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For centuries, the nobility have played a role in creating the laws
of the land. From the early days of the Barons under King John who
forced him to sign Magna Carta to the modern day with the Lords
being able to veto legislation coming from the Commons if not
agreed upon by a majority in the Lords. The significance of the
House has changed, though the significance of its history remains
unchanged.
At the moment, the House of Lords has 749 active ‘Lords Temporal’:
660 of these are life peers and 89 are hereditary peers. There are
also 22 bishops of the Church of England who sit in the Lords,
known as ‘Lords Spiritual’.
All life peers are appointed to the rank of Baron (Lord) or
Baroness and hold their title for their life, not passing it on to
their descendants. Hereditary peers are those who have inherited
their title though now, to sit in the House of Lords, hereditary
peers must be elected to fill one of the 92 spaces when another
hereditary peer dies – they can be of any rank. Presently there are
(including life peers and including those on a leave of absence) 2
Dukes, 3 Marquesses, 24 Earls (including 1 Countess), 19
Viscounts and 733 Barons and Baronesses. Hereditary peers who are
not a member of the House of Lords can now be elected to the House
of Commons and do not have to give up their seat automatically
because they hold a title.
Despite the House of Lords being referred to as the Upper House,
its powers are now junior to those of the House of Commons. The
power of the Lords is now restricted to amending bills, vetoing
them and, rarely, rejecting bills sent from the Commons. Under the
Parliament Acts, there are certain cases when the House of Commons
can avoid the House of Lords in relation to passing a bill
altogether and take the bill straight to Her Majesty for Royal
Assent.
The Lords now is made up of both party political peers and what are
known as ‘crossbenchers’ who are not there as members of a
political party. There are 183 crossbench peers, 219 Labour peers,
217 Conservative peers and 95 Liberal Democrat peers, as well as a
number representing smaller parties.
Members of the Lords are not paid a salary for what they do, unless
they are also a minister, though do have their expenses
covered.
Every year at the State Opening of Parliament, all the constituent
parts of Parliament come together. The House of Lords with its
members in ceremonial robes in the Lords’ chamber and members of
the House of Commons come to hear The Queen read the speech of her
Government’s agenda for the next Parliamentary session. The speech
is written by the Government, illustrating the position of
Constitutional Monarchy.
Whilst the issuing of peerages is part of the Royal Prerogative,
only Parliament may remove a peerage and in modern times, The Queen
only issues peerages outside of the Royal Family on the advise of
the Government.
The future of the House of Lords as the home of the peerage will
not last forever, attempts to remove peers from the Lords and turn
it into an elected chamber have been tabled several times since
1999 though legislation on the matter has so far continually failed
to gather enough momentum to get it to The Queen though the next
Government may have different ideas of what they want the House of
Lords to be.
photo credit: UK Parliament and UK Parliament via photopin
cc
 The history of the British Peerage is as
rich and colourful as the country itself – for centuries, the
peerage remained at the forefront of English politics and at the
front of the battlefield. In this 5-part series on the story of the
peerage, we explain its origins, how it all works and its
significance (if any) in the 21st century.Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 |
