House of Lords (Hereditary Peers) Act 2026

A bill to Remove the remaining connection between hereditary peerage and membership of the House of Lords; to abolish the jurisdiction of the House of Lords in relation to claims to hereditary peerages; and for connected purposes.

Be it enacted by the King’s most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:—

1 Abolition of by-elections for hereditary peers¶

(1) Section 2 of the House of Lords Act 1999 (exception from section 1) is amended as follows.

(2) For subsection (2) substitute—

(2) No more than 87 people at any one time shall be excepted from section 1.

(3) For subsection (4) substitute—

(4) Any vacancy resulting from the death, retirement, resignation or expulsion of an excepted person under subsection (2) after the day on which the House of Lords (Hereditary Peers) Act 2025 comes into force is not to be filled by further exception.

2 Unsalaried Ministers¶

(1) No one who is a Minister of the Crown shall be eligible for membership of the House of Lords unless they are in receipt of, or have been offered, a salary under the Ministerial and Other Salaries Act 1975.

(2) This section does not apply to Ministers of the Crown appointed before the day on which this section comes into effect.

3 Rights of life peers to sit in the House of Lords¶

(1) Section 1 of the Life Peerages Act 1958 (power to confer life peerages) is amended as follows.

(2) At the end of subsection (1) insert “, and, as the case may be, the incidents specified in subsection (2A) of this section”.

(3) Omit from “and” in subsection (2)(a) to the end of subsection (2)(b).

(4) After subsection (2), insert—

(2A) A peerage conferred under this section may, if the letters patent so state, during the life of the person on whom it is conferred, entitle him, subject to subsection (4) of this section, to receive writs of summons to attend the House of Lords and sit and vote therein accordingly, and shall expire on his death.

4 Claims to hereditary peerages¶

(1) The jurisdiction of the House of Lords in relation to claims to hereditary peerages is abolished.

(2) For the purposes of this section a claim to a hereditary peerage includes a claim to a hereditary peerage in abeyance.

5 Consequential amendments¶

(1) In the Peerage Act 1963—

(a) in section 1 (2) (disclaimer of certain hereditary peerages), omit the words from “; and no such instrument” to the end;

(b) omit section 4 (Scottish peerages) and the italic heading before it;

(2) In the House of Lords Act 1999—

(a) omit section 3(2) (disqualifications in relation to House of Commons applicable to hereditary peers);

(b) omit paragraph 1 of Schedule 1 (amendment of Peerage Act 1963).

(3) In the Constitutional Reform and Governance Act 2010, in section 42 (tax status of members of House of Lords: transitional provision)—

(a) omit subsections (3) and (4);

(b) in subsection (5), omit “If M is not such a person,”;

(i) omit “or M succeeds to a peerage”;

(ii) omit the words from “If subsection (3)(a)” to the end;

(d) omit subsection (9).

(4) In the House of Lords Reform Act 2014, in section 4 (effect of ceasing to be a member)—

(a) in subsection (3), omit “, by virtue of a hereditary peerage”;

(b) omit subsection (4);

(d) omit subsection (7).

6 Extent and commencement¶

(1) An amendment or repeal made by section 1 or 5 has the same extent as the provision amended or repealed.

(2) Section 4, this section and section 7 extend to England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

(3) This Act comes into force at the end of the Session of Parliament in which this Act is passed.

(4) Accordingly, any writ of summons issued for the present Parliament in right of a hereditary peerage is of no effect after that Session.

7 Short title¶

This Act may be cited as the House of Lords (Hereditary Peers) Act 2025.