Representative peer

representative peers were elected by the members of the Peerage of Scotland and the Peerages of Ireland to sit in the British House of Lords. In 1999, a new form of representative peer was introduced to allow some hereditary peers to stay in the Lords. The system of electing representative peers was abolished as well as Scottish peers and their automatic right in the Upper House with the House Of Lords Act 1999.

About Representative peer in brief

representative peers were elected by the members of the Peerage of Scotland and the Peerages of Ireland to sit in the British House of Lords. Representative peers were introduced in 1707, when the Kingdom of England and the kingdom of Scotland were united. All peers who were created after 1707 as Peers of Great Britain and after 1801 as Peer of the United Kingdom held the same right to sit. Elections for Scottish peers ended in 1963, when all Scottish peers obtained the right to sitting in the House of Lord. In 1999, a new form of representative peer was introduced to allow some hereditary peers to stay in the Lords. The system of electing representative peers was abolished as well as Scottish peers and their automatic right in the Upper House with the House Of Lords Act 1999. During the debate on the Bill, a question arose as to whether the proposal would violate the Treaty of Union, suggesting that the Act did indeed violate Article XXII of the Articles of Union. The Lords ruled that the requirement of Scottish representation, set out in Article XX II of the Treaty, was a fundamental condition of representation of Scotland in both Houses of Parliament at Westminster. It was submitted that prior to Union, the old, pre-Union parliament, was entitled to impose conditions, and that one of those conditions was a guarantee of representation in the Parliament of Scotland’s old Peerage. In 1711, The 4th Duke of Hamilton, a peer of Scotland, was made Duke of Brandon in the peerage of Great British. When he sought to sit at the House of Lords, he was denied admittance, the Lords ruling that apeer of Scotland could not sit in the House of Lords unless he was a representative peer, even if he also held a British peerage dignity.

The Lord Clerk Register was responsible for tallying the votes. The return issued by the Lord Clerk register was sufficient evidence to admit the representative peers to Parliament; however, unlike other peers, Scottish representatives did not receive writs of summons. The same procedure was used whenever a vacancy arose. The block voting system was used, with each peer casting as many votes as there were seats to be filled. The party with the greatest number of peers, normally the Conservatives, to procure a disproportionate number of seats, with opposing parties sometimes being left entirely unrepresented. Those chosen by Scotland sat for the life of one Parliament, and following each dissolution new Scottish peers wereelected. In contrast, Irish representative peers sat for life. Elections for Irish peers ceased when the Irish Free State came into existence as a Dominion in December 1922. However, already-elected Irish peers continued to be entitled to sit until their death. They were allowed to elect sixteen representative peers, while Ireland could elect twenty-eight. Each served for one Parliament or a maximum of seven years, but could be re-elected during future Parliaments. The elections were held in a large room decorated by eighty-nine of Jacob de Wet’s portraits of Scottish monarchs, from Fergus Mór to Charles II.

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