House of Lords

• HoL: Law Making

  • The House of Lords proposes and debates bills in a similar way to the House of Commons and scrutinises the bill through the use of committees.
  • The House of Lords proposes amendments to bills during the law-making process, which are considered by the House of Commons. 
  • The House of Lords can delay the passage of a bill through Parliament if they do not agree with the bill. 
  • The House of Lords can defeat the government by not passing a bill, and send it back down to parliament, which does not kill the bill. The Lords can defeat secondary legislation.
• HoL: Investigating Public Policy

  • The House of Lords investigates and debates important public policy issues.
  • Select committees in the House of Lords conduct investigations into policy areas, by hearing evidence from a range of people including experts in the policy area and ministers. 
  • From 2016-2017, the House of Lords produced 41 reports on policy areas including Brexit and autonomous vehicles.
• HoL: Representation

  • The House of Lords contains peers who represent people in society that are less well represented in public life.
  • The House of Lords represents expertise from across society and a range of different professional backgrounds.
  • The House of Lords also represents different political views.
  • The Conservatives have 250 peers, the Labour party have 187 peers and the Liberal Democrats have 98 peers in the House of Lords.
  • There are 185 crossbenchers who do not align themselves with any party.
• HoL: Government Scrutiny

  • Scrutiny of the government takes place in the form of written and spoken questions put to government and through debates over policy
• HoL Effectiveness: Law Making

  • Bills are debated in depth by the House of Lords and passed through a number of processes in the House of Lords before being passed.
  • The House of Lords contains experts who can provide input into debates and committee reviews of bills.
  • Lord Krebs is zoologist and expert in the field of science and was the former President of the British Science Association.
  • Lord Mandelson has past political expertise and had of government roles for the Labour Party, such as Secretary of State under Gordon Brown’s government.
• HoL Effectiveness: Scrutiny

  • Each government department has a member of the House of Lords linked to it that will face questions during question time from other Lords.
  • Questioning of the government happens for 30 minutes each day from Monday to Thursday.
  • The House of Lords submits written questions to the government.
  • Between 2016-2017, over 7,000 written and spoken questions were put to the government.
  • The House of Lords makes sure that a government with a large majority is held to account by debating and proposing amendments to bills.
• HoL Effectiveness: Scrutiny cont.

  • No single party controls the House of Lords, increasing non-partisanship in the chamber.
  • Life peerages mean that Lords don't have to worry about losing their position if they disobey a whip.
  • Lords don't have constituencies, so can spend more time in parliament scrutinising the government.
• HoL Effectiveness: Interventions

  • In 2015 the House of Lords voted to delay cuts to tax credits.
  • In response, the proposed cuts were delayed and modified in the Autumn statement the next month.
  • The European Union withdrawal bill had been defeated in the Lords a total of 17 times by October 2018.
  • The House of Lords forced legislation changes, such as making a meaningful vote for parliament and to make sure that EU environmental law is still applied after Brexit.
• HoL Effectiveness: Representation

  • There are a reduced number of hereditary peers, reducing the number of Lords who simply inherited their title.
  • The Lords Spiritual (Women) Act in 2015 means that if a woman becomes a diocesan bishop, she joins the next vacancy for bishops in the House of Lords until 2025.
  • Members of the House of Lords represent and advocate for diverse groups in parliament. 
  • Baron Bird advocates for homeless people.
  • Members of the House of Lords debate issues of importance to the public, such as Brexit.
• HoL Limitations: Law Making

  • The House of Lords is not able to stop legislation passing through which it disagrees with, it can only delay and propose amendments to bills.
  • The Parliament Acts of 1911 and 1949 prevent the House of Lords from stopping legislation passing through Parliament and from debating a money bill, which is a bill that only involves government spending or taxation.
  • The Salisbury Convention means that the House of Lords is unable to oppose policies in the manifesto of the elected government.
• HoL Limitations: Representation

  • Members are not elected by the public, and the chamber doesn't directly represent citizens like the House of Commons does.
  • There are 92 hereditary peers who inherited their title and peerage, such as Lord Strathclyde and the Earl of Sandwich. 
  • The majority of the other peers were appointed by party leaders through the power of patronage, instead of independently.
  • Over half of members are over 70.
  • Church of England bishops are in the House of Lords, but no representatives from any other religion.
• HoL Limitations: Scrutiny

  • Some members of the House of Lords don't fulfil their role in parliament, only turning up to receive their expenses. 
  • Large amounts of expenses were claimed by 277 peers, even though they spoke five times or less between 2016-2017.
  • The House of Lords has the same difficulties as the House of Commons when posing written and spoken questions to the government.