I note with interest your article about attendance of peers in the House of Lords (Evgeny Lebedev goes full year without contributing to House of Lords, 21 February). There is of course no requirement under the appointments system for individual peers to undertake work in the upper house, leaving those who wish to regard their peerage purely as an honour free to do so.
I think it is important to note, however, that the Lords itself plays no part in the selection of its members. There is a debate to be had over whether we wish to continue with a system under which prime ministers – and recently resigned prime ministers – choose the vast majority of peers, who are vetted by the House of Lords Appointments Commission (Holac) only for propriety.
