Download members’ selected offices and roles held in politics, the judiciary and crown service by current members of the House of Lords data in Excel (175 KB)

Approximate read time: 4 minutes

The House of Lords Library has compiled lists of current members of the House of Lords with previous or current experience in selected public roles. For methodological consistency, these lists are limited to selected roles to which the seven principles of public life apply.

The seven principles of public life (also known as the Nolan principles) apply to people who work as public office holders.[1] This includes people who are elected or appointed to public office, nationally and locally, and people in the civil service, local government, the police, courts and probation services, non-departmental public bodies, and in the health, education, social and care services.

Read on for key data on the number of holders of selected positions, or download the spreadsheet to view the complete dataset. Both titles and names are included in the spreadsheet for ease of recognition and to aid searches.

On 5 November 2026, the membership of the House of Lords included:

  • 175 former members of the House of Commons (around 21% of the total membership of the House of Lords)
  • two former prime ministers
  • two former deputy prime ministers
  • three former chancellors of the exchequer
  • four former foreign secretaries
  • seven former home secretaries
  • one former first minister of Scotland, and two former first ministers of both Northern Ireland and Wales
  • 12 former members of the Northern Ireland Assembly
  • 12 former members of the Scottish Parliament
  • seven former members of the Senedd Cymru (Welsh Parliament)
  • 12 members of the London Assembly (two current)
  • 28 former members of the European Parliament
  • five local authority mayors (two current)
  • 41 former council leaders
  • 14 former ambassadors or high commissioners

The spreadsheet available to download above includes more positions in Parliament, government and the civil service, as well as key roles in law, policing, the armed forces, regulation and the royal household.

The dataset available to download is not an exhaustive list of each member’s background and professional experience and not every member is listed. Members can choose to provide information on their professional experience to the House of Lords, which is made available to the public in the ‘experience’ section of each member’s page on the UK Parliament website.[2]

The dataset includes members not currently eligible to attend, for example members on leave of absence. A list of those members not currently eligible to participate can be found on the UK Parliament website.[3]

Membership information is correct as at 5 November 2026. Every care has been taken to ensure the information is as complete as possible, but the Library welcomes comments on any omissions or inaccuracies that may be present.

Image: Copyright House of Lords 2025/photography by Roger Harris.

References

  1. Committee on Standards in Public Life, ‘The seven principles of public life’, 31 May 1995. Return to text
  2. UK Parliament, ‘MPs and Lords: Find members of the House of Lords’, accessed 5 November 2026. Return to text
  3. UK Parliament, ‘MPs and Lords: Find members of the House of Lords—currently not eligible’, accessed 5 November 2026. Return to text