The House of Lords is the Second Chamber of the UK Parliament and is often called an ‘amending’ or ‘revising’ chamber. It plays a significant role in legislation and therefore how someone becomes a member of the House of Lords is an important question. It is also a question which is often mired in political sleaze and scandal. So, how does someone become a Member of the House of Lords and how effective is this process?

What are the different types of peer?

Members of the House of Lords can be broadly split into two categories:

Lords Spiritual – The 26 Bishops who sit in the House of Lords because of their senior position in the Church of England.

Lords Temporal – The remaining secular members of the House of Lords appointed due to their skills and specialisms, their political allegiance or because the Prime Minister deems them fit for a peerage.

Within the Lords Temporal, there two separate categories:

1. Excepted Hereditary Peers – Since the House of Lords Act (1999) there have been 92 excepted hereditary peers who have retained the right to sit in the House of Lords. Of these, two are automatically given seats – the Duke of Norfolk (as Earl Marshal) and the Marquess of Cholmondeley (as Lord Great Chamberlain). The other 90 are elected to sit in the House of Lords and a by-election takes place to replace them when they retire or die.
2. Life Peers – Since the Life Peerages Act (1958), it has been possible to appoint people to the House of Lords for life. Unlike titles in the peerage, these titles become extinct when the member dies and they are not inherited.

How are ‘excepted hereditary’ peers chosen to sit in the Lords?

Apart from the Earl Marshal and Earl Great Chamberlain, the 90 other hereditary peers hold their seat virtue of winning by-elections. This produces the political irony that the only people ever elected to sit in the House of Lords are its hereditary peers!

These by-elections are held when a current member of the House of Lords dies or if, under the rules made by the House of Lords Reform Act (2014), they retire from the House. The election are held using the Alternative Vote system.

Any member her of the hereditary peerage can put their name forward for election to the House of Lords. Under the Standing Orders of the House of Lords, the number of hereditary peers for any political party is apportioned in relation to the party allegiance of hereditary peers in 1999. At present, the numbers of hereditary peers representing each party is:

Conservative – 47

Crossbenchers – 34

Labour – 4

Liberal Democrats – 4

No Party Affiliation – 2

Apart from in the case of 15 seats elected by the whole house, including life peers, the only voters in the by-elections are the hereditary peers who belong to that particular party. This means that that electorates can be very small, particularly in the case of Labour and Liberal Democrat by-elections. In fact, in July 2021 following the death of Labour hereditary peer Lord Rea, Viscount Stansgate was elected unopposed.

Recent excepted hereditary peers elected to sit in the Lords include:

November 2023 – Lord Camoys won a by-election following the death of Lord Brougham and Vaux. He was elected via the whole house as Lord Brougham and Vaux was one of the 15 peers elected via the whole house in 1999.

September 2023 – Lord Meston and Lord De Clifford were elected as Crossbench Peers following the death of Lord Palmer and the retirement of Lord Hylton.

How are Bishops appointed to the House of Lords?

Strangely, all Bishops within England and Wales are appointed by the Prime Minister, regardless of whether they will sit in the House of Lords. Whilst officially they are appointed by the monarch in their role as Supreme Governor of the Church of England, the PM appoints them on the Monarch’s behalf.

Not all Church of England Bishops automatically get a seat in the House of Lords as there are only 26 available. Whilst the two Archbishops (Canterbury and York) automatically take a seat, the 24 diocesan bishops are appointed to the House of Lords based on their length of service as a Bishop. When a seat becomes vacant (due to death or retirement – which is mandatory at 70) the next Bishop in line takes a seat in the Lords.

Recent Bishops to join the House of Lords include the Lord Bishop of Lincoln and the Lord Bishop of Hereford.

How are Life Peers appointed to the House of Lords?

There are three main mechanisms through which Life Peers are appointed to the House of Lords:

1. Nomination by a political party – Political parties can nominate people to sit in the House of Lords under their party whip. The idea of this process is to ‘top up’ the party memberships in the House of Lords when peers retire or die. This is important to ensure that a similar party balance remains and a party is not politically impacted just because as a large number of their Lords have passed away.

Recent examples of Lords appointing via party nomination include:

Baroness Hazarika (Labour) – Ayesha Hazarika has been a political broadcaster and a former senior advisor to a number of Labour Party politicians.

