House of Lords (Hereditary Peers) Act 2026
UK law removing hereditary peerage from the House of Lords
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The House of Lords (Hereditary Peers) Act 2026 (c. 12), sometimes referred to during passage as the Hereditary Peers Bill,[1] is an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom which removes all remaining hereditary peers from the House of Lords; an unspecified number will be given life peerages.[2]
.svg)
(The short title is authorised by section 6 of the act.)
Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster (Commons)
Baroness Smith of Basildon,
Lord Keeper of the Privy Seal (Lords)
| Act of Parliament | |
| |
| Long title | An Act to remove the remaining connection between hereditary peerage and membership of the House of Lords; to make provision about resignation from the House of Lords; to abolish the jurisdiction of the House of Lords in relation to claims to hereditary peerages; and for connected purposes. (The short title is authorised by section 6 of the act.) |
|---|---|
| Citation | 2026 c. 12 |
| Introduced by | Pat McFadden, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster (Commons) Baroness Smith of Basildon, Lord Keeper of the Privy Seal (Lords) |
| Territorial extent | United Kingdom[a] |
| Dates | |
| Royal assent | 18 March 2026 |
| Commencement | 18 March 2026 (s. 2, 5, 6) 29 April 2026 (s. 1, 3, 4)[b] |
| Other legislation | |
| Amends | |
Status: Current legislation | |
| History of passage through Parliament | |
| Records of Parliamentary debate relating to the statute from Hansard | |
| Text of statute as originally enacted | |
| Revised text of statute as amended | |
| Text of the House of Lords (Hereditary Peers) Act 2026 as in force today (including any amendments) within the United Kingdom, from legislation.gov.uk. | |
The Earl Marshal and Lord Great Chamberlain, currently hereditary peers, have lost their seats but continue to carry out their ceremonial duties.
House of Lords reform was proposed at the 2024 United Kingdom general election in the Labour Party manifesto, which included an age cap for life peers and the removal of hereditary peers entirely.[3] Following 18 months of consideration before Parliament, the Commons and Lords agreed on the final text of the bill on 10 March 2026,[2] with royal assent being granted to the bill on 18 March 2026.[4] It fully came into force on 29 April 2026.[5]
Background
Reform of the House of Lords has been a part of successive Government policy since the early 19th century.[6] The last major change was made in the House of Lords Act 1999 under the first Blair ministry, which provided that:[6]
No-one shall be a member of the House of Lords by virtue of a hereditary peerage.
— House of Lords Act 1999, section 1, Exclusion of hereditary peers.
The act then provided several exceptions, allowing 90 hereditary peers, as well as the Lord Great Chamberlain and the Earl Marshal, to remain in the House of Lords pending further reform. The act originally intended to exclude hereditary peers in their entirety, but the exceptions made (section 2 of the act) were reached as part of a compromise agreed between the Houses of Lords and the Commons during the bill's passage through Parliament.[7]
Provisions
The act excludes all remaining 92 hereditary peers from Parliament, and they are no longer be entitled to a seat in the chamber unless they are created life peers.[8] The 26 Lords Spiritual and a variable number of life peers will remain sitting in the upper house. Although no longer members of the House of Lords, the Earl Marshal and Lord Great Chamberlain will continue to carry out their ceremonial duties.[9]
The act amends the House of Lords Reform Act 2014 to allow a peer to resign in situations where they have lost capacity.[10]
The sections of the act as adopted are listed below:[11]
- Section 1: Exclusion of remaining hereditary peers. This section repeals section 2 of the House of Lords Act 1999, removing the exceptions for hereditary peers remaining in the House of Lords;
- Section 2: Retirement. This section allows a resignation notice to be signed and given on behalf of a peer who lacks capacity;
- Section 3: Claims to hereditary peerages. This section removes the House of Lords' jurisdiction over claims to hereditary peerages;
- Section 4: Consequential amendments;
- Section 5: Extent and commencement;
- Section 6: Short title.
Sections 2, 5 and 6 came into force upon royal assent on 18 March 2026, while sections 1, 3 and 4 came into force when the first session of the 59th Parliament was prorogued on 29 April 2026.
Reactions
Opposition
The bill received criticism including from former Leader of the House of Lords and hereditary peer Lord Strathclyde, who suggested that so as to reduce the size of the House of Lords, peers who infrequently attend debates ought to be removed instead of the remaining hereditary peers, who have been very active.[12]
Numerous members of the House of Lords have said that other elements of Lords reform should be prioritised, such as the abolition of the Lords Spiritual,[13] pointing out that the only other sovereign state where clerics are automatically granted a legislative seat is Iran.[14] Baroness Harman subsequently introduced an amendment that would mandate the government to introduce proposals to remove the right of the 26 Church of England bishops to sit ex officio as Lords Spiritual, in line with Labour's election manifesto commitment to consult on wider reforms of the upper house;[15] she withdrew her amendment before debate.[16] Lord Birt also introduced an amendment to require proposals to remove the Lords Spiritual, but he withdrew his amendment before debate.[17] Viscount Hailsham introduced an amendment to remove the Lords Spiritual by phasing them out through retirement;[18] he did not move his amendment at the committee stage debate.[19]
Support
Minister of State for the Constitution and European Union Relations, Nick Thomas-Symonds, said that "The second chamber plays a vital role in our constitution and people should not be voting on our laws in parliament by an accident of birth".
