The Composition of The House of Lords.

The Composition of The House of Lords

Currently there are about 700 members and four distinct types of member. Life peers make up the majority of the membership, members being essentially created by the Queen on the advice of the Prime Minister. There are currently about 560, their titles cease on death. Up to 12 Lords of Appeal in Ordinary are appointed to hear appeals from the lower courts. They are salaried and can continue to hear appeals into they are 70 years of age. Once they retire they can go on sitting in the House of Lords. The Anglican Archbishops of Canterbury and York, the Bishops of Durham, London and Winchester and the 21 senior Diocesan bishops from other dioceses of the Church of England hold seats in the House. The House of Lords Act 1999 ended the right of hereditary peers to sit and vote in the House of Lords. Until then there had been about 700 hereditary members. While the Bill was being considered, an amendment was passed which enable 92 of the existing hereditary peers to remain as members. The 92 peers are made up by 15 office holders (Deputy Speakers or Chairmen) elected by the entire House, 75 Party and Crossbench members elected by their own party group and 2 hereditary peers who hold Royal appointment – The Lord Great Chamberlain and the Earl Marshal. Unlike MP’s, Lords are unpaid, except for certain allowances to cover attendance which is voluntary.

The Impact of:

The 1876 Act – created Law Lords to carry out the judicial work of the House as the final court of appeal
The 1911 and 1949 Parliament Act – allowed some bills to become Acts without the consent of the Lords and limit the power to delay other bills to one year
The 1958 Life Peerage Act – created peerages ‘for life’ for men and women; women sit in the House for the first time
The 1963 Peerage Act – allowed hereditary peers to disclaim their peerages, and allow hereditary peeresses and all Scottish peers to sit and vote in the House.
The 1999 House of Lords Act – removed the right of all except 92 hereditary peers to sit and vote in the House

Function of the House of Lords

Making Laws

The House of Lords is an integral part of the law-making process. All laws must be agreed by both the House of Lords and the House of Commons, before receiving the Queen’s approval. The House of Lords reviews bills sponsored by Government, which come from the Commons. The House of Lords can propose and make changes known as amendments.

Public Bills Bills that affect us all are known as Public Bills. There are two types of public bill: Bills introduced by Government, and bills introduced by an individual member in either of the two Houses (known as private member’s bill). One example of a successful private member’s bill is The Protection of Animals Act 2000 (known as the puppy farming bill), which was introduced to secure tighter regulation of commercial dog breeding.

Private Bills These are called ‘private’ bills because the legislation is specific to one area or group of people. An example being the City of Newcastle upon ...

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Private Bills These are called ‘private’ bills because the legislation is specific to one area or group of people. An example being the City of Newcastle upon Tyne Act 2000.

Delegated Legislation When Parliament makes a new law it often gives a Government minister the power to fill in the details. This is because Parliament does not have time to oversee all the detailed legislative requirements of each Government department. This power is known as delegated legislation, and is carried out through Statutory Instruments (SI’s), Orders and Regulations.

The powers of the Lords are limited by both law and convention. The Parliament Acts of 1911 and 1949 define the powers of the Lords in relation to public bills. In general, the Lords can hold up most bills they disagree with for about a year but ultimately the elected House of Commons can reintroduce it in the following session and pass it without the Lords consent, except for:

Bills prolonging the length of a parliament beyond 5 years
Private Bills
Bills sent up to the Lords less than a month before the end of a session
Bills which start in the Lords

Although rarely invoked, the Parliament Acts provide a framework and a means of resolving disagreement between the Commons and Lords. They have only been used three times.

The Commons have also claimed a general privilege in relation to the raising and spending of taxpayers’ money since the 17th century. Bills to raise taxes or authorise expenditure always start in the Commons and cannot be amended by the Lords. The Salisbury Convention also means that the Lords will not reject any legislation referred to in the Queens speech (it’s inclusion in the winning party’s mandate is seen as the public approving of the legislation).

Scrutinising the work Of Government

Oral and Written Questions The House of Lords, like the House of Commons, makes Government ministers answer questions about their work. At the beginning of each sitting day in the Lords, a number of oral questions are asked. These are known as ‘Starred Questions’ because they have stars, or asterisks next to them on the Order Paper. Question time in the Lords takes about half an hour and includes opportunities for supplementary questions. Questions may also be put down for a written answer. Full replies are expected within a fortnight and printed in the back of the Lords Hansard. The volume of these has increased significantly in recent years.

