Lords Temporal

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Contents

1.14The Lords Temporal1 may be divided into three categories. The first category comprises those hereditary peers excepted from the general provision in the House of Lords Act 1999, s 1, that holders of hereditary peerages should no longer be members of the House. Under s 2 of that Act, there are a maximum of 92 excepted hereditary peers.2 These are the holders of the offices of Earl Marshal (the Duke of Norfolk) and the Lord Great Chamberlain (the Marquess of Cholmondeley) and 90 other hereditary peers3 who, as the Act provides, will remain as Members for their lifetime or until a subsequent Act otherwise provides. Fifteen were elected by the whole House to act as Deputy Speakers and other office-holders, and the other 75 were elected by their party or group.4

The second and third categories comprise what may be collectively described as ‘life peers’.5 The first, and most numerous, category of life peer comprises peers created for life under the Life Peerages Act 1958. The remaining category consists of peers created for life under the Appellate Jurisdiction Act 1876, as amended, who were appointed to serve as salaried Lords of Appeal in Ordinary. The 1876 Act was repealed, and the office of Lord of Appeal in Ordinary abolished, by provisions contained in sch 18 to the Constitutional Reform Act 2005, which came into force at the same time as the United Kingdom Supreme Court was established, on 1 October 2009. Thus no new peers will be created within this category. However, existing peers created under the 1876 Act will remain Members.

Lords Temporal usually retain their membership of the House for life. Under the House of Lords Reform Act 2014, however, a Member is disqualified from attending the proceedings of the House (including the proceedings of a committee or joint committee) if they have resigned from the House or ceased to be a Member by virtue of not attending during a session lasting six months or more, or they have been sentenced to imprisonment indefinitely or for more than one year. Such persons do not receive a writ of summons and may not attend in pursuance of a writ already received. Under the House of Lords (Expulsion and Suspension) Act 2015 the House may pass a resolution to expel a Member for misconduct. Standing Order No 11 provides that a motion to expel a Member must follow a recommendation from the Conduct Committee after the Member has been found in breach of the Code of Conduct. Expelled Members do not receive a writ of summons and may not attend in pursuance of a writ already received.

Footnotes

  1. 1. For disclaimer of peerage, see Erskine May (22nd edn, 1997), pp 13–14.
  2. 2. Hereditary peers of first creation were excluded from membership of the House by the House of Lords Act 1999 but were offered life peerages to enable them to remain as Members.
  3. 3. SO No 9.
  4. 4. Two peers were elected by the Labour hereditary peers, 42 by the Conservative hereditary peers, three by the Liberal Democrat hereditary peers and 28 by the Cross Bench hereditary peers.
  5. 5. Following the decision in the Wensleydale peerage case (LJ (1856) 38; T E May (ed F Holland) Constitutional History of England (1908) i, pp 196–201), legislation was necessary to make it possible for life peers to be members of the House. The Appellate Jurisdiction Act 1876 was the first such legislation.