In Focus
Succession to Peerages Bill [HL]
HL Bill 16 of 2015–16
Key Provisions
The Succession to Peerages Bill [HL] is a private member’s bill introduced by Lord Trefgarne
(Conservative). The Bill received its first reading in the House of Lords on 2 June 2015 and is scheduled
to receive its second reading on 11 September 2015. The Bill contains 5 clauses:
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Clause 1 provides that “[n]o one shall be unable to succeed to an hereditary peerage on the
ground that she is a woman or that she or he is a person who claims through a woman”
(clause 1(1)). This provision would be governed by the “universal rule of succession” laid out in
clause 2.
Clause 2 seeks to put in statute a “universal rule of succession” which, for the purpose of
succession, would provide that any daughter and her issue (ie offspring) would be treated as they
would be if the daughter had been male (clause 2 (2))—with the exception that males in order of
birth and their offspring “shall be entitled to succeed before females in order of birth and their
issue” within each group of siblings (clause 2 (3)).
Clause 3 provides that any peerage which became extinct on or after 6 February 1952 would be
vested in the person who would have succeeded to that peerage if the “universal rule of
succession” had applied on, and after, 6 February 1952.
Clause 4 provides that a peerage which is in abeyance (ie a state of suspension between co-heirs)
on the date that the Bill were to become enacted would vest in the person in whom it would
have vested on that date had the “universal rule of succession” governed succession on, and
after, the date that the peerage last fell into abeyance.
Clause 5 provides that the Bill, if enacted, would not affect any succession to a peerage which
took place before its enactment.
Background
There are limited circumstances that a woman can inherit a peerage: a woman can inherit a title which is
a barony by writ (rather than the more common letters patent); most Scottish peerages may pass to a
daughter if there are no sons in the family; the Crown may grant a ‘special remainder’ to allow a woman
to inherit a title; and the Crown can also grant an hereditary peerage to a woman.1 Certain peerages
may therefore pass to women, but the vast majority of titles may only ever be inherited by a man: this
male preference in the line of succession is known as the principle of male preference primogeniture.2
The Succession to Peerages Bill [HL], if enacted, would legally enable a woman to succeed to any
peerage that would otherwise have become extinct or in abeyance as a consequence of her not being a
man; it would not end the tradition of male preference primogeniture in succeeding to hereditary
peerages because it would put in statute that males in order of birth, and their offspring, would succeed
before females.
Mary Santo
LIF 2015/029
8 September 2015
The Succession to the Crown Act 2013, which entered into force in March 2015, ended the principle of
male preference primogeniture for heirs to the throne.3 The House of Commons Political and
Constitutional Reform Committee’s 2011 report on the rules of succession to the Crown noted that
the proposal to end the preferential treatment of men in the line of succession had been “widely
welcomed, and with good reason” and also drew attention to holders of hereditary peerages noting that
“the way in which their titles are inherited, and its effect on the gender balance in Parliament, remain
matters of public interest”.4 The then Government noted in response to the report that changes to the
rules governing succession to hereditary titles “would be far more complicated to implement fairly” and
announced that it had “no plans to change the laws of succession with regard to hereditary peerages”
though it accepted that the matter of hereditary peerages was of public interest.5
There have been a number of recent attempts in both Houses to legislate on the issue of succession to
hereditary peerages. Lord Trefgarne introduced an identical private member’s bill in the 2014–15
session but the Bill did not reach its second reading. In session 2013–14, Conservative peer Lord Lucas
introduced The Equality (Titles) Bill [HL] which sought to enable the succession of female heirs to
hereditary peerages if the incumbent of the peerage wrote to the Lord Chancellor to ask that this
should occur. The Bill would also have entitled the husband or civil partner of a Peer to use the
courtesy title “The Honourable”. The Bill received a second reading but only completed one day in
committee.6 Lord Lucas introduced a similar bill in the 2012–13 session, the Hereditary Peerages
(Succession) Bill [HL], but this did not reach its second reading. Also during the 2012–13 session,
Mary Macleod (Conservative MP for Brentford and Isleworth) used the Ten Minute Rule to introduce
the Succession to Hereditary Peerages and Estates Bill to the House of Commons—a bill which included
provision to remove male preference primogeniture in succession to hereditary peerages. This too did
not receive its second reading.
Female hereditary Peers in their own right were excluded from sitting in the House of Lords until the
Peerage Act 1963.7 Between 1963 and 1999, 25 female hereditary Peers in their own right were
admitted to the House of Lords. Under the terms of the House of Lords Act 1999, all but 92 hereditary
Peers were excluded from the House of Lords. Of the 92 who remained, two were ex-officio Members,
15 were elected by the whole House and 75 were elected by their party groups. Of the 15 hereditary
Peers who were elected by the whole House in 1999 one was a woman. This Crossbench Peer remains
an active member of the House today. Of the 75 Peers elected by their party groups, four were women,
all elected by the Crossbench Peers, three of whom have died and one who retired in December 2014
under the terms of the House of Lords Reform Act 2014. All were replaced by men through byelections for hereditary Peers. No female hereditary Peers in their own right have been admitted to the
House through by-elections and there are no women on the most recent register of hereditary Peers
who have put themselves forward to be eligible as candidates at future by-elections.8
1
House of Lords Library, Hereditary Peers in the House of Lords Since 1999, 26 March 2014, LLN 2014/014, p 20.
House of Lords Library, Women in the House of Lords, 30 June 2015, LLN 2015/017, p 13.
3
HC Hansard, 26 March 2015, col 171WS.
4
House of Commons Political and Constitutional Reform Committee, Rules of Royal Succession, 7 December 2011, HC 1615
of session 2010–12, paras 15–17.
5
House of Commons Political and Constitutional Reform Committee, Rules of Royal Succession: Government Response to the
Committee’s Eleventh Report of Session 2010–12, 10 September 2012, HC 586 of session 2012–13, p 2.
6
HL Hansard, 6 December 2013, cols 538–64.
7
For further information, see House of Lords Library, Women in the House of Lords, 30 June 2015, LLN 2015/017, pp 13–14.
8
House of Lords, Register of Hereditary Peers who wish to stand for election as Members of the House of Lords under Standing
Order 10 (Hereditary Peers: By-elections) as at 27 May 2015, 27 May 2015, HL Paper 2 of session 2015–16.
2
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