The House of Lords:

The House of Lords is the upper chamber in parliament. Its members (hereditary and life peers and peeresses) also play an important role in making sure that the government is accountable to parliament for its activities, by asking questions in the chamber and by scrutinising proposals for new legislation.

A House of Experts

Up until 1999, when the House of Lords was restructured, most members of the House of Lords were hereditary peers and peeresses. Today, there are only 92 hereditary peers, all of whom were retained on the basis of merit alone, because they were judged to be hard working parliamentarians who made significant contributions and were valued by their respective parties. Their titles can no longer be passed on to their children but they keep their ennoblement for life (unless they are disgraced, in which case their titles can be removed).

The great majority of peers and peeresses are appointed by the (elected) leader of their respective political party in the House of Commons. Each party gets roughly the same proportion of seats in the House of Lords as it has in the House of Commons.

Whilst it is acknowledged that politicians should be accountable to the public through direct elections, there are also significant benefits to having an appointed upper house. “People’s peers” are selected on the basis of great professional achievement during their careers, making the House of Lords above all a House of experts.

Unlike the House of Commons, which can sometimes fall prey to sensationalism and spin, the unelected nature of the House of Lords means that peers can make the sorts of political points that, whilst less popular with populist and tabloid media, are made on the basis of expert knowledge and are very much in the interest of the public.

The very fact that peers do not have to worry about getting re-elected ensures that they have less of a political agenda at heart and can speak their minds on a subject that they know a great deal about. Nevertheless, democracy per se is always preserved since the House of Commons can overrule any decision reached by the House of Lords by invoking the Parliament Acts.

Alongside members of the governing party and the opposition, the House of Lords also comprises bishops, crossbenchers (peers who belong to no political party) and Law Lords.

Organisation

Although the House of Lord’s duty, like that of the House of Commons, is to hold the government to account, the way its business is organised is somewhat different from that of the Commons.

The assembled House of Lords is presided over by the Lord Chancellor who sits on the Woolsack, a seat which is said to contain wool from the four corners of the former British Empire. Although he is often likened to the Speaker of the House in the Commons, the role and duties of the Lord Chancellor are very different. As a serving member of the Cabinet, the Lord Chancellor is not politically neutral and as such, is entitled to make speeches on behalf of the government. He does not control proceedings during debates and, unlike the Speaker, he does not bring the House to order if tensions mount during a debate. This responsibility generally lies with the peers themselves so that, if the chamber becomes too noisy, a chorus of ‘Order, Order’ will resonate from around the whole House.

The Lord Chancellor is in no way a chairman and does not decide who is to speak next. The order of peers who wish to speak is established before the debate by the party whips, together with a representative from the crossbenchers.

After debating a motion or bill, the Lord Chancellor asks the peers “As many as are of the opinion will say ‘content’, the contrary ‘not content’”. If only one side responds (or very few oppose), that is the end of the matter; but if the other side responds, a division is called, in much the same way as in the Commons. The peers walk through a lobby on each side of the House: the “contents” to the right of the Chancellor, the “not contents” to his left. The Lord Chancellor, unlike the Speaker, is allowed to vote in divisions in the House of Lords (and he does so by handing a paper to a clerk at the table rather than walking through the lobby). After the 8 minutes, the Lord Chancellor announces the results.

Highest Court of Appeal

When Parliament is not sitting, the House of Lords also serves as a court of justice, namely as the highest court of appeal for England, Wales and Northern Ireland for criminal and civil cases, and the highest court in Scotland for civil cases. Law lords are the judges for cases that reach the House of Lords. As life peers, they are entitled to speak in debates when Parliament is sitting, but law lords generally abide by the principle that those who interpret the law should not also make it and so they do not generally take part in legislative debates. Only in extreme cases, if the government were to introduce legislation that might affect the administration of justice, would they speak. In such cases, the law lords’ intervention is taken very seriously and seen as a strong sign that the government has overstepped its mark.

There are between nine and eleven law lords headed by the Lord Chancellor, the most senior law lord. The current structure has been widely criticised because it does not formally observe the division of power between the judiciary and the executive, since the Lord Chancellor is, at the same time, the head of this country’s highest court of appeal and also a member of the Cabinet.

It was for this reason that the government attempted to abolish the post of the Lord Chancellor in 2004. However, it was soon realised that separating the judiciary from the executive was no small task and that more serious consideration should be given to any changes introduced, so for the time being attempts to reform the system have been shelved.

When a case reaches the House of Lords, the law lords sit in a fairly informal setting (in contrast to the High Court where judges sits behind a high table, in their wigs and full regalia). This is because all the factual (and sometimes sensational) details such as evidence, a jury verdict, exhibits and witness cross-examination, will already have taken place in the High Court. Law lords only hear arguments on a point of law (i.e. how the law is interpreted).

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