ABSTRACT
This is a reasonably straightforward area which is examined by means of essay questions. Traditionally, questions tended to focus on the paradox of the House of Lords as an anachronism which yet seemed to play a valuable constitutional role. Recently, however, the Lords has become the focus of the Blair 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, the government’s almost universally derided White Paper in response, the influential report of the Public Administration Committee with its counter-proposals for a far more democratic and assertive House, and the recent throwing open of the issue by the government in May 2002 with its proposal for the matter to be referred to a Joint Committee of both Houses with a free vote on its proposals thereafter. 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.
