Unlike the House of Commons, where live video-conferenced select committee hearings are already broadcast as a matter of course, the House of Lords has taken the bizarre decision to not broadcast its proceedings. A move that will certainly help avoid any embarrassment from elderly peers’ potential technological confusion…

In new guidance, Leader of the Lords Baroness Evans states:

“At first the virtual proceedings will operate with limited functionality using the Microsoft Teams application. There will be no live broadcast of virtual proceedings in this first stage although there will be a Hansard record.”

The guidance goes on to note “It is hoped that from 5 May the House will be able to move to live broadcast of proceedings”, however no firm commitment is given. Classic House of Lords, a few decades behind the Commons…

Read the new House of Lords Virtual Proceedings guidance in full here:

UPDATE: A House of Lords spokesman gets in touch to tells Guido broadcasting teams are currently prioritising the House of Commons before they move on to the Lords in a “few weeks”. Which is odd because Select Committees have been successfully broadcasting for weeks…

“Parliament has a single broadcasting team who have worked at incredible speed to develop and build some quite ingenious solutions to being able to broadcast live coverage of proceedings. Given the nature of how the Houses work, the need to develop and build new broadcasting infrastructure,  and to ensure resilience of the systems, a pragmatic decision was for the House of Commons to use the technology first, before then establishing it in the House of Lords in a few weeks.

“This will ensure scrutiny of the Government continues in both Houses, while also ensure we can test and learn and keep colleagues safe on the Estate.”