Debates House of Lords debates serve the same function as House of Commons debates, but there are a number of key differences in the types of debates and the way they are conducted. Another important difference is seen in the position of the Lord Chancellor, who amongst other roles, acts as the equivalent of the Speaker in the Commons. He presides over debates in the Lords from his special seat, known as the Woolsack. Unlike the Speaker of the House of Commons, the Lord Chancellor is not politically neutral since he is a member of the Cabinet. If there is a Conservative Government there will be a Conservative Lord Chancellor. As a member of the Government, the Lord Chancellor may make a speech on behalf of the Government. The Lord Chancellor, therefore, by being able to take part in debates, is in a very different position from the Speaker of the House of Commons. He does not control the proceeding during a debate. You will never hear the Lord Chancellor shouting ‘Order, Order’. It is assumed that the Lords themselves will keep order during their debates.

Many debate in the Lords, like those in the Commons, are concerned with the various stages of law-making. The House of Lords, however, holds more general debates than the House of Commons. There are three main types of debates:

On Legislation The Second Reading of a bill, for example, is an opportunity to debate, in general terms, what the Bill is about.

General Debates Most Wednesday afternoons are set aside for general debates. Sometimes there is one long debate or two shorter debates. The sort of issues that are debated include the London Underground, Child Abuse and The Situation in the NHS.

Short Debates These are technically questions that can be debated. They last for 1-½ hours and usually take place during the dinner break on days when legislation is being considered or at the end of a day’s business. Some of the subjects debated in 2001 included problems of Gulf war veterans, encouragement for disabled people to work in the tourism industry and the request to the government to legislate to outlaw human cloning.

Providing Independent Expertise

The Lords also has a number of Select Committees, like the House of Commons. Some of these deal with internal management and administration but most carry out important investigative work on matters of public interest. Unlike the Commons, Lords investigate committees do not mirror the work of particular government departments. Instead, they deal with broader issues and draw on the wide-ranging experience of members. In the way, the House of Lords system of committees complements the scrutiny of the executive carried out by the Commons.

There are four main area of work – Europe, Science, the Economy and the Constitution – but occasionally, for various reasons, a separate committee will be set up to deal with a particular issue:

The European Union Committee – scrutinises and reports on proposed European legislation. Each of the main committee’s 20 members serves on one or ore of six sub-committees through which investigations are conducted.

The Science and technology Committee – set up in 1979 to consider science and technology. Over 20 members are involved. Recent reports have covered areas such as resistance to antibiotics, medicinal use of cannabis and the health hazards inherent in long haul air travel.

The Economic Affairs Committee – looks at issues such as how globalisation should be defined, and whether this should be different from an open and integrated world economy. Members include a former Chief Secretary to the Treasury, professors of economics, a former newspaper economics editor as well as practising businessmen.

The Constitution Committee – set up in 2000 to keep under review the operation of the constitution. Since our constitution is uncodified and derived from interpretations of the statute books, this committee keeps a watchful eye on legislative changes that may affect the way it operates.

Judicial Work

The vast majority of members have no part to play in the House’s judicial work, which is carried out only by highly qualified judges called law Lords. Only cases of public importance where a significant a point of law is involved are heard by the Law Lords. If any British citizen disagrees with a decision made by a lower court, he or she has a right to take action to overturn that decision. This right is ancient but the conditions under which an appeal can be made have become closely defined in statute over the last century. Permission to pursue a case at this level is known as ‘leave to appeal’ and there are a number of routes a case may take to get this far. Once it is decided that a case should go before the law Lords, Appeal proceedings take place. These are open to the public and held in committee rooms. Once their conclusions are reached, the result is announced in the Lords chamber. This is called the judgement. Sitting for judgements are full meetings of the House of Lords and in addition to the Law Lords who again, do not wear robes or wigs, any member of the House may attend Judgements are available on the internet.

To what extent is the House of Lords Unrepresentative?

The percentage of women peers within the House of Lords is significantly lower than the percentage of women MP’s within the House of Commons. The 1958 Life Peerage Act allowed women to sit in the House for the first time. Removing the hereditary peers has helped to improve this situation, as peerages tended to be passed from father to son. Ethnic minorities within Britain are also underrepresented in The House of Lords. Again, the ‘Life Peerage’ system, rewarding members on their achievements rather than their background is helping to improve this.

To what extent is the House of Lords Undemocratic?

The existence of hereditary peers could be seen as undemocratic, due to the lack of an election process. The House of Lords has gone part way to improving this with the 1999 House of Lords Act, removing the majority of hereditary peers. The Labour Government insists the remaining 92 will have their rights ended within 2004.