MPs should normally serve for no more than three full terms of five years.

Parliament should limit the power of the executive but should not be the vehicle for Government.  J. S. Mill wrote that:  

'There is a radical distinction between controlling the business of Government and actually doing it'.

Government departments and agencies implement the framework of legislation.  It is Parliament which is responsible for holding the Government to account.  Unfortunately Parliament has ignored all of the corporate governance improvements it has required for other institutions in the country.

Parliament should act in a similar way to the trustees of a charity or the non-executive directors of a major company.  The Government is equivalent to the management of a charity or company which undertakes the detailed implementation of the agreed strategy.  A key role of the trustees or non-executive directors is to review this implementation to see whether it is being done ethically, effectively, efficiently and economically and to do this they must maintain sufficient independence to be able properly to review the proposals and actions of management.

Term limits for MPs would be a way of ensuring that MPs do not become too comfortable with their lifestyle and too separate from the rest of the population.  Most US states now have such term limit legislation which also applies to the US President and the equivalent in many other countries.  Without such term limits MPs are less likely to give priority to legislation or scrutiny as the job of being an MP becomes a career in itself.

The principles of independence are well established in the charitable and private sector.  Trustees are not allowed to have any conflict of interest with their organisation or to receive any benefits from it. Similarly all major company boards should now have a majority of non-executive directors who, although paid a fixed fee, are not allowed to receive any other benefits from the company.

In particular it has been recognised that trustees and directors can lose their independence if they serve on the board for too long.  The Charity Commission sets out clear guidelines on this.  Similarly for public companies directors are normally elected for a period of three years and are not normally re-elected for more than three periods of three years.  If there are special reasons why a company wants a particular director to continue on the Board for more than nine years then that person is subject to a vote by shareholders every year instead of every three years.

At the 2005 election the Labour MP Tam Dalyell retired after 43 years and the Conservative Sir Teddy Taylor retired after 40 years.  Two other MPs had been elected in the 1960s, 37 in the 1970s and 104 in the 1980s.  

At the Dissolution of Parliament in 2010, 68% of MPs will have been first elected more than 9 years ago, 39% more than 13 years ago, and 25% more than 18 years ago, hugely longer than is allowed under any other permitted UK independent scrutiny model.  

• Since 1979, the Member with the longest service as an MP was Sir Edward Heath with 51.7 years.  
• The current MP with the longest continuous service, 45 years, is Alan Williams, Labour MP for Swansea West.  
• Sir Peter Tapsell is the Conservative MP for Louth and Horncastle and has been in the House of Commons since 1959, 50 years ago, but had a short break from 1964 to 1966.  
• The longest continuous service and longest total service for a female MP were by Gwyneth Dunwoody (who died while still an MP in 2008) at over 34 years and 38 years respectively.

The total profile of the current 646 MPs by the Parliament in which they were elected may be summarised as follows:

The Jury Team therefore proposes that no MP should serve for more than 15 years.  If there are any particular people whose time as an MP consequently comes to an end but the Prime Minister still wants them to serve in the Government then they could be appointed temporarily to the House of Lords.

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