How large is the British House of Lords?
The House of Lords is the upper chamber in the British political system but the one with less authority. Its main roles are to revise legislation and keep a check on government by scrutinising its activities.
Since 1911, its power to block “money bills” is limited to one month and its power to block other bills is limited to one session, so ultimately it cannot block the will of the House of Commons. Furthermore, since 1945, there has been the Salisbury Convention that the House of Lords will not oppose a measure that was specifically mentioned in the last election manifesto of the political party forming the Government.
The House of Lords is an utterly bizarre institution that has no parallel anywhere in the democratic world. The explanation for the unusual nature of the Lords is that the British political system has evolved very slowly and peacefully and it is not totally logical or democratic.
There is no fixed number of members in the House of Lords and the number fluctuates because of deaths, retirements and new appointments, but currently there are around 830 members – many more than in the House of Commons (650), more than the combined houses of the American Congress or the Indian Parliament (although both of these nations have a federal system), and the second biggest legislative body in the world (after the Chinese National People’s Congress which is effectively a rubber-stamping body).
The number was actually halved to 666 in the reforms of 1999 but, since then, succesive Prime Ministers (especially David Cameron and Boris Johnson) have been adding new life peers much faster than members are dying. Indeed the Coalition Government added over 100. Ironically the size of the House of Lords continues to rise at the same time as the House of Commons legislated to reduce its size (although that legislation has not been implemented).
You can find my guide to the British political system here.