ABSTRACT
The House of Lords, historically, has been an exceptionally large House in comparison with other upper chambers. Indeed, before it was reformed in 1999, its membership was almost twice the size of the House of Commons. It is generally the case that where states have bicameral legislatures, the upper House will be smaller than the lower chamber. According to research undertaken by Russell, the second chamber of other states tends on average to be 60 per cent of the size of the lower one (M Russell, Second Chambers Overseas: A Summary (The Constitution Unit, 1999), p 3). Before the enactment of the House of Lords Act 1999, the House of Lords comprised almost 1,300 members, although not all regularly attended the House. In contrast, the House of Commons had 659 MPs (the 1997-2001 Parliament).
