Sir John Sainty: Tributes (Hansard, 14 January 1991)

§ The Lord Privy Seal (Lord Waddington)
My Lords, on 5th June last year my noble friend Lord Belstead read to the House Sir John Sainty's letter announcing his intention of retiring from the office of Clerk of the Parliaments with effect from 31st December. My noble friend said then that an opportunity would be afforded to the House to pay tribute to Sir John and to that end I now move to resolve: That this House has received with sincere regret the announcement of the retirement of Sir John Christopher Sainty, KCB, from the office of Clerk of the Parliaments and thinks it right to record the just sense which it entertains of the zeal, ability, diligence, and integrity with which the said Sir John Christopher Sainty executed the important duties of his office". By an odd coincidence the last occasion a Motion on these lines was moved in your Lordships' House was within a few weeks of my noble friend Lord Whitelaw arriving here from another place. He spoke of his, inadequacy as a new boy to speak from experience", of the outstanding qualities of the then retiring Clerk of the Parliaments, the noble Lord, Lord Henderson of Brompton. I too feel my inadequacies in speaking about Sir John, but I can truthfully say that, despite having arrived only recently, I have been here quite long enough to learn of the high esteem, respect and indeed affection with which he is regarded on all sides of your Lordships' House.
Sir John first entered the Parliament Office over 30 years ago in 1959. After a very few years, in 1963, he was seconded to be the private secretary to the Leader of the House and Chief Whip. In that capacity he served my noble and learned friend Lord Hailsham, my noble friends Lord Carrington and Lord St. Aldwyn, and after the change of government in 1964, the noble Earl, Lord Longford, and the noble Lord, Lord Shepherd. It must have been a crowded two years in his life; but more significantly, it was a period when he was called upon, while still a comparatively young man, to bear a very considerable amount of responsibility for the smooth running of your Lordships' House in a period of change.
Sir John then returned to the Parliament Office as Clerk of the Journals and held that post until 1970 when he left to work at the Institute of Historical Research. But in 1974, to the great good fortune of the House, he returned here as Reading Clerk and Clerk 974 of the Journals. In 1983 he succeeded the noble Lord, Lord Henderson of Brompton, as Clerk of the Parliaments.
Sir John thus spent over half his career in the Parliament Office as Clerk of the Journals. This, as your Lordships know, is the post most intimately concerned with the precedents and procedures of the House. Rarely indeed has the House of Lords been served by a more distinguished proceduralist than Sir John. Throughout his career he not only undertook research into the precedents and history of your Lordships' House, but he ensured that the fruits of his research were fully written up and preserved. The result is that what was in the past largely an oral tradition of procedural expertise has now become a written one.
This work was not mere antiquarianism on Sir John's part. It has had a very practical benefit. The procedures of your Lordships' House have had to develop over the last 30 years, and particularly over the last 10 or 15 years, to meet the new pressures which have arisen over that time. In the process of evolution the advice of the Clerks has been and will of course continue to be crucial.
Thanks largely to the work of Sir John, that advice has for many years now been based on a most thorough understanding of the history of the House. It has always been for us to take the crucial decisions as to how we wish the House to evolve; but to Sir John goes the credit for our being able to do so in the full knowledge of what our predecessors chose to do in the past. We will continue to build on the sure foundation of his work. It will be a lasting monument.
Sir John's skills as a historical researcher straddle both his professional life in the House and his personal life, for he is a distinguished historian. His particular area of interest is that of office holding within the United Kingdom over the last two or three centuries. Indeed, he has been the memorialist both of his own post as Clerk of the Parliaments and of the whole Parliament Office.
Most of Your Lordships will always think of Sir John as a shy man. But as those of your Lordships who ever sought his advice over a procedural impropriety will testify, Sir John's mild manner concealed a strong sense of the House's traditional values. In defence of tolerance, courtesy and fair play he could display more than a hint of steel. He was not a retiring academic when it came to running his own department. He was a most active proponent of the welfare of his staff and ensured, by a series of reforms over the period of his Clerkship, that the staff of the Parliament Office were properly provided for within the changing conditions of the wider public service. Again, your Lordships will reap the benefits of his work in that area for years to come.
We rely upon our Clerks and we rely upon the Clerk of the Parliaments to ensure that the House can retain staff of as high a calibre as any in Whitehall. Only if that is the case shall we continue to be served as we have been served in the past.
975 I believe that the first social event that I attended in the House as Leader was the party given by Sir John and Lady Sainty to mark his retirement. That, I feel, allows me to wish them, personally as well as on behalf of your Lordships, a very long and happy retirement.
Moved to resolve, That this House has received with sincere regret the announcement of the retirement of Sir John Christopher Sainty, KCB, from the office of Clerk of the Parliaments and thinks it right to record the just sense which it entertains of the zeal, ability, diligence, and integrity with which the said Sir John Christopher Sainty executed the important duties of his office.—(Lord Waddington.)

