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The House of Lords

The House of Lords is like a glass of champagne that has stood for five days.

These are the words of Clement Attlee, former leader of the Labour Party and Prime Minister
during the years 1945 to 1951. In some ways an archaic institution, the House of Lords
functions as the Upper House of the British Parliament. The House has been subject to both
criticism and reforms over the past century, and is as of today a body without direct power.
Nevertheless, it prevails as a safeguard against over-hasty legislation by the [House of]
Commons (Oakland, 2011: p. 99). In this essay, I will examine the role of the House of
Lords in the UK Parliament, looking at its current functions as well as some of the reforms the
House has gone through in the past. How is the Lords perceived in todays modern British
society, and how does the future of the Lords look? These will be the main subjects of
discussion.

The current House of Lords consists of about 790 members. The number is subject to frequent
changes, contrasting the 650 fixed seats in the House of Commons. At present, the members
are the Lords Spiritual, and Lords Temporal. The Lords Spiritual are the Archbishops of York
and Canterbury, as well as twenty-four bishops from the established Church of England. The
rest of the House consists of the remaining Lords Temporal, which in turn may fall into one of
two categories. The Life Peers are appointed to their seat in the House of Lords for life, by a
power formally belonging to the Crown. Normally, however, these members are selected on
the advice of the Prime Minister. The remaining ninety-two peers, a numeral restriction
enforced by the House of Lords Act 1999, have hereditary titles, and are elected by their
fellows. The Lords primary tasks are those of considering Bills and scrutinising the work of
the government. Any bill that is to pass as law in the UK has to be considered by both Houses.
Thus, the Lords most important functions is its amendment abilities. Despite the lack of any
real veto power, Bills may be delayed and revised by the Lords for up to one year, and this is
an effective way to prevent legislations from passing too eagerly. The Lords are also regularly

inspecting the work of the government sitting government; in the 2013-14 session, the Lords
questioned the government 7,559 times, either orally or in writing. (Oakland, 2011.
Parliament.uk)

For more than a century, a number of UK governments have sought to reform the House of
Lords. Prior to the Parliament Act 1911, the Lords had direct political power in terms of
passing laws and contesting the House of Commons. The Act of 1911, however, changed the
arena of British parliamentary politics, as the absolute veto power was rejected in favour of a
less compelling amendment right. This Act was mainly the result of the House of Lords
rejection of the Liberal governments 1909 budget, and the following urge to limit the Lords
power to stop Bills passed in the Commons. The Lords power was limited further thirty-eight
years later, as the Parliament Act 1949 reduced the delaying power in most cases from two to
one year. As of today, the last reform for reducing the power of the Lords came with the
Constitutional Reform Act 2005, in which the judicial power of the House was separated from
the parliament. The result was the establishment of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom
in October 2009, where the former Lords of Appeal, or law lords, had their functions
transferred to the Court. Regarding membership in the House, the most important reform in
recent years is the Parliament Act 1999, which, as already mentioned, revoked many the
hereditary peers right to a seat in the Lords. Another proposed reform, the House of Lords
Reform Bill, was introduced in the Commons in June 2012, but was officially withdrawn by
the Deputy Prime Minister, Nick Clegg, the following September. The Reform Bill intended
to change the appointment of members to the Lords radically, to an eighty-twenty split
between respectively elected and appointed peers (Parliament.uk). A reorganisation to 750
elected members and only sixteen Lords Spirituals was also suggested during Gordon
Browns government. However, as Oakland (2011) puts it, these plans effectively collapsed
after Labour lost the 2010 election and the future of the House of Lords is again in doubt (p.
99).

With a string of reforms in recent years, how does the future of the House of Lords look?
Concerning the public, a series of polls were carried out between 2010 and 2012, in which
British citizens were asked questions about their opinions on the future of the Lords. The
following is taken from an Angus Reid survey on the House of Lords Reform Bill in

October/November 2011:

As you may know, several proposals have been made to reform the House of Lords. Do
you support each of these ideas? abolishing the House of Lords altogether
Great Britain
Support

29%

Oppose

39%

Not sure

33%

(Parliament.uk)
This suggests that the public opinion is in favour of keeping the Upper House we know today.
However, the large proportion of unsure interview subjects could perhaps be explained by the
following data:

As you may have heard, there has recently been debate about reforming the House of
Lords. Which of these statements is closest to your view?
I support reforming the House of Lords, and

7%

the Government should make it an

immediate priority
I support reforming the House of Lords, but

72%

there are more important things that the

Government should be concentrating on at
the moment
I dont support reforming the House of

16%

Lords
Dont know

(Parliament.uk)

4%

Regarding political parties, Labour leader Ed Miliband stated that an elected senate would
replace the Lords if his party won next Mays general election. (BBC.com) After the failure of
the Reform Bill 2012, neither the Conservatives nor the Liberal Democrats seem too eager to
propose further reforms, but the terrain may be subject to change after the upcoming
elections.

To conclude, the watchdog function of the Lords is not to be underestimated. However, the
Lords continuingly non-democratic nature seems to push the opinion of the public and
politicians alike in favour of revised organisation of the Upper House. Further reforms are
certainly to be seen in the future, or, to commemorate the words of Clement Attlee, perhaps it
is time to open another bottle.

References

Oakland, J. 2011. British Civilization. 7th edition. London: Routledge.

Internet sources

Parliament.uk
http://www.parliament.uk/business/lords/lords-history/history-of-the-lords/ [17 April 2015]
http://www.parliament.uk/business/lords/lords-history/lords-reform/ [17 April 2015]
http://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/research/briefing-papers/LLN-2012028/public-attitudes-towards-the-house-of-lords-and-house-of-lords-reform [17 April 2015]
http://www.parliament.uk/business/lords/work-of-the-house-of-lords/what-the-lords-does/ [17
April 2015]

BBC.com
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-29857849 [17 April 2015]