappropriate behaviour if it occurs.”