House of Lords Appointments Commission: Role and powers

Approximate read time: 11 minutes

1. What is the role of HOLAC?

HOLAC has two main functions. The first concerns appointments to the House of Lords in general. Life peerages are created by the Sovereign on the advice of the prime minister. Prime ministers may make recommendations for political life peers (including ministerial appointments) and non-party political life peers, such as former high-ranking civil servants. By convention, prime ministers may take advice from other party leaders when recommending life peerages for individuals affiliated with opposition groups. HOLAC vets these nominations on the basis of their propriety and can advise and make recommendations to the prime minister concerning these appointments.

The second function concerns the recommendation of new Crossbench peers. HOLAC can make recommendations for the appointment of new non-party political members of the House of Lords. These are appointed to sit in the House of Lords as Crossbench peers. Individuals can apply to HOLAC directly in order to be considered for appointment to the House of Lords in this way.

HOLAC does not have a role concerning the total number of appointments or the overall size and composition of the House of Lords.

2. How was it established?

The establishment of a non-statutory appointments commission was initially proposed in 1998 in the then Labour government’s white paper on House of Lords reform.^[1] Prime Minister Tony Blair confirmed the establishment of the commission and its membership on 4 May 2000.^[2] It was created as an independent, advisory, non-departmental public body (NDPB). NDPBs operate at arm’s-length from ministers.^[3]

Unlike bodies such as the National Audit Office, the Electoral Commission and the Judicial Appointments Commission, HOLAC was not created through statute. Because HOLAC is not a statutory body, its remit can be changed by the government without amending legislation. For example, after the May 2010 general election, the then new Coalition government expanded HOLAC’s remit by asking it to vet individuals who were to be appointed to the House of Lords as ministers.^[4]

3. Who are its members?

The current chair is Baroness Deech (Crossbench). She was appointed as chair in 2023. Previous chairs have been:

• Lord Stevenson of Coddenham (Crossbench), from 2000 to 2008
• Lord Jay of Ewelme (Crossbench), from 2008 to 2013
• Lord Kakkar (Crossbench), from 2013 to 2018
• Lord Bew (Crossbench), from 2018 to 2023

There are seven other members.^[5] Of these, three places are reserved for political parties (Conservative, Labour, and Liberal Democrat) and selected from members of the House of Lords. The remaining four members are non-party political and currently include both members of the Lords and members of the public.

4. How many non-party political members have been recommended by HOLAC? 

Since its creation, the commission has recommended a total of 76 individuals for appointment to the House of Lords as Crossbench peers. Most of these were during its first 10 years. Between 2000 and 2010, a total of 57 members were recommended by HOLAC for appointment to the House of Lords.^[6] Since 2010, 19 members have been recommended and appointed. HOLAC Chair Baroness Deech said in 2024 that just over 1% of the people who apply to HOLAC for appointment have become members of the Lords.^[7]

Graph 1: Crossbench peers appointments announced by year recommended by the House of Lords Appointments Commission, 2000–Present

In 2012, then Prime Minister David Cameron asked HOLAC to limit the number of recommendations it made to individuals to two per year.^[8] In 2018, it confirmed it would continue to limit the number of people it recommended for appointments.^[9] The commission said it had made this decision in the light of the recommendations made by the Lord Speaker’s committee on the size of the House.^[10] This report recommended the overall size of the House of Lords should be capped at 600 members. To achieve this, it recommended there should be only one new appointment for every two vacancies created.

Speaking during an oral evidence session with the House of Commons Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee in March 2024, Baroness Deech said she would like to increase the number of Crossbench peers appointed each year.^[11] However, she said this could not be achieved without addressing the issue of the overall size of the House.

Crossbench peers may also be nominated directly by the prime minister. These nominations are vetted by HOLAC in the same way as nominations made by the political parties.

