Editing Lords Temporal (section)

== Composition of the Lords Temporal ==

The Lords Temporal consist of a smaller number of [[hereditary peers]] and a much larger contingent of [[life peers]].

=== Hereditary peers ===
The Lords Temporal has historically included several hundred hereditary peers (English peers as well as Scottish [[Lords of Parliament]]). Such hereditary offices can be created by the Crown and in modern times are usually created only under the advice of the Prime Minister.

Holders of [[peerage of Scotland|Scottish]] and Irish peerages were not always permitted to sit in the Lords. When Scotland united with England to form [[Great Britain]] in 1707, it was provided that the Scottish hereditary peers would only be able to elect 16 [[List of Scottish representative peers|Scottish representative peer]]s to sit in the House of Lords; the term of a representative was to extend until the next general election. A similar provision was enacted when Ireland merged with Great Britain in 1801 to form the [[United Kingdom]]; the Irish peers were allowed to elect 28 representatives, who were to retain office for life. Elections for Irish representatives ended in 1922, when most of Ireland became an independent state; elections for Scottish representatives ended with the passage of the [[Peerage Act 1963]], under which all Scottish peers obtained seats in the Upper House.

After the 1999 reform, only 92 hereditary peers remain as Lords Temporal. Two are the [[Earl Marshal#England|Earl Marshal]] and the [[Lord Great Chamberlain]]. Of the [[List of excepted hereditary peers|remaining ninety peers sitting in the Lords by virtue of a hereditary peerage]], 15 are elected by the whole House and 75 are chosen by fellow hereditary peers in the House of Lords, grouped by party.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.parliament.uk/site-information/glossary/hereditary-peers/|title=Hereditary Peers}}</ref><ref name= Cobbett/>

=== Life peers ===

The largest group of Lords Temporal, and indeed of the whole House, are life peers. As of March 2024 there are 670 life peers.<ref name="parliament.uk">{{Cite web|url=https://members.parliament.uk/parties/lords/by-peerage |title=Lords membership - MPS and Lords - UK Parliament}}</ref> Life peerages 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 Crown, who acts on the advice of the Prime Minister or the House of Lords Appointments Commission. However, by convention, the Prime Minister allows leaders of other parties to nominate some life peers, to maintain political equilibrium.

In 2000, the government announced it would set up an Independent Appointments Commission, under [[Dennis Stevenson, Baron Stevenson of Coddenham|Lord Stevenson of Coddenham]], to select fifteen so-called "[[people's peer]]s" for life peerages.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.lordsappointments.gov.uk/appointees.aspx|title=HOLAC Appointments|publisher=House of Lords Appointments Commission|date=30 July 2009|access-date=7 September 2009|archive-date=3 September 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090903113813/http://www.lordsappointments.gov.uk/appointees.aspx|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.brickcourt.co.uk/document-uploads/HOLAC_080618.doc |title=Archived copy |website=www.brickcourt.co.uk |access-date=13 January 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190528174354/http://www.brickcourt.co.uk/document-uploads/HOLAC_080618.doc |archive-date=28 May 2019 |url-status=dead}}</ref>

=== Defunct groupings ===

==== Law lords ====

Until the establishment of the [[Supreme Court of the United Kingdom|Supreme Court]] in 2009, a subset of the Lords Temporal – known as the [[Law Lords]] – acted as the final court of appeal in the United Kingdom judicial system.<ref>{{cite web|publisher=Parliament of the United Kingdom |title=Parliamentary sovereignty |url=http://www.parliament.uk/about/how/sovereignty/|access-date=29 January 2012}}</ref> These lords became the first justices of the UK Supreme Court.