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The House of Lords Act 1999 (c. 34) was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that was given Royal Assent on 11 November 1999.〔 The Act reformed the House of Lords, one of the chambers of Parliament. For centuries, the House of Lords had included several hundred members who inherited their seats; the Act removed such a right. However, as part of a compromise, the Act did permit ninety-two hereditary peers to remain in the House on an interim basis. Another ten were created life peers to enable them to remain in the House.〔 The Act decreased the membership of the House from 1,330 in October 1999 to 669 in March 2000.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=House of Lords - Annual Report and Accounts 1999-2000 )〕 As another result of the Act, the majority of the Lords were now life peers, whose numbers had been gradually increasing since the Life Peerages Act 1958. As of August 2012, there were 825 Peers, of whom 26 were senior Church of England bishops,〔 whose determination is governed by the Bishopric of Manchester Act 1847.〔(bbc.com: "What is the role of bishops in UK politics?" ), 25 Jan 2012〕 ==Background== Prior to the 16th century, the Lords was the stronger of the two houses of Parliament.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Parliament: The political institution )〕 A process of gradual evolution combined with such moments of crisis as the English Civil Wars transferred the political control of England, first from the Crown to the House of Lords and then to the House of Commons.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Parliament: The political institution )〕 The rising wealth of the Commons eventually allowed it to wage two civil wars, dethrone two Kings, and gradually reduce the power of the Lords. Prior to the House of Lords Act 1999 the power of the Lords had been diminished by the Parliament Acts 1911 and 1949 which stripped the Lords of the ability to block, or veto, adoption of most bills; at most it could delay bills for one year. Furthermore, the Commons has absolute power when it comes to money bills.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Parliament: The political institution )〕 After eighteen years of Conservative rule, the Labour party led by Tony Blair won a landslide victory at the 1997 general election, in the process inflicting the biggest defeat for the Conservatives since 1832. The Labour Party had for years endorsed abolition of the unelected House of Lords in its election platforms, though since 1992 this had changed to a policy of reforming the House instead. During the 20th century Liberal and Labour governments proposed many bills that were opposed by the House of Lords, which had been dominated by Conservatives since the 1890s, leading to delay and where proposed before elections, their dropping from the legislative agenda.〔 In the first year of the Blair government, the Lords passed back Government bills 38 times. The rejection considered the most contentious was of the European Elections Bill, against which the Lords voted five times. Blair stated that the Conservatives were using the hereditary peers to "frustrate" and "overturn the will of the democratically elected House of Commons".〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Hansard, Vol 319 Col 931 )〕 Here Blair found an opportunity to implement one of Labour's campaign promises, reforming the Lords. On 24 November 1998, in opening the second session of Parliament, the Queen delivered her annual Speech from the Throne; the Speech is written for her by the ruling party and outlines that party's legislative agenda for the upcoming year. In it, she suggested that her Government (i.e. the ruling Labour Party) would pursue a reform of the House of Lords. These remarks were followed by shouts of "Hear! Hear!" from supportive Labour Members of Parliament, and by similar shouts of "Shame! Shame!" from Conservative peers; such outbursts were unprecedented, for the Queen's Speech is with few exceptions heard by a silent Parliament. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「House of Lords Act 1999」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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