The new Commission, set up by the Prime Minister to recommend new non-political members for the House of Lords, began its search for nominations today.

Launching the Commission, Chairman Dennis Stevenson said:

"Today marks a historic change in the way that non party political members of the House of Lords are appointed. From this moment an open process exists. Anyone in the UK can nominate him or herself or nominate someone else.

"We are looking for people with integrity, independence and a significant record of achievement in their chosen field or way of life - people with the skills and experience to contribute effectively to the work of the House of Lords. We also hope that by running an open and fair process we can encourage outstanding applications from groups who have been under-represented in the Lords."

"We are determined to cast the net as widely as possible. Today we have started to mail or e-mail over 5,000 public, private and voluntary organisations to tell them how they can nominate outstanding individuals. In the next few weeks Commissioners will be holding meetings throughout the UK to brief leaders of the community on how the system will work."

"In addition, members of the public can obtain an information pack from the Commission which will give details of the general qualities we are looking for and the sort of information we need in a nomination. You can phone the nomination line for a pack on 0117 982 1171 or download information from our website"

"We urge everyone to read the guidelines and criteria for selection very carefully. We are keen to stimulate applications from talented people all over the UK. The reality, however, is that we will be making a very small number of recommendations every year - in the past between 8-10, the exact number of recommendations to be fixed by
the Prime Minister - and we do not want to encourage unrealistic nominations."

"The closing date for this round of nominations is 17 November and we hope to make our first recommendations in Spring 2001. As this is a completely new process, timing will ultimately depend on the number and suitability of nominations we receive."