Peers baulk at fast track for royal bill

Published on 22/01/2013 00:00

Legislation to change the rules of the royal line of succession must be subjected to full parliamentary scrutiny, rather than the fast-track process ministers have planned, an influential committee of peers insisted yesterday.

The Lords criticised the speed with which the Commons was being asked to pass the Succession to the Crown Bill and warned proper debate was needed to tease out “overlooked or hidden” problems.

The bill is scheduled for both its second reading in the Commons and the committee stage tomorrow as the government tries to get it on to the statute book as quickly as possible. It is then listed for the report stage and its third reading next Monday. The law will mean men will no longer take precedence over women in the order of succession.