§ Lord Cledwyn of Penrhos
My Lords, it gives me great pleasure on behalf of my noble friends to join the noble Lord the Leader of the House in the warm tribute that he has paid to Sir John Sainty. During the time that I have spent in the House, I have come to appreciate more and more the high quality of the service that we receive from the officials of the House. They are invariably helpful and courteous, and their advice is invaluable, especially when it is the advice that we want. There is a sense in which their responsibilities are greater than those of their colleagues in another place because we are not subject to the discipline of Rules of Order to the same extent as the other place, or to the discipline of a Speaker to enforce them. They are expert at guiding us, or most of us, in the right direction.
It is the Clerk of the Parliaments who bears the heaviest burden. I know that the House will agree with me that Sir John Sainty conformed to the highest traditions of his predecessors and brought dignity and honour to his office. His great knowledge of Parliament and government gave him the necessary authority, but he also had humour and an understanding of our needs and our idiosyncrasies. We shall miss Sir John very much, and we wish him and Lady Sainty a long and happy retirement.

§ Lord Jenkins of Hillhead
My Lords, I add my support and that of my noble friends to the Motion which has been moved by the Leader of the House the noble Lord, Lord Waddington. Although I have been lucky enough to have a little more experience than he has of sitting, as it were, in the House under Sir John Sainty, I nonetheless feel a tyro compared with, say, the noble Earl, Lord Longford, or the noble Lord, Lord Carrington, who, as Leaders of the House, had the benefit of Sir John's services nearly 30 years ago.
We have greatly appreciated Sir John's exceptional quality. He has been one of the most scholarly and wisest of the Clerks of the Parliament. It is appropriate that he retires not through infirmity or old age, having indeed surmounted an illness which caused us all great concern a few years ago, but to devote himself the more completely to the scholarship that he has already advanced to such an extent.
976 We wish Sir John very well in what is not his retirement but his new vocation, which I believe he will discharge with all the distinction he brought to his duties in the House.

§ Baroness Hylton-Foster
My Lords, the Cross-Bench Peers too would like to support all the splendid tributes that have been paid to Sir John Sainty. We should like to add our thanks for all the help he has given over the problems peculiar to the Cross Benches, which he always dealt with in his usual courteous and patient way. We wish him a very happy retirement with his family.

§ The Lord Bishop of Worcester
My Lords, perhaps from these Benches I may add our thanks to Sir John Sainty. In my profession, the sincerity of an utterance is sometimes judged by whether it has been written down in full manuscript. When it has not, it is said to be more sincere. In that case, I am making a very sincere speech at the moment. We who come to the House as Bishops are not wise in the ways of Westminster. We have always received the utmost kindness and courtesy in preparing us for our part in the proceedings of your Lordships' House. With that, I should like to add the Bishops' good wishes to Sir John and Lady Sainty in their retirement.

§ The Lord Chancellor (Lord Mackay of Clashfern)
My Lords, as your Lordships are aware, it fell to Sir John Sainty towards the end of his period of office to do what he could to guide me in the discharge of my Woolsack responsibilities. The extent to which he succeeded in doing so is a striking tribute to his talents. It gives me the greatest pleasure to endorse the remarks that have been made and to join in wishing Sir John and Lady Sainty all the very best for the years that lie ahead.
On Question, Resolution agreed to nemine dissentiente; it was ordered that the Lord Chancellor do communicate this Resolution to the said Sir John Christopher Sainty, KCB.