Baroness Smith (Plaid Cymru) – Carmen Smith is a campaigner and public affairs officer and she took the Plaid Cymru seat in the Lords after Lord Wigley announced his decision to retire from the House.

Baroness Monckton (Conservative) – Rosamund Monckton is a businesswoman and charity campaigner who was appointed a Conservative peer.

2. Nomination by the Prime Minister – The Prime Minister can nominate people to sit in the House of Lords. Most notably, this happens in the New Years Honours List and in their Resignation Honours List upon their leaving the office as Prime Minister. These lists are often exceptionally controversial. They may also make ad hoc appointments for political reasons.

Recent examples of Lords appointing via Prime Ministerial nomination include:

Lord Cameron – Former Prime Minister David Owen was appointed to the House of Lords in November 2023 during the cabinet reshuffle instigated by the sacking of Suella Braverman. Cameron was appointed to the House of Lords in order to take up the role of Foreign Secretary.

Baroness Owen – Charlotte Owen was appointed to the House of Lords in July 2023 as part of Boris Johnson’s resignation honours list. This was controversial given no-one, anywhere, could explain why she deserved the appointment to the House of Lords for her very short stint as a Special Advisor to Conservative Ministers. At the time of her appointment, she was the youngest member of the House.

3. Nomination by the House of Lords Appointments Commission – The independent House of Lords Appointments Commission can nominate individuals to join the House of Lords as Crossbenchers. These are members who do not represent any particular party and are renowned for their non-partisan independence.

Recent examples of Crossbench Lords appointed include:

Baroness Gohir – Baroness Gohir was appointed to the House of Lords following a long and successful career advocating for women’s rights.

Baroness Willis – Baroness Willis was appointed to the House of Lords after a strong academic record in the research of ecosystems and environmental change.

What is the role of the House of Lords Appointments Commission in these processes?

The House of Lords Appointments Commission (HOLAC) was set-up in 2000 to act as an independent body scrutinising appointments to the House of Lords. It has two key functions:

1. To recommend the appointment of two non-party peers who will sit in the House of Lords as Crossbenchers. These peers can be recommended to the HOLAC by members of the public via their website. These are often called ‘People’s Peers’).
2. To vet the nominations for Life Peerages to the House of Lords, including those put forward by political parties and the House of Lords. Whilst the HOLAC cannot veto any appointment, it can submit a formal objection to the Prime Minister over the propriety of any particular appointment.

Why are there so many controversies over the appointment of members of the House of Lords?

There four ways in which the appointments process is controversial:

1. The idea that people are appointed to the Lords simply as an ‘honour’, rather than to play a substantive role in the legislature.

Many people are appointed to the House of Lords simply as an honour. Others, are appointed to the House of Lords with the belief they can play a useful role in the legislature, but instead treat the Lords as an showpiece.

A useful example here is Lord Sugar. Sugar was appointed to the House of Lords in 2009 and was expected to play a role as an ‘Enterprise Champion’ for Gordon Brown. However, since Brown lost the election in 2010, Sugar’s continuing place in the Lords has been problematic. Since being in the House of Lords, Sugar has voted in just 25 out of 1,482 divisions (1.68%). Whilst barely attending the House of Lords, Lord Sugar has profited from his carefully cultivated brand of ‘Lord Sugar’ – seen in the Apprentice.

2. The suspicion that people are able to pay their way into the House of Lords based on their donations to political parties.

By far one of the biggest concerns surrounding the House of Lords is the perception that people are able to pay their way into it by donating significant amounts of money to political parties. There have been a number of scandals relating to this:

Cash for Honours under Tony Blair – Between 2006 and 2007 the New Labour government was under fire over ‘cash for honours’. The scandal surrounded a number of individuals who had been nominated for the House of Lords by Tony Blair who were then revealed to have donated or loaned significant sums of money to the Labour Party. For example, Chai Patel was nominated for a peerage after recently donating £100,000 to the Labour Party. Complaints were made to the Metropolitan Police who began an investigation during which Tony Blair was twice interviewed. The Labour chief fundraiser for the Labour Party, Lord Levy, was arrested during the investigation – but was not eventually charged with any offence.

Peter Cruddas – Lord Cruddas was appointed to the House of Lords in December 2020. In the week following taking his seat in the House of Lords it was reported that Cruddas had donated over £3 million to the Conservative Party over the preceding years. Significantly, the House of Lords Appointments Commission advised against his appointment due to previous financial improprieties. Nonetheless, he was appointed by Johnson – the first time a Prime Minister had ignored the advice of the HOLCAC.

