ABSTRACT
This is a reasonably straightforward area that is examined by means of essay questions. Traditionally, questions tended to focus on the paradox of the House of Lords as an anachronism that yet seemed to play a valuable constitutional role. Recently, however, the Lords has become the focus of the current government’s constitutional reform programme, with the removal of most of the hereditary peers from the House of Lords in 1999, the Wakeham Report on long-term reform, numerous reports since then, including the influential report of the Public Administration Committee, with its counter-proposals for a far more democratic and assertive House, the votes on reform in both Houses held in 2003 and, more importantly in March 2007 and the government’s 2008 White Paper, An Elected Second Chamber: Further reform of the House of Lords, Cm 7438 (hereafter ‘the 2008 White Paper’). The report on the Salisbury and other conventions by the Joint Committee on Conventions (2006) should also be noted, as should the acceptance of its recommendations by both Houses in 2007. Examination questions are therefore very likely to appear on this highly topical area, and are almost bound to focus on one or more of the above elements of reform. Students, however, need to place their knowledge of the various reform proposals within the context of a solid base of knowledge about the current composition and powers of the Lords, the conventional restraints upon the House, the party balance and the nature and distinctive value of the work it does.
