Members of the House of Lords will see contributions to debates, voting records and committee attendance monitored – and those who fail to do their bit will be forced out
Lazy peers who fail to turn up or rarely contribute will be forced to quit under plans being considered by ministers.
Members of the House of Lords will see their contributions to debates, voting records and committee attendance monitored – and those who fail to do their bit will be ordered to give up their seats.
There are 830 peers in the bloated upper chamber, far exceeding the House of Commons, which has 650 MPs. Ministers are trying to slash the size of the Lords by axing the remaining 92 hereditary peers and imposing a retirement age of 80.
The cut-off would impact some 190 members of the House of Lords aged 80 and above, including 28 who are 90 or older.
READ MORE: Tory hereditary peers accused of delaying government bills to save themselves
It comes after the remaining hereditary peers were accused of trying to save their own skins by piling on 100 amendments to delay passage of the bill.
A new cross-party committee will consider changes to participation rules as the Government tries to build consensus for slimming down the Lords.
Baroness Smith of Basildon, the Lords Labour leader, said: “Most peers agree the current membership is too high and that there are those who rarely attend.”
Writing in The Telegraph, she said: “I hope the select committee will also anticipate any unintended consequences. With retirement age, for example, Labour’s manifesto is clear that a peer should leave by the end of the parliament in which they have their 80th birthday.
“To avoid any possible cliff-edge moment, the committee may want to consider ways of achieving the same objective while delivering the effective change.
“Similarly, when considering a ‘participation requirement’, those who regularly contribute to the work of the Lords have a clear feel for what this might be.
“It would recognise contributions in the main chamber as well as the solid, often unnoticed, work done in our impressive system of committees — but it is hard to quantify.
“The work of the House isn’t just about the loudest or most public voices, so what are the options for this to be achieved fairly?”
In 2013, the Mirror exposed how Lord Hanningfield was claiming the £300-a-day Lords’ attendance allowance when he was only spending minutes in Parliament.
The ex-Tory peer, who died in 2024, was sentenced to nine months in prison in 2011 for expenses fraud and banned from the Lords until they were repaid.
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