By-elections to the House of Lords
By-elections to the House of Lords occur when vacancies arise among seats assigned to hereditary peers due to death, resignation, or disqualification.The Earl Marshal and the Lord Great Chamberlain were entitled to sit ex officio; the remaining ninety were elected by all the hereditary peers before the passing of the reform.However, on 25 July 2024, and in anticipation of imminent legislative debates on the abolition of the right of Hereditary Peers to sit in the Lords (see proposed abolition below), and reflecting views that "ongoing by-elections during the parliamentary consideration of a Bill would be deeply undesirable in this context", the House of Lords passed a motion to extend the deadline for holding a by-election to 18 months.After the passing of the Peerage Act 1963, all Scottish peers were entitled to sit in the House of Lords and the election procedure was abolished.Upon the creation of the Irish Free State, the offices required to officiate these by-elections were abolished and thus no more were held, but those peers already elected kept their seats for the remainder of their lives.