The Policy paper King’s Speech 2024: background briefing notes was issued on 17 July 2024 following the King’s Speech. The section relating to the Lords Spiritual (Women) Act 2015 (Extension) Bill is reproduced below.

Lords Spiritual (Women) Act 2015 (Extension) Bill

• Since 2015, legislation has ensured that female bishops enter the House of Lords sooner than they otherwise would.
• The Lords Spiritual (Women) Act 2015 (Extension) Bill extends this provision for a further period to support efforts to increase the number of female bishops in the House of Lords.

What does the Bill do?

• The Archbishop of Canterbury, the Archbishop of York, and the Bishops of London, Durham and Winchester are automatically given seats in the House of Lords as Lords Spiritual. This Bill will ensure that, whenever a vacancy arises among the 21 other bishops in the House of Lords, the position will continue to be filled by a female diocesan bishop if one is available.
• These arrangements have been in place since May 2015 as a result of the Lords Spiritual (Women) Act 2015. Prior to this, diocesan bishops filled the 21 seats in order of their length of service as a diocesan bishop.
• Six female bishops have been appointed to the House of Lords under the provisions of the 2015 Act, five of whom currently sit in the House. This is welcome progress but more time is required to ensure significant female representation among the Lords Spiritual.
• However, the 2015 Act expires in May 2025, so it is right to extend it for a further period to support this goal in agreement with the Church of England.
• Without this legislation, the position would return to the status quo ante whereby bishops become members of the House of Lords according to their time in office; this would result in it taking longer for more female bishops to enter the House of Lords.

Territorial extent and application

• The Bill will extend and apply UK-wide.
• The 2015 Act was passed shortly after the Church of England changed its own legislation to enable women to be appointed as bishops in 2014. The first female bishop (the Bishop of Gloucester, Rachel Treweek) was appointed in June 2015 and quickly entered the House of Lords as a result of the Act in September.
• At present, there is one female bishop who will be eligible to enter the Lords on retirement of an existing bishop, and this will happen before the 2015 Act provisions expire in May 2025. There is a further retirement in February 2025 (the Bishop of St Edmundsbury and Ipswich), which again would be covered by the 2015 Act if a woman bishop was appointed to an eligible diocese before that retirement.
• Looking ahead, there are currently four vacancies amongst the eligible diocesan bishoprics and there is a possibility of female bishops being appointed to those posts. There are a further nine Lords Spiritual who will reach the retirement age in the next five years.

Comment

The Bill is consistent with other prosed reforms of the Upper House: the Lords Spiritual are not peers of the realm; are subject to an upper age limit of 70 (or 71 in certain cases); and the Lords Spiritual sit on an ‘ex officio’ basis, which means they only remain in the House whilst they hold the office of bishop. Furthermore, since 1847, the number of bishops in the House of Lords has been capped in legislation at 26.

The notes do not expand on the duration of the extension, but the time horizon considered in the discussion is ” the next five years”. The Cabinet Office is designated as the lead department, (Contact details, 07504077690).

[Updated:: 18 July 2024 at 16:50].