By-elections to the House of Lords occur when vacancies arise among seats assigned to hereditary peers due to death, resignation, or disqualification. Candidates for these by-elections are limited to holders of hereditary peerages, and their electorates are made up of sitting Lords; in most cases the electorate are those sitting hereditary peers of the same party affiliation as the departed peer.

Overview

Following the enactment of the House of Lords Act 1999, the number of hereditary peers entitled to sit in the House of Lords was reduced to ninety-two. The Earl Marshal and the Lord Great Chamberlain were entitled to sit ex officio; the remaining ninety were elected by all the hereditary peers before the passing of the reform.

Before the passing of the 1999 Act, the Lords approved a Standing Order stating that the remaining hereditary peers shall consist of:

• 2 peers to be elected by the Labour hereditary peers
• 42 peers to be elected by the Conservative hereditary peers
• 3 peers to be elected by the Liberal Democrat hereditary peers
• 28 peers to be elected by the Crossbench hereditary peers
• 15 peers to be elected by the whole House
  • By convention, whole-House elections elect members of the same affiliation as the departed peer. In some such elections there have been unsuccessful candidates of different affiliation.
• The holders of the offices of Earl Marshal and Lord Great Chamberlain to be ex officio members. The current holder of the office of Lord Great Chamberlain was previously elected to the House of Lords in a by-election.

Prior to November 2002, vacancies were automatically filled by the highest performing unnsuccessful candidate in the 1999 House of Lords election that elected the departed peer.

Elections must be held within three months of a vacancy occurring, and they take place under the Alternative Vote system for elections to individual vacancies and the Single Transferrable Vote for elections to fill multiple vacancies. All those on the Register of Hereditary Peers are eligible to stand, but only sitting (the "excepted") hereditary peers of the group in question may vote for the seats reserved for a single parliamentary group. This can result in very small electorates, such as only three voters in the 2003 election of Lord Grantchester. For the 15 peers elected by the whole House, life peers may also vote.

As of September 2023, there have been 18 by-elections among Conservative peers; 19 by-elections among Crossbench peers; 2 among Liberal Democrat peers; and 2 among Labour peers. In addition, there have been 14 by-elections by the whole House.

Current composition

As of May 2024, the party affiliations of the elected hereditary peers are as follows:

• One additional hereditary peer is an ex officio member of the Lords: Duke of Norfolk (Earl Marshal).

By-election results

2003

After the death of the Viscount of Oxfuird

After the death of Lord Milner of Leeds

2004

After the death of Lord Vivian:

2005

After the death of the Earl Russell:

After the death of Lord Burnham:

After the death of Lord Aberdare:

After the death of Baroness Strange:

2007

After the death of Lord Mowbray and Stourton:

2008

After the death of the Baroness Darcy de Knayth:

2009

After the death of the Viscount Bledisloe:

2010

After the death of the Viscount Colville of Culross:

After the death of the Earl of Northesk:

2011

After the death of the Lord Strabolgi:

After the death of the Lord Monson:

After the death of the Earl of Onslow:

After the death of the Lord Ampthill:

2013

After the death of Earl Ferrers:

After the death of the Lord Reay:

2014

After the death of the Lord Moran:

After the death of the Lord Methuen:

After the death of the Viscount Allenby of Megiddo:

After the retirement of the Lord Cobbold:

2015

After the retirement of the Lord Chorley:

After the retirement of the Lady Saltoun of Abernethy:

After the retirement of the Viscount Tenby:

After the retirement of the Lord Luke:

After the retirement of the Viscount Montgomery of Alamein:

After the death of the Lord Montagu of Beaulieu:

2016

After the death of the Lord Avebury:

After the removal for non-attendance of the Lord Bridges:

2017

After the death of the Lord Lyell:

After the retirement of the Lord Walpole:

• Viscount Hill originally announced his candidacy but later withdrew.

2018

After the retirement of the Earl Baldwin of Bewdley:

• David Armstrong-Jones, 2nd Earl of Snowdon originally announced his candidacy but later withdrew.

After the retirement of the Lord Glentoran:

After the retirement of the Lord Northbourne:

2019

After the death of the Lord Skelmersdale:

After the death of the Viscount Slim:

2021

Normally, by-elections must be held within three months of a vacancy occurring, but in response to the COVID-19 pandemic the House resolved in March 2020 to suspend any by-elections. Although this initial suspension was only until 8 September 2020, sucessive further motions extended this arrangement. Ultimately by-elections resumed in June 2021 with multiple elections held to fill six vacancies.

After the retirements of the Earl of Selborne and the Lord Denham, and the removal for non-attendance of the Lord Selsdon:

After the retirement of the Countess of Mar:

After the death of the Lord Rea:

After the retirement of the Lord Elton:

After the death of the Viscount Simon:

2022

After the retirement of the Viscount Ridley:

After the retirement of the Lord Rotherwick:

After the retirement of the Lord Brabazon of Tara, and the death of the Lord Swinfen:

After the retirements of the Viscount Ullswater, and the Lord Colwyn:

After the retirement of the Earl of Listowel:

After the retirement of the Lord Astor of Hever, and the death of the Earl of Home:

• The Earl of Minto and Lord Roborough initially announced their candidacies, but subsequently were elected at a by-election earlier the same week.

2023

After the retirement of the Viscount Falkland:

After the death of the Lord Palmer and the retirement of the Lord Hylton:

After the death of the Lord Brougham and Vaux:

Forthcoming by-election

The Earl of Sandwich, one of the 28 elected crossbench hereditary peers, retired from the House on 20 May 2024. A by-election to replace him is required to be held by 20 August.

Historical by-elections

From the 1707 Act of Union to the passing of the Peerage Act 1963, peers in the Peerage of Scotland elected sixteen representative peers to sit in the House of Lords. Unlike Irish peers, however, Scottish representative peers only sat for the duration of one parliament before facing re-election. By-elections were held in the Palace of Holyroodhouse to replace deceased peers. After the passing of the Peerage Act 1963, all Scottish peers were entitled to sit in the House of Lords and the election procedure was abolished.

The last Scottish representative peer by-election took place in 1959, when the Duke of Atholl was elected in place of the late Lord Sinclair.

Also, from the 1801 Act of Union to Irish independence, 28 Irish representative peers were elected from and by the Peerage of Ireland to sit in the British House of Lords. Like current hereditary peers, these representative peers sat for life terms and deceased peers were replaced in by-elections. Unlike modern hereditary peer by-elections, all peers in the Peerage of Ireland, even those who did not sit in the House of Lords, were entitled to vote. Upon the creation of the Irish Free State, the officers required to officiate these by-elections were abolished and thus no more were held, but those peers already elected kept their seats for the remainder of their lives. The last to sit in the Lords was Francis Needham, 4th Earl of Kilmorey, who died in 1961.

Proposed abolition

An amendment to the 1999 Act was proposed in 2016 by Labour peer Lord Grocott to abolish by-elections, this would result in vacancies not being filled and the number of hereditary peers diminishing over time. This was filibustered by Conservative hereditary peer Lord Trefgarne.

In the 2023-2024 Parliamentary session, MP John Spellar and Lord Grocott sponsored Private Members Bills to abolish by-elections to the House of Lords.

See also

• 1999 House of Lords elections
• List of hereditary peers elected under the House of Lords Act 1999

References