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4 The number of Life Peers
The Appellate Jurisdiction Act originally provided for the appointment of two Lords of Appeal in Ordinary, who would continue to serve while holding judicial office, though in 1887, they were permitted to continue to sit in the House of Lords for life, under the style and dignity of baron. The number of Lords of Appeal in Ordinary was increased from time to time—to three in 1882, to four in 1891, to six in 1913, to seven in 1919, to nine in 1947, to eleven in 1968 and to twelve in 1994. The Administration of Justice Act 1968 allows the Sovereign to make a Statutory Instrument, if each House of Parliament passes a resolution approving a draft of the same, increasing the maximum number of Lords of Appeal in Ordinary.
There is no limit on the number of Lords of Appeal (peers who hold or held high judicial office, and retired Lords of Appeal in Ordinary) who sit in the House of Lords. There are, as at the beginning of 2004, thirty-one Lords of Appeal. Twenty-three of those Lords of Appeal were formerly Lords of Appeal in Ordinary.
The rate of creation of life peerages under the Life Peerages Act has not shown a consistent pattern of increase, but the present Prime Minister, Tony Blair, has caused the creation of life peerages at an unprecedented rate. The number of Conservative and Labour life peers has in recent years been approximately the same; in 1999, there were 172 Conservative and 160 Labour life peers in the House of Lords, and at the beginning of May, 2004, there were 158 Conservative and 178 Labour life peers in the House of Lords. The hereditary element of the House of Lords, however, does not reflect such an equality. In 1999, for example, immediately before most hereditary peers were removed by the House of Lords Act, there were 299 Conservative hereditary peers, compared to nineteen Labour peers and twenty-three Liberal Democrat peers.
See also: List of Life Peerages, List of Law Life Peerages
5 References
- Boothroyd, D. (2004). "Life Peerages created under the Life Peerages Act 1958."
- Cox, N. (1997). "The British Peerage: The Legal Standing of the Peerage and Baronetage in the overseas realms of the Crown with particular reference to New Zealand." New Zealand Universities Law Review. (Vol. 17, no. 4, pp. 379-401).
- Farnborough, T. E. May, 1st Baron. (1896). Constitutional History of England since the Accession of George the Third, 11th ed. London: Longmans, Green and Co.
- Life Peerages Act 1958. (6 & 7 Elizabeth 2 c. 21). London: Her Majesty's Stationery Office.
- "Lords of Appeal in Ordinary." (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica, 11th ed. London: Cambridge University Press.
- "Peerage." (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica, 11th ed. London: Cambridge University Press.
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