Peerage creations and costs Mar 2013 Main points Since the General Election, David Cameron has

s appointed 128 new peers. At a cost of 131,000 each, this totals 16,760,000. Yes Nick Clegg said (in the PVSC Bill 2nd Reading) that reducing the number of MPs by 50 was designed to reduce the costs of politics by 12 million. The Governments coalition agreement on Lords appointments would mean an additional 200 peers, costing 26.2 million. Camerons rate of appointing peers is higher than Tony Blairs rate; and the government have said they intent to appoint as many as 200 more peers all of whom would be Lib Dem or Conservative. Unlike with the last Labour Governments minority in the Lords, the coalition Government already has a de facto majority in the House of Lords as well as the Commons. There are 302 coalition peers compared to 222 Labour peers a political majority of 70. Crossbench votes tend to split both ways and their turnout is low they have never turned out more than 100 of their 185 peers; and their average turnout in votes is 25%. If there had been an additional 50 peers on the coalition side in the Lords since May 2010, the Government would have suffered just 17 defeats, rather than the 72 they have.

Notes 1. Costs per peer From http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld201213/ldhansrd/text/130108w0003.htm the average cost of a member of the House of Lords is 131,000 per year for 2011-12, excluding capital costs. 2. Number of new peers under Cameron The UCL Constitution Units research of 22 November 2010 showed that in In the six months since the general election no fewer than 111 new peers have been created. This gave Cameron the highest rate of peerage appointments of any Prime Minister. Since then 17 more peers have been appointed, totalling 128. See also http://www.parliament.uk/mps-lords-and-offices/offices/lords/house-of-lords-informationoffice/whowhatlords/ If the rumours that David Cameron will announce a further 50 news peers are correct, this would total 178 peers in less than 3 years a rate of 60 per year. In his House magazine interview in January 2013, David Cameron said: Yes, I will be appointing. I will be making some further recommendations. I think its important to keep refreshing the talent in the House of Lords and obviously its important that we do so in line with what we said in the Coalition Agreement. THE HOUSE: This year? PM: Yes, yes, yes. THE HOUSE: In the summer? PM: Sooner. http://www.politicshome.com/uk/article/69987/the_house_magazine_interview_with _david_cameron_the_full_transcript.html

Peerage creations and costs Mar 2013 The coalition agreement says Lords appointments will be made with the objective of creating a second chamber that is reflective of the share of the vote secured by the political parties in the last general election. The UCL Constitution Units research of 22 November 2010 estimates this would result in a House of 977, compared to the current 760 already the largest second chamber in the world. http://www.ucl.ac.uk/constitutionunit/constitution-unit-news/221110 3. Rate of new peerages with previous Prime ministers These are average rates, per year. Callaghan 19 Thatcher - 18 Major - 25 Blair - 38 Brown - 16 Cameron 43 (current) or 60 (if additional 50 peers) Source: Peerage Creations, 19582008 (House of Lords Library Note, LLN 2008/019): page 10. http://www.parliament.uk/documents/lords-library/hllpeeragecreation.pdf 4. Costs of politics We settled on 600 MPs, a relatively modest cut in House numbers of just less than 8%, because it saves money - about 12 million each year (Nick Clegg, 6 September 2010, 2nd Reading debate of the Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Bill.) http://www.theyworkforyou.com/debate/?id=2010-09-06b.39.8 5. Breakdown of peers http://www.parliament.uk/mps-lords-and-offices/lords/lords-by-type-and-party/ 6. Tony Blairs rate of peerage creations When Labour was elected in 1997, there were 477 Conservative peers and 117 Labour peers, despite the landslide in the Commons. While Tony Blairs number of peerage creations was high, this was to rebalance a chamber that was overwhelmingly Conservative. After the reform to cut most of the hereditary peers in 1999, the Conservatives had 232 peers, while Labour had 201. It was not until 2005 that Labour became the largest party in the Lords, with just 29% of the members. It has never had more than 30% of peers. www.parliament.uk/briefing-papers/LLN-2012-026.pdf 7. Defeats in the Lords Since May 2010, the Government has suffered 72 defeats in the Lords division lobbies. Only 17 of these defeats were the defeats by more than 50. The rate of defeats for the Government is around 20 per year. When Labour was in Government from 1997 to 2010, they suffered 528 defeats in 13 years in the Lords - around 40 defeats per year. http://www.parliament.uk/about/faqs/house-of-lords-faqs/lords-govtdefeats/