House of Lords: What is it and what could Labour replace it with?
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Earlier, Suella Braverman, the former home secretary, said she could not support the Bill, ahead of the crucial vote in Parliament on Monday. Over course of the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries, Parliament and its powers evolved—just as the United Kingdom itself did. The so-called “Stuart Kings”—Charles II and his brother James II, who succeeded him in 1685—maintained a similar relationship with the legislature as their father had in the 1640s. Four years later, though, Cromwell disbanded the Rump Parliament and created the Nominated Assembly, a de facto legislature.
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Whilst presiding over the House of Lords, the lord chancellor traditionally wore ceremonial black and gold robes. Robes of black and gold are now worn by the lord chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice in the House of Commons, on ceremonial occasions. This is no longer a requirement for the lord speaker except for state occasions outside of the chamber. The speaker or deputy speaker sits on the Woolsack, a large red seat stuffed with wool, at the front of the Lords Chamber. Traditionally the House of Lords did not elect its own speaker, unlike the House of Commons; rather, the ex officio presiding officer was the Lord Chancellor.
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One example of this is the Committee on Public Service and Demographic Change.[127] The House of Lords may appoint a chairman for a committee; if it does not do so, the Chairman of Committees or a Deputy Chairman of Committees may preside instead. Bills may be referred to Select Committees, but are more often sent to the Committee of the Whole House and Grand Committees. As of March 2024,[update] there are 670 life peers eligible to vote in the House.[77] Life peers rank only as barons or baronesses, and are created under the Life Peerages Act 1958. Like all other peers, life peers are created by the Sovereign, who acts on the advice of the Prime Minister or the House of Lords Appointments Commission.
Current sitting members
There were no women sitting in the House of Lords until 1958, when a small number came into the chamber as a result of the Life Peerages Act 1958. One of these was Irene Curzon, 2nd Baroness Ravensdale, who had inherited her father's peerage in 1925 and was made a life peer to enable her to sit. After a campaign stretching back in some cases to the 1920s, another twelve women who held hereditary peerages in their own right were admitted with the passage of the Peerage Act 1963. When Foot became leader of the Labour Party in 1980, abolition of the House of Lords became a part of the party's agenda; under his successor, Neil Kinnock, however, a reformed Upper House was proposed instead.
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Membership
In 1948, the right of peers to be tried in such special courts was abolished; now, they are tried in the regular courts.[82] The last such trial in the House was of Edward Russell, 26th Baron de Clifford, in 1935. An illustrative dramatisation circa 1928 of a trial of a peer (the fictional Duke of Denver) on a charge of murder (a felony) is portrayed in the 1972 BBC Television adaption of Dorothy L. Sayers' Lord Peter Wimsey mystery Clouds of Witness. When the House of Commons passed a Reform Bill to correct some of these anomalies in 1831, the House of Lords rejected the proposal.
Also known as the Upper Chamber, it is independent from the House of Commons - where 650 Members of Parliament (MPs) debate and vote on new laws. The Lords shares the task of passing and scrutinising legislation with the House of Commons. It also reviews and amends proposed legislation, carrying out more detailed examination of legislation than is provided for in the Commons. The committee system of the House of Lords also includes several Domestic Committees, which supervise or consider the House's procedures and administration. One of the Domestic Committees is the Committee of Selection, which is responsible for assigning members to many of the House's other committees.
The powers of the modern House of Lords are extremely limited—necessarily so, since the permanent and substantial majority enjoyed there by the Conservative Party would otherwise be incompatible with the principles of representative government. Under the 1911 act, all bills specified by the speaker of the House of Commons as money bills (involving taxation or expenditures) become law one month after being sent for consideration to the House of Lords, with or without the consent of that house. On rare occasions the 1949 act has been used to pass controversial legislation lacking the Lords’ support—including the War Crimes Act of 1991, which enabled Britain to prosecute alleged war criminals who became British citizens or residents of Britain.
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"An appointments system can bring in experts - like former doctors and supreme court judges [who may not] be willing to stand in an election." In June 2023, the House of Commons Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee launched another inquiry into the Lords. It will consider its size, how peers are appointed and their role and responsibilities. In 2016, a House of Lords committee was set up to consider the increasing size of the chamber. The House of Lords is the upper chamber of the UK parliament, often referred to as the ‘revising chamber’. 1 "Bailiwick-wide" legislation passed in the States of Guernsey applies not only in Guernsey, but also in Alderney and Sark, with the consent of their governments.2 Although Island Councils for Ascension and Tristan da Cunha exist, they are purely consultative.
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An exception applies, however, if the individual convicted of high treason receives a full pardon. An individual serving a prison sentence for an offence other than high treason is not automatically disqualified. A distinct judicial function—one in which the whole House used to participate—is that of trying impeachments. Impeachments were brought by the House of Commons, and tried in the House of Lords; a conviction required only a majority of the Lords voting. Impeachments, however, are to all intents and purposes obsolete; the last impeachment was that of Henry Dundas, 1st Viscount Melville, in 1806.
It is very rare for peers to try to overrule legislation passed by the House of Commons as a whole. Under the Salisbury Convention the House of Lords does not try to block bills that were promised in the governing party’s manifesto, and rarely blocks any bill in its entirety. In general, the unelected House of Lords defers to the Commons’ democratic mandate, but makes proposals for MPs to think again. In 2011, another white paper was published, setting out proposals for an 80% elected and 20% appointed chamber. However, the House of Lords Reform Bill 2012 was withdrawn after backbench Conservative MPs threatened to rebel.
If the new chamber's members considered themselves more representative of the UK than MPs, they may undermine the Commons by blocking new legislation, adds Ms Sargeant. This happens in the US when the Republicans and Democrats each control one of the houses of Congress, and block the other's attempts to introduce new laws. While many peers have worked in politics - including some former MPs - others are experts in areas such as science or the arts.
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