The House of Lords, is still perceived as an undemocratic, unrepresentative house. The House has previously faced issues and recently delayed a financial measure. Showing it’s in a time in which reforms if made could be effective. There a number of possible reforms available, however these also come with a number of issues as well as positives.
The House of Lords consists of 92 hereditary peers due to the major reform of the House of Lords Act 1999. Before the act peerages were traditionally passed down from father to son in which over 750 hereditary peers were entitled to sit and vote , only 92 hereditary peers were allowed to remain, by the virtue of s2(2) . The House also contains life peers, which are appointed under the Life Peerage Act 1958 by the Queen on advice of the Prime minister. Altering the composition of the House of Lords as it introduced more people from different professions, and more women. Before the Act, the House of Lords had been made up exclusively of hereditary Peers. The House of Lords also sits 26 Bishops, ‘spiritual
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They scrutinise any laws being made, by questioning the Government, debating issues and policy. We can see there is an issue over the Lords questioning the decision to make £4.4b cuts. This is after the Conservatives promised not to cut the tax credits, Labour peer Baroness Hollis of Heigham said, “Those families believed us… believed the Prime Minister when he promised tax credits… would not be cut.” The House of Lords in this particular situation is looking out for the public’s best interests, making sure the Government doesn’t go against what they had promised and stood for. As if the House of Lords was to be reformed in such a way that would give the House of Commons more control. This would destroy the whole idea of the second house, its role to work on legislation, debate and challenge