5. How does it vet nominations to the House of Lords?

HOLAC only vets nominations for propriety. It does not have the power to vet nominations for other qualities such as suitability. It has published the following definition of what ‘propriety’ constitutes in this context:

[…] propriety means:

i) The individual should be in good standing in the community in general and with the public regulatory authorities in particular; and

ii) The past conduct of the nominee would not reasonably be regarded as bringing the House of Lords into disrepute.^[12]

HOLAC has said the issue of suitability more generally should be addressed before the nominations are made. In October 2022, then HOLAC Chair Lord Bew wrote to the leaders of the political parties noting they had a role in judging the suitability of nominations.^[13] In this letter he asked party leaders to consider the principles of public life (the Nolan principles) when making nominations. He also said HOLAC was becoming “increasingly uncomfortable about the limits of its role” when vetting nominations in instances where issues of suitability had not been addressed appropriately beforehand.^[14]

Baroness Deech sent a similar letter to party leaders in March 2024 following her appointment as HOLAC chair.^[15] As well as asking party leaders to consider the principles of public life when making nominations, she said they should provide HOLAC with an assurance that those nominated had “demonstrated past conduct consistent with the duties of a member of the House of Lords”. She also said party leaders should require nominees to give an assurance they understood the role and requirements of membership of the Lords.

6. Is HOLAC’s advice always followed?

The prime minister makes the final decision on whether to recommend to the King that someone be given a life peerage. In December 2020, then Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced the appointment of Peter Cruddas, a businessperson, philanthropist, and Conservative Party donor and former co-treasurer.^[16] Prior to his appointment, HOLAC said it could not support the appointment of Mr Cruddas. However, Mr Johnson decided the appointment should go ahead. In his letter to Lord Bew, he said Mr Cruddas had made “outstanding contributions” to the business and charitable sectors.^[17] Lord Cruddas joined the House of Lords on 27 January 2021.

In a subsequent letter to the House of Commons Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee, Lord Bew said HOLAC had been unable to support individuals nominated by the parties on previous occasions.^[18] However, he said this was the first time HOLAC’s advice had not been followed. Subsequently, HOLAC confirmed it had not supported eight of the nominees put forward as part of Mr Johnson’s resignations honours list.^[19] This advice was accepted by then Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and these individuals were not included in the final resignation honours list.^[20]

7. Should HOLAC be reformed?

Since its establishment, there have been calls for HOLAC to be placed on a statutory basis. For example, in 2000, the Royal Commission on Reform of the House of Lords recommended it should become a statutory body to avoid its role being altered or abolished without reference to Parliament.^[21] In 2012, the Joint Committee on the Draft House of Lords Reform Bill also recommended HOLAC should be placed on a statutory basis.^[22] However, the subsequent House of Lords Reform Bill was not passed.

Several private members’ bills have been introduced proposing changes to the powers and role of HOLAC. For example, during the 2022–23 session, Lord Norton of Louth (Conservative) introducedrivate member’s bill to put HOLAC on a statutory basis.^[23] The bill would have also strengthened HOLAC’s role in the appointments process. This bill did not progress beyond second reading.^[24]

During her evidence session with the House of Commons Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee in March 2024, Baroness Deech described the current basis for the establishment of HOLAC as “rather flimsy”.^[25] She said HOLAC had not formed a view on whether it should be established on a statutory basis but she said her personal view was there was “some merit” in this course of action.^[26] However, she also said she believed it was unlikely that a prime minister would be willing to lose their final say in who should become a member of the Lords.

In June 2024, the Institute for Government, the Constitution Unit at University College London and the UK Governance Project published a joint set of recommendations for improving standards of ethics and integrity in public life.^[27] This included a recommendation to reform the House of Lords appointments process to ensure appointments were “made on merit, with the purpose of enhancing the work of Parliament”. They recommended the remit of HOLAC could be expanded by the prime minister enabling it to consider the suitability of candidates in addition to propriety. The joint statement said this could be achieved without introducing legislation. However, in a separate set of recommendations, the UK Governance Project has argued that HOLAC should be placed on a statutory footing.^[28]

Labour said in its manifesto it would reform the House of Lords appointments process to “ensure the quality of new appointments”. However, it did not include any specific commitments concerning reforming HOLAC.^[29] During an oral question in the House of Lords on government standards in July 2024, Leader of the House of Lords Baroness Smith of Basildon said the Prime Minister would set out his views on HOLAC “soon”.^[30]

8. Read more

• House of Lords Library, ‘House of Lords reform: Government policy and recent developments’, 6 November 2024
• House of Lords Library, ‘Vetting appointments to the House of Lords’, 28 February 2022
• House of Lords Library, ‘House of Lords (Peerage Nominations) Bill [HL]: HL Bill 19 of 2022–23’, 2 August 2022
• House of Lords Library, ‘House of Lords appointments: Should the process be reviewed?’, 12 November 2021
• House of Lords Library, ‘Reforming the House of Lords Appointments Commission’, 20 August 2021

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Cover image: House of Lords 2023. Photography by Roger Harris on Flickr.