Lord Mandelson 'should address MPs'

Parliamentary rules should be changed to allow Lord Mandelson to be answerable to the House of Commons, MPs have said.

The Commons business and enterprise committee said that following Lord Mandelson's appointment as business secretary there had been no one to come to the despatch box to answer MPs' questions on the brief.

The situation was "particularly unfortunate" at a time of economic crisis, the committee said in a report published on Tuesday.

It said it recognised that allowing Lord Mandelson simply to come to the Commons chamber might encourage governments to make the "unwelcome and significant constitutional change" of appointing more ministers from the House of Lords.

It urged the Commons procedure committee to think of alternative methods of making the business secretary answerable to the House.

This could involve inviting him to answer questions from a grand committee of MPs or to appear in Westminster Hall.

Usually when a secretary of state is in the Lords, a cabinet level colleague and junior ministers will answer questions in the Commons chamber.

But the six ministers at the Department for Enterprise, Business and Regulatory Reform include three peers as well as two MPs shared with other departments.

This leaves only one dedicated minister in the department in the Commons - employment minister Pat McFadden.

Committee chairman Peter Luff MP said: "It is vital, especially in a time of economic crisis, that members of the House can put their points directly to ministers with the power to take action.

"With constituents coming to us every day with their difficulties, we are acutely aware of the effects of the recession, and need to know what is being done to alleviate it.

"If the prime minister does not rebalance the ministerial team at BERR, we believe that secretaries of state in the House of Lords should answer questions in the Commons. This would both give MPs better information, and ensure that the Cabinet minister responsible for business was fully aware of members' concerns - and, through them, what was really happening to their constituents."