The Parliament of the United Kingdom is a bicameral, or two-chambered, legislature composed of the House of Lords and the House of Commons. The House of Lords is the upper chamber of Parliament. Originating in the 11th century with the councils of nobles and religious leaders who were the closest advisers to the monarch, the House of Lords emerged as a distinct element of Parliament in the 13th and 14th centuries. Though the House of Lords predates the House of Commons and dominated it for centuries, its authority has gradually diminished.
The powers of the modern House of Lords are extremely limited. Members of the upper chamber study the bills, or suggested laws, that have been voted for in the House of Commons. The Lords, however, have little power to stop or delay bills that have been passed by the Commons. They cannot interfere with a money bill (involving taxation or expenditures) or with a bill that has been passed by the Commons in two consecutive sessions. The most useful functions of the House of Lords are the revision of bills that the House of Commons has not formulated in sufficient detail and the first hearing of noncontroversial bills that are then able, with a minimum of debate, to pass through the House of Commons. Some observers argue that the House of Lords serves a valuable function by providing a national forum of debate free from the constraints of party discipline.
Members of the House of Lords are not popularly elected. Prior to 1999, the House of Lords included all hereditary peers, or nobles by inheritance or birth. The House of Lords Act of 1999 disqualified hereditary peers for membership in the House, with the exception of 92 individuals who had been elected by their fellow peers and who were allowed to remain as temporary members pending a wider reform of the chamber. Life peers, or individuals with nonhereditary titles conferred by the monarch, now form the overwhelming majority in the House of Lords. The chamber also includes archbishops and senior bishops of the Church of England. Today, more than 700 people are qualified to sit in the House of Lords.