3. The fact that people with little to no outstanding merits are appointed to the House of Lords by a Prime Minister.

Many people have been appointed to the House of Lords with seemingly little merit to their appointment. The best example of this in recent times is the appointment of Charlotte Owen to the House of Lords. Her limited CV led to many questioning why Boris Johnson had appointed her in his Resignation Honours List:

Another problem is the perception that people are placed in the House of Lords due to ‘who they know’. Notably, Boris Johnson appointed his brother, Jo Johnson, to the House of Lords in July 2020 as part of the 2019 Dissolution Honours List. Whilst Jo Johnson had been a Junior Minister across a number of departments, there can be no doubt he would not have been elevated to the House of Lords without a brother who was Prime Minister.

The dissolution honours lists and resignation honours lists allows for Prime Ministers to appoint people to the House of Lords out of personal loyalty, rather than because they are suited to a role in the legislature. By convention, Prime Ministers always accept the recommendations of a previous Prime Minister in a dissolution or resignation honours list. Despite serving just 45 days as Prime Minister, Liz Truss published a full honours list which included peerages for Jon Moynihan (a Conservative donor) and Ruth Porter (a senior aide).

4. The issue of the advice of the House of Lords Appointments Commission and other bodies being ignored by the Prime Minister.

The HOLAC can advise that someone is not appointed to the House of Lords, but they cannot stop the appointment. Notably, in the case of Lord Cruddas, the HOLAC advised against his appointment to the House of Lords but Boris Johnson made the appointment anyone.

Another significant case emerged over Lord Lebedev. Evgeny Lebedev is a Russian-British billionaire who owns the Evening Standard. His father, Alexander Lebedev, was a senior figure in the KGB – the security service of the USSR. In 2020 Lebedev was nominated for a peerage by Boris Johnson. However, the security services expressed concern to the Prime Minister about his appointment. Their concerns surrounded his background as a Russian citizen and his family involvement with the Russian security services. The Labour Party tabled a motion in the House of Commons to force the government to disclose the security warnings they had received about Lebedev. Whilst this motion passed, the government refused to publish them on national security grounds.

5. Appointment of senior Cabinet Members into the Lords can lead to accusations of a lack of democratic accountability

One of the reasons that a Prime Minister might appoint someone to the House of Lords is in order that they play a role in government. This enables the Prime Minister to bring people with a perceived talent or expertise into government without them having to win an election and sit as an MP.

Some prominent examples of this include:

Lord Cameron – Former Prime Minister, David Cameron, was surprisingly appointed to the House of Lords in order to become Foreign Secretary in November 2023.

Lord Frost – In 2021 David Frost was appointed to the Cabinet and made a member of the House of Lords. He had previously been Boris Johnson’s advisor on European issues between 2019 and 2021 and had been Britain’s chief negotiator in the Brexit talks. He later resigned from Johnson’s government over the ‘Plan B’ Covid regulations.

Lord Mandelson – Peter Mandelson, along with Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, had been one of the chief architects of New Labour. He had twice been forced to resign as an MP after political scandals surrounding him. At times, his relationship with Gordon Brown had been strained. However, in 2008 he was appointed to the House of Lords and made Business Secretary in Brown’s Government. In 2009, he was even appointed First Secretary of State, effectively making him the number two person in government. Mandelson, despite being unelected, was incredibly powerful, sitting on 35 cabinet committees or sub-committees with a brief that extended across Government.

One of the problems with this is that these Ministers cannot be held to account in the same way as Ministers in the Commons. For instance, they cannot enter the House of Commons and therefore cannot be questioned during Departmental Question Time. The appointment of David Cameron to the House of Lords in order to be Foreign Secretary has been particularly controversial. He is the first holder of a ‘great office of state’ to sit in the House of Lords since Lord Carrington’s resignation as Foreign Secretary in 1982. At a time of constant international crisis, for example through the wars in Ukraine and Gaza, Cameron cannot be held directly to account by members of the House of Commons except via Select Committee. This is far from ideal.

What are the strengths and weaknesses of the House of Lords appointments process?

