Lords should declare interests - Jay

Neill Committee is considering tougher rules for peers

Peers should be forced to declare their outside financial interests, according to the Labour leader of the Lords, Baroness Jay.

Giving evidence to the Neill Committee on Standards in Public Life, Lady Jay said the government felt more scrutiny should be brought to the upper house, but she added she was by no means calling for a witch hunt.

Lord Neill's committee took evidence from government ministers and MPs on Monday as it continued its inquiry into bringing in tougher regulation for peers, similar to that faced by MPs.

Lady Jay: Time for change

Also giving evidence to the committee, the senior Conservative peer Earl Ferrers said he believed no code of conduct was necessary as a peers' honour was sacrosanct.

Lady Jay told the committee: "The position of the Labour peers and strongly from the Labour front bench is that this is not about a witch hunt or an attempt to expose corruption.

"What we are trying to do is to get a more transparent and precise system in operation which enables individuals to feel more comfortable with their situation and therefore not exposed to any potential criticism that might arise."

Attorney General Lord Williams said: "We think membership [of Parliament] is a privilege and we feel very strongly that to have this disciplined structure is very helpful to us as individuals."

Senior Labour MP Robert Sheldon, who is also the chair of the Commons Standards and Privileges Committee told the comittee that the rules requiring MPs to register their interests has led to a culture of "tit-for-tat" trivial complaints over the conduct of MPs.

The MP said: "The tit-for-tat situation concerns me greatly, where people outside the House of Commons are willing to trip up others.

"This is getting quite serious because my task has been to improve the reputation of the House, and what we are seeing is that trivial matters are being put forward ... you get that particularly in the run-up to a general election."

Currently peers face more relaxed rules over registration of their interests, and Mr Sheldon said he was "undecided" whether House of Lords rules should be brought into line with those for the Commons.

The Neill Committee into standards in public life was set up in the 1990s after the cash-for-questions row and sleaze allegations in the Commons.