Text 6. Questions composition of the modern house of lords

1. When was the House of Lords as a separate body formed?

HoL as a separate Chamber of the Parliament was formed in 14-th century.

2. The functions of the Lords. How does the Lords check the government?

Functions: to examine and pass legislation, to revise legislation sent from the HoC, to initiate legislation, to check on government by scrutinizing its activities. HoL does it by asking questions, debating policy and, through its select committees, taking evidence from ministers and others. Questions are directed at the Government as a whole! They enable Members to check on government activities, raise issues if concern about government policy and seek information.

3. How are members of the Lords organized? What is a crossbencher?

Organized on a party basis in much the same way as the HoC, BUT members of the Lords do not represent constituencies and many do not support one of the three main parties – these independent Members are known as “Crossbenchers”.

4. Into which groups are the members divided? How can a person become a Lord?

They are currently subdivided into Lords Temporal and Lords Spiritual. The public do not elect the Lords. If you want to become the Lord, you should be appointed by the Queen on the recommendation of the Prime Minister or of the HoL Appointments Commission.

5. How had the members been divided before the Reform 2005?

Before the Reform 2005 Lords Temporal were classified into hereditary peers, life peers and Lords of Appeal in Ordinary, plus there were Lords Spiritual.

6. Life Peers and hereditary Peers. Who prevails?

Nowadays the core membership of the HoL is made up of Life Peers (appointed for their lifetime only). They were created under the Life Peerages Act 1958. Queen appoints them on the recommendation of the Prime Minister. Today there are 92 hereditary peers. Previously this group included all the peers of UK who have not disclaimed their peerage under the Peerage Act 1963, however, the right of hereditary peers to sit and vote in the HoL was ended in 1999 by the HoL Act, so we can clearly see that Life Peers are prevail nowadays.

7. How has the status of the Lords of Appeal in Ordinary changed?

They were the members of the HoL, but under the CRA 2005 the existing Lords of Appeal in Ordinary became in 2009 judges of the new Supreme Court of the UK and were barred form sitting or voting in the HoL until they retire as judges.

8. Lords Spiritual

They are sitting in the HoL by virtue of their ecclesiastical offices. Lords Spiritual include the Archbishops of Canterbury and York, the Bishops of London, Durham and Winchester, and the 21 next most senior diocesan bishops of the Church of England. They pass their membership on to the next most senior bishop when they retire. The Archbishops of Canterbury and York traditionally get life peerages on retirement.

9. The functions of the Lord Speaker

He presides over business in the Chamber. Unlike the HoC speaker, he doesn’t call on Members to speak and has no powers to call the House to order, because the HoL is self-regulating. He is elected by the House and is politically impartial.