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Lords Temporal
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{{Short description|Secular members of the House of Lords}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}} {{PoliticsUK}} The '''Lords Temporal''' are secular members of the [[House of Lords]], the upper house of the [[Parliament of the United Kingdom|British Parliament]]. These can be either [[life peer]]s or [[hereditary peer]]s, although the hereditary right to sit in the House of Lords was abolished for all but ninety-two peers during the [[House of Lords Act 1999|1999 reform of the House of Lords]]. The term is used to differentiate these members from the [[Lords Spiritual]], who sit in the House as a consequence of being [[bishop]]s in the [[Church of England]].<ref name= Blackstone>{{cite book |last=Blackstone |first=William |date=January 1, 1836 |title=Commentaries on the Laws of England |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2lFDAAAAcAAJ&pg=RA3-PA155-IA3 |location=London |publisher=Clarendon Press at Oxford |page=156 |isbn=978-1241049874 }}</ref><ref name= Cobbett>{{cite book |last=Cobbett |first=William |date=1803 |title=Cobbett's Parliamentary history of England. From the Norman conquest, in 1066. To the year, 1803 |url=https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/001746911 |location=London |publisher=T.C. Hansard |page=135 |author-link=William Cobbett}}</ref> == History == Membership in the Lords Temporal was once an entitlement of all hereditary peers, other than those in the [[peerage of Ireland]]. Under the [[House of Lords Act 1999]], the right to membership was restricted to [[List of excepted hereditary peers|92 hereditary peers]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.parliament.uk/documents/lords-information-office/hoflbpmembership.pdf|title=House of Lords briefing paper on Membership:Types of Member, Routes to membership, Parties & groups|access-date=1 July 2011|publisher=Parliament of the United Kingdom}}</ref> Further [[reform of the House of Lords]] is a perennially-discussed issue in [[Politics of the United Kingdom|British politics]]. However, no additional legislation on this issue has passed the [[House of Commons]] since 1999. The [[Wakeham Commission]], which debated the issue of lords' reform under then Prime Minister [[Tony Blair]], proposed making some of the Lords Temporal elected positions.<ref name="wake">[https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/266063/exec_sum.pdf Executive Summary of the Wakeham Report]</ref> This plan, which was widely criticised, failed to advance in the House of Commons.<ref>{{Cite news | title = Lords report fails to satisfy | work = BBC | access-date = 23 March 2013 | date = 20 January 2000 | url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/611889.stm }}</ref> Additional proposals were made under the coalition government of Prime Minister [[David Cameron]] to reduce the size of the House of Lords to 450, directly elect at least some of the Lords Temporal, and allow members of the House of Commons to run for election as Lords Temporal. None of these proposals passed.<ref>{{cite news |last=Grice |first=Andrew |date=11 July 2012 |title=Coalition shaken as Cameron ducks out of vote on Lords |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/coalition-shaken-as-cameron-ducks-out-of-vote-on-lords-7932344.html |work=The Independent |location=Online |access-date=25 September 2019}}</ref> == 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 β known as the [[Law Lords]] β 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. == Citations == {{reflist}} == External links == *[https://www.parliament.uk/about/mps-and-lords/about-lords/lords-types/ Membership of the House of Lords] [[Category:House of Lords]] [[Category:Constitution of the United Kingdom]]
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