What is the House of Lords? Britain's unelected chamber

The House of Lords is the upper chamber of the UK Parliament, the second of its two houses after the elected House of Commons. Its members are not elected: almost all are appointed for life, and 26 seats are reserved for bishops of the Church of England. The Lords checks and revises the laws the Commons passes, and questions the government, but since 1911 it can only delay most bills, not stop them. In 2026 its last hereditary members left it.

In short

• About 800 people sit in the Lords, almost all life peers appointed on the prime minister's advice, plus up to 26 bishops.
• It can amend and delay bills, but under the Parliament Acts the Commons can override it after about a year, and on tax and spending after one month.
• Its defenders value its expertise and independence; its critics object that a law-making chamber is unelected. Both sides have proposed reforms for over a century.

Who sits in the House of Lords?

Three kinds of members, called peers, have sat there in modern times.

• Life peers are the great majority. The monarch appoints them on the advice of the prime minister, under the Life Peerages Act 1958. Party leaders nominate most; an independent House of Lords Appointments Commission picks some non-party members and vets the rest. Their titles end with them.
• Lords Spiritual are 26 bishops of the Church of England, including the archbishops of Canterbury and York, who sit while they hold office.
• Hereditary peers inherited their seats. Until 1999 there were more than 700; the House of Lords Act 1999 cut them to 92. The House of Lords (Hereditary Peers) Act 2026 removed the rest at the end of the parliamentary session in which it passed, which ended on 29 April 2026.

Party numbers matter less than in the Commons. On 4 November 2026, Parliament's membership records listed 796 members: 247 Conservative, 232 Labour, 154 crossbenchers, who belong to no party, 79 Liberal Democrats, and others. No party has a majority, so a government must win over members of other parties or none to pass anything. Many members are former ministers, judges, scientists, doctors, diplomats or business leaders, and some attend rarely. Until 2009 the most senior judges, the Law Lords, sat there too; that role passed to the new Supreme Court.

What can the Lords do, and what can't it?

It does three jobs: it revises bills line by line, it questions ministers and investigates through committees, and it debates issues of the day. Most of its work is improving bills, and the Commons accepts many of its amendments, often in a form the government rewrites.

Its power to stop a bill is limited by two laws. The Parliament Act 1911, passed after the Lords rejected the government's 1909 budget, ended its veto over money bills, those about taxes and spending, which it can now delay for one month, and limited its delay on other bills to about two years. The Parliament Act 1949 cut that delay to about a year. After that, the Commons can send a bill for royal assent without the Lords' consent. The only exception is a bill to extend the life of a Parliament beyond five years, which the Lords can still veto.

In practice the override is rare. Only seven Acts have become law that way, the most recent the Hunting Act 2004. More often the threat is enough, and the two houses compromise. A custom called the Salisbury convention adds a further restraint: the Lords does not vote down at second reading a bill carrying out a promise in the governing party's election manifesto.

How does a bill pass through both Houses?

The best example is the law that removed the hereditary peers, because the Lords had to approve its own reform.

1. Commons stages. The government introduced the bill on 5 September 2024. After debate and committee, the Commons passed it on 12 November 2024, by 435 votes to 73.
2. Lords stages. The Lords debated it in principle on 11 December 2024, then went through it clause by clause in committee from March to April 2025, and again at report stage in July, adding amendments.
3. Ping-pong. On 4 September 2025, the Commons rejected most of the Lords' amendments and sent the bill back. A bill can bounce between the Houses like this until both agree to the same words.
4. Agreement. On 10 March 2026, the Lords chose not to insist on its amendments. The bill received royal assent, the monarch's formal approval, on 18 March 2026.

From introduction to law took about 18 months. Had the Lords held out, the government could have used the Parliament Acts to pass it after about a year in a new session, which is why it rarely comes to that. According to the Act's history, opposition peers dropped their resistance after the government offered life peerages to some of the hereditary peers being removed.

How does it compare with other upper houses?

Many democracies with two chambers give the upper one a revising role, but they choose its members very differently.

	UK House of Lords	US Senate	Canadian Senate
How members get there	Appointed by the monarch on the prime minister's advice; 26 bishops by office	Elected by each state's voters, two per state, since 1913	Appointed by the governor general on the prime minister's advice
Number of members	796 in November 2026, with no fixed size	100	105
How long they serve	For life, though members may retire	Six-year terms, re-electable	Until age 75
Can it block laws?	Delay only: about a year, one month on money bills	Yes: every law needs its approval	Formally yes, but by convention it rarely blocks elected-house bills
Special powers	A veto over any bill to extend a Parliament beyond five years	Confirms appointments, approves treaties, tries impeachments	Few in practice

The comparison shows the Lords' odd position. The US Senate is the most powerful of the three because it is elected; Canada's appointed Senate, like the Lords, mostly defers to the elected chamber. The difference follows from parliamentary versus presidential government: in Britain the government stands or falls on the Commons, and the prime minister holds office by commanding a majority there, not in the Lords.

Should the House of Lords be reformed?

Almost everyone says yes; they disagree about how. Proposals since 1911 have ranged from a fully elected chamber to abolition, and the government elected in 2024 has also proposed a retirement age of 80 and minimum attendance for members.

Still argued

The case for an appointed chamber is that it brings in expertise and independence that elections might not, lets members take a long view without facing voters, and keeps the Commons clearly in charge; an elected upper house could claim its own mandate and deadlock with the Commons, as the US Senate can. The case for change is that it is hard to justify unelected people shaping the law in a democracy, that prime ministers can reward allies and donors with seats, and that its size, about 800, is among the largest of any legislative chamber in the world. Some reformers want election, some a smaller appointed house with stricter rules, some abolition. Parliament has debated these options for over a century without settling them.

Check yourself

• Who are the three kinds of members the Lords has had, and which one left in 2026?
• Explain what the Parliament Acts let the Commons do, and why the Lords still matters despite them.
• How does the way the US Senate is chosen explain why it has more power than the House of Lords?

Sources

• Parliament Act 1911 — legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives
• Parliament Act 1949 — legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives
• House of Lords (Hereditary Peers) Act 2026, section 5 — legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives, 2026
• State of the parties, House of Lords — UK Parliament, 2026
• The Senate and the United States Constitution — United States Senate
• House of Lords (Hereditary Peers) Act 2026 — Wikipedia