House of Lords

House of Lords:

After Blair removed hereditary peers from the House of Lords, in 1999 peers are now nominated by the prime minister, opposition parties and the neutral appointments commission.

Functions of the House of Lords:

• Legislation
• Scrutiny
• Legitimation (limited)
• Debate
• Representation

The lords cannot stop bills that have passed the commons (Parliament Act, Salisbury Convention)

Legislation function:

• However, after the bill passes the commons, the lords do scrutinise the legislation in detail and debate at length. The expertise of the lords is important in this respect. So is the fact that they are less bound by the whips and there are more crossbenchers. Often revisions are less…