The Lords also has a judicial function. The judicial functions of the House of Lords are exercised not by the whole House, but by a committee of "Law Lords." The jurisdiction of the House of Lords extends, in civil and in criminal cases, to appeals from the courts of England and Wales, and of Northern Ireland. From Scotland, appeals are possible only in civil cases. The House of Lords is not the United Kingdom's only court of last resort; in some cases, the Privy Council performs such a function.
In the 1997 General Election the Labour Party proposed:
"As an initial, self contained reform, not dependent on further reform in the future, the right of hereditary peers to sit and vote in the House of Lords will be ended by statute. This will be the first stage in a process of reform to make the House of Lords more democratic and representative. The legislative powers of the House of Lords will remain unaltered."
The Party proposed in Parliament after coming to power an amendment to exempt the 92 hereditary peers was tabled by Lord Weatherill, Convenor of the Cross Bench peers, and accepted at committee stage on 11 May 1999
When coming to power the government amended the House of Lords and provided for 75 hereditary peers to be elected from their own party or cross-bench groups (42 Conservatives, 28 Cross Benchers, 3 Liberal Democrats and 2 Labour). 15 hereditary peers were also to be elected to act as Deputy Speakers or Committee Chairmen. Two hereditary royal appointments, the Earl Marshal and the Lord Great Chamberlain, were also retained.
Lord Wakeham was commissioned by the Labour government to head a Royal Commission which was to present a report to the House of Commons on the possible second stage of reforms in the House of Lords. Wakehams’ report would be recommendations only – not ‘this will be done’
The report was delivered to the government on December 28th 1999 and made public in January 2000. What became known as the Wakeham Report contained 132 wide-ranging proposals. Its main recommendations were:
In November 2001, the government announced that the second stage of reforms would also be the final stage. The White Paper it produced was basically along the lines of the Wakeham Report.
The House of Lords is a vital part of the British constitution as it keeps checks on the Government and it is also and individual board which can keep the government under some kind of control. Also without the House of Lords government policy and legislation will not be debated in as much detail and there won’t be as many suggested improvements to the proposed legislation which without further and tighter scrutiny could have loop holes in which the House of Lords would find and fix.
