The composition of the House of Lords Flashcards
Although referred to as the upper chamber, why is its authority considerably less than that of the Commons
This is because it is an appointed chamber and cannot claim the democratic legitimacy that the Commons can
Throughout history, what has the Lords primary been composed of?
Throughout history, Lords was primarily composed of peers
What were the original peers claim to membership based on ?
Claim to membership was based on their possession of a hereditary noble title, as well as a much smaller number of bishops representing the church of England
What are the groups of hereditary peers and bishops collectively called ?
Lord Temporal- hereditary peers
Lord Spiritual- Bishops from the Church of England
Why did the influence of the Lords decline during the 19th and 20th century
The expansion of the franchise during the 19th and 20th century meant that the influence of the Lords declined as the authority of the Commons increased
Why did the Parliament Act of 1911 further diminish the power of the Lords ?
Parliament Act of 1911 further diminished power of the Lords by removing its right to veto legislation passed by the HOC
What act was passed in 1958 which changed the structure to the House of Lords ?
In 1958, the Life Peerages Act was passed, which gave the PM the authority to nominate life peers to the HOL
Life peers do not pass on their title, and their appointment to the Lords is based on public service they have provided to the nation
What did Blair do during his reign and when which further change the composition of the Lords ?
In 1999, Blair took reform of HOL further by removing the right of the 750 hereditary peers to continue sitting in the Lords (however to avoid confrontation, he kept the historical principle whereby 92 hereditary peers could be elected to the Lords by hereditary peerage)
As a result, HOL is now a mixture of Life peers, hereditary peers and bishops of the Church of England
What are the Life Peers
A peer whose title cannot be inherited (the title disappears with the person)- by far the most numerous
How are life peers elected
Nominated to the Crown by the prime minister on the advice of Downings Street Main Honours Committee and the opposition party
Why are life peers able to act more independently than MP’s
Because they are not elected, also means they are able to act more independently since they are not bound by their party’s manifesto - much less influenced by party politics than the HOC
What are hereditary peers and how many of them are there
92
Claim to membership is based on their possession of a hereditary noble title
What are Lords spirituals and how many of them are ?
26
Their right to sit and vote in the House having been established by ancient usage- being a Bishop in the Church of England
What are cross benchers ?
People who have no political link or don’t vote with a political party
What are the advantages of cross benchers
They are less influenced by the dictates of the whips so can address the merits and demerits of legislation with a more open mind
Makes it more difficult for the government to dictate the house of lords
Whipping the lords is harder due to the many number of crossbenchers
How can the governing parties position use their power and the convention of the House of Lords to their advantage
A government that has been in office for a long period of time has the opportunity to appoint a considerable number of life peers to the House of Lords.
There is also a convention that the government should make nominations to the Lords roughly based on the political configuration of the House of Commons.
Example of the convention whereby government should make nominations to the Lords roughly based on the political configuration of the House of Commons.
During his ten years as prime minister (1997-2007), Tony Blair recommended 374 appointments to the House of Lords. Since he had such commanding majorities in the House of Commons, the majority of these were Labour or cross-bench appointments
Tony Blair’s appointments to the House of Lords
Number of peers Labour 162 Crossbench 96 Conservative 62 Liberal Democrat 34
Why is the Commons and Lords similar in terms of its layout
As in the House of Commons, the government and the opposition have their own frontbenchers in the Lords
The Lords is presided over by the Lord speaker, who in the same way as the speaker of the House of Commons, manages the chamber and advises on procedure
Why does the Lords has much less adversarial (charcterised by conflict or opposition) reputation than the commons ?
HOL primarily focuses its expertise on scrutinising and revising legislation. Its debates, are therefore, considerably more courteous (polite and respectful) than those in the HOC
