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The bill

The House of Lords (Hereditary Peers) Bill 2024–25 is a government bill. The bill would remove all remaining hereditary peers from the House of Lords and abolish the House of Lords’ jurisdiction in relation to claims to hereditary peerages.

Section 1 of the House of Lords Act 1999 states that “No-one shall be a member of the House of Lords by virtue of a hereditary peerage”. However, as a result of a compromise during the passage of that legislation, up to 92 excepted hereditary peers were allowed to remain in the House of Lords (section 2 of the 1999 act). This was intended to be temporary, pending further reform of the House of Lords.

At present there are 88 hereditary peers eligible to sit in the House of Lords. They sit alongside 721 life peers and 23 bishops (on 12 March 2025). The size of the House of Lords has increased since the bill was introduced in September 2024: on 1 September there were 692 life peers and 25 bishops, as well as 88 hereditary peers.

The House of Lords (Hereditary Peers) Bill 2024-25 removes section 2 from the 1999 act.

Clause 4(3) of the bill specifies that “This Act comes into force at the end of the Session of Parliament in which this Act is passed”. Excepted hereditary peers would continue to sit in the House of Lords until the end of the parliamentary session in which the bill received Royal Assent.

The bill relates to the composition of the House of Lords and therefore extends and applies to the whole of the United Kingdom.

Passage of the bill

The House of Lords (Hereditary Peers) Bill 2024–25 was introduced in the House of Commons on 5 September 2024.

It received its second reading on 15 October 2024 and completed committee and remaining stages on a single day on 12 November. It was not amended by the House of Commons.

The bill received its second reading in the House of Lords on 11 December 2024 (morning sitting and afternoon sitting) and began its committee stage there on 3 March 2025.

Debate on the bill

House of Commons

The bill was not amended in the House of Commons.

Debate ranged widely on other aspects of reform proposed in the Labour Party manifesto and covered a statutory retirement age for members of the House of Lords; attendance requirements; the government’s proposals for further reform. Amendments to remove the bishops from the House of Lords were also debated.

House of Lords

The second reading debate in the House of Lords was also wide-ranging.

In both Houses, it is broadly accepted that there should not be reserved places for hereditary peers in the House of Lords. But the Conservative Party argues that the bill is not the way to achieve this.

Further Lords reform

In its manifesto for the 2024 general election (PDF), the Labour Party set out its proposals for House of Lords reform. It identified the removal of hereditary peers as an “immediate modernisation”.

As well as this “first step”, the Labour Party also proposed:

  • changes to appointments process, to improve the national and regional balance of the second chamber
  • a mandatory retirement age
  • a participation requirement
  • replacing the House of Lords with “an alternative second Chamber that is more representative of the regions and nations”

The Labour Party said “Labour will consult on proposals, seeking the input of the British public on how politics can best serve them”.

Background information

The Library research briefing, House of Lords (Hereditary Peers) Bill 2024–25, was published before the second reading of the bill in the House of Commons.

The House of Lords Library has produced two briefings on the bill, the first before second reading in the House of Lords, it provided background to the bill and reported on debates on the bill in the House of Commons:

The second briefing provided an overview of the Lords second reading debate and listed the areas which future amendments could focus on:

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