House of Lords in 2020: Profile of Membership

This briefing has been updated. Please see House of Lords: Membership in June 2020 for the latest version.

In terms of overall size and composition by party/group, gender and peerage type:

• The total membership of the House was 811.
• Of this total, 795 Members were eligible to attend proceedings.
• The 16 Members ineligible to attend were either on leave of absence or disqualified from participating because they were a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) or serving in a senior judicial role.
• The Conservatives were the largest party or group with 244 Members. The Crossbench group were the second largest with 187 Members, while Labour had 180 and the Liberal Democrats counted 93.
• Women comprised less than a third of each main party/group, except one. Female Members accounted for just over one third (35.5%) of the Liberal Democrat party/group. 
• Over 85% of Members eligible to attend were life peers, with the remainder comprising excepted hereditary peers and senior Church of England prelates.

In terms of composition by age and different lengths of service:

• The mean average age of all Members was 70.
• The highest concentration of Members in each party/group fell into the 70–79 age band, except the Bishops whose Members mostly fell into the 60–69 age band.
• The youngest Member was Baroness Penn, aged 34.
• The oldest Member was Lord Graham of Edmonton, aged 94.
• Lord Denham had the longest continuous service, having been a Member for 70 years.
• Lord Reed of Allermuir had the shortest length of service, at less than a week, though as President of the Supreme Court he was disqualified from participating in proceedings.