Английская Википедия:By-elections to the House of Lords

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.^[1] 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.^[2] 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,^[3] and they take place under the Alternative Vote system for elections to individual vacancies^[4] and the Single Transferrable Vote for elections to fill multiple vacancies.^[5] 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.^[6]^[7] For the 15 peers elected by the whole House, life peers may also vote.

As of September 2023, there have been 18 by-elections^[8] among Conservative peers; 19 by-elections^[9] 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

Шаблон:Further Шаблон:As of, the party affiliations of the elected hereditary peers are as follows:^[10]

Affiliation		Elected by					Шаблон:Nb5TotalШаблон:Nb5
Affiliation		Conservative Шаблон:Nowrap	Crossbench Шаблон:Nowrap	Labour Шаблон:Nowrap	Шаблон:Nowrap Шаблон:Nowrap	Шаблон:Nowrap	Шаблон:Nb5TotalШаблон:Nb5
Шаблон:Party color cell	Conservative	38^{[lower-alpha 1]}^{[lower-alpha 2]}	–	–	–	9	47
Шаблон:Party color cell	Crossbenchers	2^{[lower-alpha 2]}	28^{[lower-alpha 3]}	–	–	3^{[lower-alpha 4]}	33
Шаблон:Party color cell	Labour	–	–	2	–	2	4
Шаблон:Party color cell	[[Liberal Democrats (UK)\|Шаблон:Nowrap]]	–	–	–	3	1^{[lower-alpha 4]}	4
Шаблон:Party color cell	Non-affiliated	2^{[lower-alpha 1]}	–	–	–	–	2
Total		42	28	2	3	15	90

Шаблон:Reflist

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

Шаблон:STV Election box begin3 Шаблон:STV Election box candidate3 Шаблон:STV Election box candidate3 Шаблон:STV Election box candidate3 Шаблон:STV Election box end3 Шаблон:Notelist

2004

2005

2007

2008

2009

2010

2011

2013

2014

2015

2016

2017

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.^[11]

2019

2021

Normally, by-elections must be held within three months of a vacancy occurring,^[3] but on 23 March 2020 a motion was passed by the House to suspend any by-elections until 8 September 2020, as part of revised working arrangements in response to the COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom.^[12] On 7 September, a further motion was passed by the House to continue the suspension of by-elections until 31 December 2020.^[13] On 14 December, a further motion was passed by the House to suspend by-elections pending a report from the Procedure and Privileges Committee.^[14] On 22 February 2021, a motion was passed by the House to continue the suspension pending a further review by the Committee after any adjournment of the House for Easter.^[15] On 26 April, a report of the Committee was published. The Committee announced that by-elections will resume and anticipated that pending by-elections would be held before the summer recess of the House.^[16]

After the death of the Lord Rea:

Шаблон:STV Election box begin3 Шаблон:STV Election box candidate3

Шаблон:STV Election box end3

After the death of the Viscount Simon: Шаблон:STV Election box begin4 Шаблон:STV Election box candidate4 Шаблон:STV Election box candidate4 Шаблон:STV Election box candidate4 Шаблон:STV Election box end3

2022

After the retirement of the Viscount Ridley: Шаблон:STV Election box begin3 Шаблон:STV Election box candidate3 Шаблон:STV Election box candidate3 Шаблон:STV Election box candidate3 Шаблон:STV Election box candidate3 Шаблон:STV Election box candidate3 Шаблон:STV Election box candidate3 Шаблон:STV Election box candidate3 Шаблон:STV Election box candidate3 Шаблон:STV Election box end3 Шаблон:Notelist

After the retirement of the Lord Rotherwick: Шаблон:STV Election box begin3 Шаблон:STV Election box candidate3 Шаблон:STV Election box candidate3 Шаблон:STV Election box candidate3 Шаблон:STV Election box candidate3 Шаблон:STV Election box candidate3 Шаблон:STV Election box candidate3 Шаблон:STV Election box end3 Шаблон:Notelist

After the retirement of the Earl of Listowel: Шаблон:STV Election box begin3 Шаблон:STV Election box candidate3 Шаблон:STV Election box candidate3 Шаблон:STV Election box candidate3 Шаблон:STV Election box candidate3 Шаблон:STV Election box candidate3 Шаблон:STV Election box candidate3 Шаблон:STV Election box candidate3 Шаблон:STV Election box end3 Шаблон:Notelist

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: Шаблон:STV Election box begin4 Шаблон:STV Election box candidate4 Шаблон:STV Election box candidate4 Шаблон:STV Election box candidate4 Шаблон:STV Election box end3

After the death of the Lord Palmer and the retirement of the Lord Hylton: Шаблон:STV Election box begin3 Шаблон:STV Election box candidate3 Шаблон:STV Election box candidate3 Шаблон:STV Election box candidate3 Шаблон:STV Election box candidate3 Шаблон:STV Election box candidate3 Шаблон:STV Election box candidate3 Шаблон:STV Election box candidate3 Шаблон:STV Election box end3 Шаблон:Notelist

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.

Шаблон:See also

Also, from the 1801 Act of Union to Irish independence, 28 representative peers were elected from and by the Peerage of Ireland to sit in the British House of Lords.^[17] 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.

Шаблон:For

Proposed abolition

Шаблон:Seealso 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.^[18]

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.^[19]^[20]

References