House of Lords

The House of Lords is the unelected upper house of the United Kingdom. The House of Lords is often referred to as: 'the Lords', the 'Upper Chamber', and 'the Upper House'.

There are four categories of members of the House of Lords


 * Life Peers
 * Law Lords
 * Archbishops and Bishops
 * Hereditary Peers

Hereditary peers are not entitled to sit in the House of Lords unless they are exempted by Section 2 of the House of Lords Act 1999.

When an exempted hereditary peer dies a by-election is held using the method of Alternative Vote in which all unexempted hereditary peers may stand and only exempted hereditry peers of the same party as the deceased member may vote.

The Elect the Lords Campaign is a group lobbying for an elected second chamber.