House of Lords Dodges Scrutiny of £10 Million Door – Guido Fawkes

House of Lords Dodges Scrutiny of £10 Million Door

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The House of Lords authorities have been accused of dodging scrutiny over the cost of its ludicrous £9.6 million door. Guido exclusively revealed the eye-watering cost back in May…

It took another month for Baroness Smith of Basildon to publicly state the cost of the door – quote and final – in the Lords. Incidentally that blew up Lords authorities’ “security reasons” excuses for withholding information on their cost and operation…

The current line from the Senior Deputy Speaker Lord Gardiner is that no extra staff have been hired for the door’s operation:

“the resource costs associated with operating Peers’ Entrance have been met from existing staff pools and departmental budgets. No new staff were recruited for this purpose and there was no additional cost to the House or to the taxpayer. It is normal within an operation the size of the Parliamentary Security Department to be able to temporarily reassign resources in this way without causing a wider negative impact. This is a temporary arrangement while a permanent solution is identified for the operation of Peers’ Entrance.”

So staff have been redirected. Interestingly according to the HoL’s latest accounts released last week Lords staffing levels rose by a 23 extra personnel from 624 to 647 in 2024. A total whopping rise of 20% in six years while the door was constructed…

Tory Peer Lord Hayward is leading the charge to reveal the full costs and has tabled two questions to force answers from the Lords authorities:

• “By what date the Senior Deputy Speaker expects Lord Morse to complete his report on costs associated with the Peers’ Entrance?”
• “Further to the letter placed by the Senior Deputy Speaker in the Library on 7 July in relation to staffing the Peers’ Entrance what ‘operations’ he was using as comparators when he said ‘It is normal within an operation of this size…. to temporarily reassign resources’?”

Authorities are offering “first step” meetings to Peers who want answers to any detailed questions on the ludicrous door. An open and shut scandal…