House of Lords (Hereditary Peers) Bill 2024-25: Progress of the bill

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 87 (since 31 March 2025) hereditary peers eligible to sit in the House of Lords. They sit alongside 722 life peers and 24 bishops (on 28 May 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).

Committee stage in the House of Lords began on 3 March 2025 and continued over five days:

3 March – HL Deb 3 March 2025 cc16-81 and cc87-116

10 March – HL Deb 10 March 2025 cc468-541 and cc554-572

12 March – HL Deb 12 March 2025 cc714-766 and cc776-810

25 March – HL Deb 25 March 2025 cc1540-1612 and cc1624-1666

1 April – HL Deb 1 April 2025 cc135-190 and cc204-234

No amendments were made to the bill at committee stage.

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 argued that the bill is not the way to achieve this.

At committee stage the composition of the House of Lords more broadly was considered. Peers used the debates to press the government for more details about its plans for further reform, and to press for life peerages to be granted to some or all of the excepted hereditary peers who would be excluded by the bill, as well as to discuss probing amendments.

There were press reports during the course of the committee stage that some life peerages would be granted to hereditary peers. On 23 April 2025, Politico reported that it had been told that “Peers from multiple parties have discussed the prospect of at least 10 of the 92 lawmakers — eligible to stand for the UK parliament’s second chamber due to their aristocratic birth — being nominated for life peerages after the government axes their existing rights to sit and vote later this year”.

There were complaints from some Labour peers that amendments with “no relevance to the purpose of the content of the Bill”, were debated.

The government said its objective was to reduce the size of the House.

Lord True, the Shadow Leader of the House of Lords, used speeches early in the committee stage debates and towards the end of the committee stage to call on the government to take a different approach to the bill. Rather than expelling the hereditary peers he proposed ending by-elections to replace them when they left the House of Lords.

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 three briefings on the bill, providing background to the bill and its passage through Parliament:

• House of Lords (Hereditary Peers) Bill: HL Bill 49 of 2024–25

• House of Lords (Hereditary Peers) Bill: Second reading in the House of Lords

• House of Lords (Hereditary Peers) Bill: Committee stage

The Lords Library has also collated information on Hereditary peers in the House of Lords on its website.