House of Lords appointments: should the process be reviewed?

The House of Lords is due to debate the following question for short debate on 18 November 2021, tabled by Lord Balfe (Conservative):

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what plans they have, if any, to establish a committee to review the process for appointing members of the House of Lords.

This article provides background information further to this debate.

How are members of the House of Lords appointed?

The majority of members of the House of Lords eligible to participate in proceedings (85%) are life peers. New life peerages are created by the Queen on the advice of the prime minister. There is no limit on the number of members that can be appointed in this way. There is also no limit to the number of members that can be appointed from a particular party. There is no cap on the overall size of the House of Lords.

The House of Lords Appointments Commission (HOLAC) can advise and make recommendations to the prime minister concerning these appointments. HOLAC is an independent, advisory, non-departmental public body. The commission was created in May 2000 by the then Prime Minister, Tony Blair. The commission makes recommendations for the appointment of non-party political members of the House of Lords. It also vets all nominations to the House of Lords on their propriety and advises the prime minister.

The prime minister makes the final decision on whether to recommend to the Queen that someone be given a life peerage. For example, in December 2020, the commission advised the Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, that it could not support the appointment of Peter Cruddas. However, the Prime Minister subsequently announced the appointment of Lord Cruddas would go ahead.

What is the Government’s policy on appointments to the House of Lords?

The Conservative Party’s manifesto for the 2019 general election said the Government would look at various aspects of the UK constitution, including the “role of the House of Lords”. More recently, in June 2021, Lord True, Minister of State at the Cabinet Office, said the Government was keeping issues concerning House of Lords reform under consideration alongside other constitutional issues. However, he said the Government would not support what he described as “piecemeal reform”.

Since Boris Johnson became Prime Minister in July 2019, 83 new members of the House of Lords have been appointed. Of those appointed, the majority (42) have been Conservative members. Speaking in September 2021, Lord True said these new appointments had been necessary to refresh the membership of the House. He has also argued the Government needed to ensure that it was able to get its business through Parliament.

The number of appointments made during the current government is larger than the number appointed during the period in which Theresa May was in office (13 July 2016–24 July 2019):

Table 1: Life peerages created by prime minister and by party at creation since 1999

How has the size and composition of the House changed since 2019?

Since 2019, the overall number of members has increased. Based on the total size of the House at the end of each session (including members not eligible to participate), the size of the House declined between the 2015–16 and 2017–19 sessions. However, at the end of the 2019–21 session, the House of Lords had 25 more members when compared with the end of the 2017–19 session:

Figure 1: Total membership at end of each session: 1999–2000 to 2019–21

Since 2016, members of the House of Lords have been able to retire from the House of Lords. From 2016 until 2019, there had been an average decrease of 13 members. Since 2020, the number of new members joining the House of Lords has been larger than the number of members leaving. In 2020, there was a net increase of 9 members:

Table 2: Members joining and leaving each year since 2016

In terms of party balance, the number of Conservative members eligible to participate in proceedings decreased during the 2017–19 session. However, it increased during the 2019–21 session by 22.

Figure 2: Changes in actual membership numbers, by party since 1990

Figure 2 does not include figures for the short 2019 session.

Proposals for reform: limiting the number of appointments

There have been several proposals for reform of the way in which members are appointed. One of these proposals has been to limit the number of appointments that can be made.

There are currently 822 members of the House of Lords. If members who are on leave of absence or disqualified from sitting are excluded, 783 members are currently eligible to sit in the House of Lords. In October 2017, the Lord Speaker’s committee on the size of the House of Lords proposed the membership of the House should be capped at 600 members. To achieve this, the committee recommended there should be only one new appointment for every two vacancies created. This was described as a “two-out, one-in” system. After the House had reached 600 members, the committee recommended appointments should be made on a “one-in, one-out” system.

In May 2021, the Lord Speaker’s committee on the size of the House published a report criticising the Government for the number of new appointments it had made since July 2019. It argued the rate of appointments had increase the overall size of the House. It also criticised the party-political composition of these appointments, describing them as “overwhelmingly Conservative”.

In May 2021, responding to an oral question concerning the Lord Speaker’s committee’s latest report, Lord True said:

[…] the Government have of course noted the committee’s latest report. However, given retirements and other departures, some new members are essential to keep the expertise and outlook of the Lords fresh. This will ensure that the House of Lords continues to fulfil its role in scrutinising and revising legislation while respecting the primacy of the Commons.

Further information on proposals to limit the number of new appointments to the House of Lords is provided in the House of Lords Library In Focus article, ‘Capping the size of the House of Lords’ (10 September 2020).

Establishing a statutory appointments commission

A further proposal for reform of the appointment process has been to establish the appointments commission on a statutory basis. For example, Lord Norton of Louth (Conservative) has introduced a private member’s bill entitled the House of Lords (Peerage Nominations) Bill [HL] in the current 2021–22 session. This would establish a statutory appointments commission that would consider both the size and composition of the House of Lords when making recommendations to the prime minister concerning appointments. It would also establish new criteria that someone should meet before receiving a nomination, such as “conspicuous merit” and a willingness and capacity to contribute to the work of the House of Lords.

Speaking during a debate on the appointments commission in September 2021, Lord Norton said establishing the commission on a statutory basis would mean it would be independent of the prime minister. He said his bill would ensure the commission could vet appointments based on their suitability rather than just their propriety. He argued these changes would increase the legitimacy of the House of Lords. Responding to Lord Norton’s proposals, Lord True said the Government did not support the creation of a statutory appointments commission. He also said the Government did not intend to change the commission’s remit. He argued the current system worked well and the Prime Minister should remain able to ignore the advice of the commission in “exceptional circumstances”.

Further information on proposals to establish a statutory appointments commission is provided in the House of Lords Library In Focus article, ‘Reforming the House of Lords Appointments Commission’ (20 August 2021).

Read more

• House of Lords Library, ‘New Lords appointments: December 2020’, 19 January 2021
• House of Lords Library, ‘House of Lords data dashboard: membership of the House—June 2021’, 22 June 2021

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Cover image: Copyright House of Lords 2021 / Photography by Roger Harris.