University College London Constitution Unit asserted that the only other country with a hereditary element in its legislature were the hereditary chiefs in Lesotho's Senate,[20][21] though other countries have hereditary elements as well, such as the 18 chiefs in Zimbabwe's Senate, Tonga's 9 internally elected nobles in the Legislative Assembly, and Samoa's requirement to hold matai status to stand for election to the Legislative Assembly of Samoa.[22][23][24][25]
Passage
The bill was formally introduced to Parliament by the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, Pat McFadden, receiving its first reading on Thursday, 5 September 2024,[26] with its second reading on 15 October.
The bill proceeded to Committee Stage, where, due to its constitutional significance, it became subject to a Committee of the Whole House. The committee, and then the bill's third reading, took place on 12 November 2024 with the bill passing the House of Commons by a vote of 435–73.[26][27]
| Amendment | Ayes | Noes | Result | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| A25 | Would delay commencement until a report by a joint committee of the Commons and the Lords | 98 | 376 | Not accepted |
| NC1 | Exclusion of bishops | 41 | 378 | Not accepted |
| NC7 | Duty to take forward proposals for democratic mandate for House of Lords | 93 | 355 | Not accepted |
| NC20 | Purpose of the bill | 98 | 375 | Not accepted |
The bill was introduced into the House of Lords by the Leader of the House of Lords, Baroness Smith of Basildon, receiving its first reading in the on 13 November, and its second reading on 11 December.[26] The bill was debated in five sittings at its Lords committee stage, on 3, 10, 12, and 25 March, and 1 April 2025,[28] before moving to the report stage which was held in two sittings on 2 and 9 July 2025.[29] The bill received its third reading on 21 July 2025. In addition to the three amendments accepted at the report stage, six amendments were accepted without a vote at the third reading.[30] One of those six amendments was that a resignation notice from the House of Lords may be signed and given behalf of a peer who lacks capacity.[31] 51 hours (9 days) of scrutiny were given in the House of Lords with a total of 146 amendments being tabled in committee, with 124 debated and a further 36 tabled in the report stage.[32]
| Amendment[33][34] | Content | Not content | Result[35][36][37][38] | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 | Abolition of by-elections and allowing the current excepted hereditary peers to remain in the House of Lords | 280 | 243 | Accepted |
| 4 | Duty to take forward proposals for introducing directly elected members in the House of Lords | 84 | 263 | Not accepted |
| 5 | Life peerages not to be conferred against recommendation of the House of Lords Appointments Commission | 55 | 234 | Not accepted |
| 13A | Requirement of all ministers in the House of Lords to be paid, except those appointed before the requirement comes into effect | 284 | 239 | Accepted |
| 17 | Life peerages to be created with or without a seat in the House of Lords | 265 | 247 | Accepted |
| 23A | Duty to implement recommendations of the select committee on reforming the House of Lords | 139 | 158 | Not accepted |
| 27 | Duty to undertake a consultation on applying gender equality to determining hereditary peerage claims | 11 | 126 | Not accepted |
The House of Commons consideration of the Lords' amendments took place on 4 September 2025.[26] The House of Commons agreed without a vote the amendment that a resignation notice from the House of Lords may be signed and given on behalf of a peer who lacks capacity and four other amendments relating to the same issue, but other amendments were disagreed to.[39][40]
| Amendment[39] | Ayes | Noes | Result[40] | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Abolition of by-elections and allowing the current excepted hereditary peers to remain in the House of Lords | 336 | 77 | Not accepted |
| 2 | Requirement of all ministers in the House of Lords to be paid, except those appointed before the requirement comes into effect | 331 | 73 | Not accepted |
| 3 | Life peerages to be created with or without a seat in the House of Lords | 338 | 74 | Not accepted |
The House of Lords met to consider the Commons' amendments and reasons to disagree on 10 March 2026.[26] The House of Lords did not insist on any amendment disagreed by the House of Commons.[41]
BBC News reported on 10 March 2026 that the Conservative peers had withdrawn their opposition to the bill after Baroness Smith had confirmed that the government would be offering life peerages to an unspecified number of the hereditary Conservative and crossbench peers to be removed. The BBC understood that the Conservative peers had been offered fifteen such seats.[2]
Royal assent on the bill was granted on 18 March 2026.[4] It fully came into effect on 29 April 2026.[5]
Future reform
The 2024 Labour Party manifesto provided a commitment to introduce an age limit for members of the House of Lords: "At the end of the Parliament in which a member reaches 80 years of age, they will be required to retire from the House of Lords. A Labour government would ensure all peers met high standards, would introduce a new participation requirement, and would strengthen the circumstances in which disgraced members could be removed. It would also reform the appointments process, to ensure quality, and would seek to improve the national and regional balance of the chamber."[42]
There is some support amongst peers for a measure to strengthen the powers of the House of Lords Appointments Commission.[43]
The Labour Party also conceives a longer term plan (beyond 2029) to replace the upper house with an "alternative" second chamber.[42][44]