Some of the potential strengths of the House of Lords appointments process might include:

1. The House of Lords Appointments Commission is able to regularly appoint Crossbench Peers due to their specialisms and skills. A number of prominent and active members of the House of Lords have been appointed using this process.
2. All potential appointments to the House of Lords (except hereditary peers and bishops) are vetted by the House of Lords Appointments Commission. This is an independent process that gives clear advice to the Prime Minister on the appropriateness of any given appointment.
3. Whilst it is not ideal to have any hereditary peers in the House of Lords, the by-elections system ensures that the hereditary peers still in the House are their because they actively sought to play an active role in the legislature. Most of the hereditary peers in the House are very active.
4. The House of Lords provides an opportunity for Prime Ministers to bring talented people from outside Parliament into government. Famously, Gordon Brown used this process to appoint Digby Jones as a Minister for Trade and Investment.
5. The top-up process for political party membership ensures that the party-balance remains in the House of Lords and the government cannot swamp it with party members for their own benefit.

However, some of the potential weaknesses include:

1. The continuing existence of 92 hereditary peers in the House of Lords is problematic. It is hard in a liberal democracy to justify the position of people in the legislature who are there due to the hereditary principle.
2. The Prime Minister has the ultimate say on who is appointed to the House of Lords as one of their royal prerogative powers. This means they can make controversial appointments, even against advice.
3. Whilst the HOLAC appointments commission can make recommendations, it is only an advisory body. The appointment of Lord Cruddas shows the weaknesses of this process.
4. The PM can use the House of Lords to appoint senior politicians without democratic scrutiny. This has been problematic in the case of David Cameron who cannot be adequately scrutinised by the House of Commons despite his senior government position.
5. There is no process to remove ‘non-working’ peers like Lord Sugar whose persistent absence is disreputable.
6. The House of Lords is not descriptively representative of the UK has a whole. In terms of age, gender and ethnic diversity, in particular, it does not represent the make-up of the UK. It does little to dispel the public image that it is ‘pale, male and stale’.
7. The concept of dissolution and resignation honours lists published by a Prime Minister, and which by convention are accepted by a new prime Minister, leaves it open for Prime Ministers to reward personal loyalty, rather than appoint those best suited to playing a role in the legislature.

Article Summary

The very existence of the House of Lords remains a controversial topic in British politics. One of the driving forces behind this controversy is how people are appointed to the House of Lords, a topic often mired in sleaze and scandal. This can dramatically undercut the positive work that the House of Lords does scrutinising and amending legislation.

Key Terms

Lords Spiritual –  The name for the 26 members of the House of Lords who are also Church of England Bishops.

Lords Temporal –  The name for any peer who is not a Lords Spiritual.

Excepted Hereditary Peers –  A member of the House of Lords who is part of the peerage of the United Kingdom and has inherited their title. There are 92 hereditary peers who have remained in the House of Lords since 1999.

Life Peers – A member of the House of Lords who has been appointed for life and their title is not inherited.

House of Lords Act (1999) – The Act that removed all but 92 of the hereditary peers from the House of Lords. It was part of the range of constitutional reforms bought in by Tony Blair’s government.

Life Peerages Act (1958) – An Act that allowed people to be appointed to the House of Lords for life. This allowed females to sit in the House of Lords for the first time.

House of Lords Reform Act (2014) – An Act that allowed for members of the House of Lords to resign from the Lords and also allowed for the removal of peers who fail to attend the Lords.

New Years Honours list – A yearly list of honours which often includes appointments to the House of Lords.

Dissolution Honours List – A set of honours announced by the Prime Minister following a dissolution from Parliament.

Resignation Honours List – A set of honours announced by the former Prime Minister following their resignation.

House of Lords Appointments Commission –  An independent commission that appoints crossbench peers to the House of Lords and also vets party nominations for the chamber.

People’s Peers – A name often given to the crossbench peers appointed by the House of Lords Appointments Commission.

Great Office of State – The term given for the four highest offices in the UK: Prime Minister, Foreign Secretary, Home Secretary and Chancellor of the Exchequer. Only James Callaghan has ever held all four.

Royal Prerogative – A number of privileges and powers of the monarch, most of which have now been passed to the Prime Minister and members of the government. For example, the Prime Minister appoints the Cabinet on behalf of the monarch.

Edexcel Specification:

Edexcel: Paper 2 – 2.4 (Parliament)
AQA: Paper 1 – 3.1.1.2 (The structure and role of Parliament)
WJEC: Paper 1 – 1.2.2 (How Parliament works in the UK)