Peerage Creations Since 1997
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Peerage creations since 1997 This House of Lords Library Note provides details of appointments to the House of Lords since May 1997. It provides tables showing the numbers appointed under the Prime Ministers Tony Blair, Gordon Brown and David Cameron, broken down by party affiliation at the time of appointment. It also includes a chronological list of all those appointed during this period. This Note has been authored jointly by staff in the House of Commons and House of Lords Libraries. The same paper has been published as both a House of Lords Library Note (LLN 2011/008) and House of Commons Library Standard Note (SN/PC/5867). Alex Brocklehurst and Lucinda Maer 17 February 2011 LLN 2011/008 House of Lords Library Notes are compiled for the benefit of Members of Parliament and their personal staff. Authors are available to discuss the contents of the Notes with the Members and their staff but cannot advise members of the general public. Any comments on Library Notes should be sent to the Head of Research Services, House of Lords Library, London SW1A 0PW or emailed to [email protected]. Table of Contents 1. Introduction ................................................................................................................. 1 1.1 Peerage Creations ................................................................................................. 1 1.2 Lords Spiritual ........................................................................................................ 1 1.3 Hereditary Peers .................................................................................................... 1 1.4 Law Lords .............................................................................................................. 2 1.5 Appointments Commission Peers .......................................................................... 2 1.6 Date of Announcement .......................................................................................... 2 1.7 Party Affiliation ....................................................................................................... 2 1.8 Former MPs or MEPs ............................................................................................ 3 1.9 Some Key Findings ................................................................................................ 3 2. Peerage Creations by Prime Minister .......................................................................... 4 2.1 Tony Blair (May 1997–June 2007) ......................................................................... 4 2.2 Gordon Brown (June 2007–May 2010) .................................................................. 4 2.3 David Cameron (May 2010– ) ................................................................................ 4 2.4 Total ...................................................................................................................... 4 3. Chronological List ........................................................................................................ 5 4. Appointments Commission Peers .............................................................................. 21 1. Introduction This House of Lords Library Note provides details of peerage creations under the Prime Ministers Tony Blair, Gordon Brown and David Cameron (up to 16 February 2011). The aim is to provide a succinct account of the rate of appointments to the House of Lords during this period, and of the numbers of each of the political parties and Crossbenchers appointed. It does not look at the composition of the House and the balance between the parties at any particular point in time; that is, it does not consider those members who were already in the House before May 1997 and continued to sit thereafter, and does not take account of absences or deaths among peers appointed before or after May 1997. More detailed analysis of peerage creations in the fifty years following the passage of the Life Peerages Act 1958 is provided in Peerage Creations 1958–2008 (LLN 2008/19). Part 2 of this Note provides summary tables of appointments to the House of Lords under the current government and the previous Labour government under Tony Blair and Gordon Brown. Part 3 of the Note provides a chronological list of all peerage creations since Tony Blair became Prime Minister in May 1997. Part 4 lists those peers appointed by the House of Lords Appointments Commission. 1.1 Peerage Creations The sovereign, on the advice of the Prime Minister, formally confers all peerages. There is no statutory limit on the number of new peerages. It is the Prime Minister who decides what number is appropriate. By convention, when recommending peerages for members of political parties other than their own, prime ministers take advice from the leader of that party. In addition, the House of Lords Appointments Commission makes recommendations for non-party political peers and vets party nominations for propriety. 1.2 Lords Spiritual Lords Spiritual are not included in the tables or list, since the archbishops and bishops do not remain members of the House of Lords for life, and their number remains constant at 26. Former archbishops or bishops who were granted life peerages on retirement, however, are featured in the tables and list. 1.3 Hereditary Peers The House of Lords Act 1999 removed the right of most hereditary peers to sit and vote in the House of Lords. Only one new hereditary peerage has been created in the period covered by this Note, the Earl of Wessex, who features in the list but not the summary tables since he is not a member of the House. Under the terms of the 1999 Act, 92 hereditary peers were able to continue as members of the House. Aside from 2 hereditary office holders, 90 were initially elected from all those hereditary members who wished to continue to sit in the House, and those among the 90 who have died have been replaced in by-elections. The 92 hereditary peers are not treated as new appointments to the House (they are not, technically, new peerages), and therefore do not feature in the tables or list in Parts 2 and 3 of this Note. Several hereditary peers have been granted a life peerage, however, enabling them to continue to sit in the House. These new peerages are included in the tables and list. 1 1.4 Law Lords Until the creation of the Supreme Court, which began operating in October 2009, the House of Lords played a judicial role as the highest court in the land, as well as being part of the legislature. Judicial work was carried out through the Appellate Committee of the House by Lords of Appeal. Lords of Appeal in Ordinary appointed to the House as life peers under the Appellate Jurisdiction Act 1876 are marked ‘Law’ in the list in Part 3 of this note, distinguishing them from hereditary peers or the vast majority of life peers appointed to the House under the Life Peerages Act 1958 (marked ‘Life’ in the list in Part 3). It should be noted however that not all Law Lords were appointed to the House under the 1876 Act; some were able to take part in judicial proceedings having held high judicial office and who owed their membership of the House to an hereditary peerage or life peerage under the 1958 Act. It is therefore difficult to separate ‘judicial’ appointments to the House from ‘political’ appointments; the list in Part 3 includes all appointments to the House, but the tables in Part 2 exclude peerages created under the 1876 Act. 1.5 Appointments Commission Peers Following the passage of the House of Lords Act 1999, the Prime Minister announced the establishment of a non-statutory Appointments Commission to assist with the nomination of non-party-political peers. Since the first group nominated by the Commission became peers in 2001, 57 new appointments to the Crossbenches have been made in this way. Other appointments to the Crossbenches have continued to be made following recommendation by the Prime Minister, typically distinguished public servants on retirement from office, although these have been fewer than the number appointed via the Appointments Commission. Peers created by the Appointments Commission are included in the tables in Part 2 and the list in Part 3, and are listed separately in Part 4. 1.6 Date of Announcement In the remainder of this Library Note, the date of a new appointment refers to the date of the announcement of a new peerage, rather than the date of letters patent conferring the peerage or the date of introduction to the House of Lords. This makes it easier to compare the rate of new appointments to the Lords over time, as there can sometimes be a gap of weeks or months between the announcement of an intention to create a new peerage and the date on which a new member is introduced in the Lords. While this method does ensure consistency, it does not follow that all appointments announced during a particular Prime Minister’s term of office were recommended by that Prime Minister: John Major’s resignation honours list, for example, was issued in August 1997, some three months into Tony Blair’s premiership. It is worth noting that whilst John Major and Gordon Brown both issued resignation honours lists, Tony Blair did not. 1.7 Party Affiliation The Note also includes details of party affiliation (whether Conservative, Labour, Liberal Democrat or Crossbench/other) of new appointments to the Lords. Specifically, it records party affiliation at the time of appointment, and in several cases members have subsequently changed their party allegiance. 2 1.8 Former MPs or MEPs Finally,