Hereditary Titles (Female Succession) Bill

Cabinet Office written question – answered at on 30 April 2019.

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Photo of Philip Davies Philip Davies Conservative, Shipley

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, for what reason the Government objected to the Hereditary Titles (Female Succession) Bill on 22 March 2019.

Photo of Kevin Foster Kevin Foster Assistant Whip, The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Wales, The Parliamentary Secretary, Cabinet Office

The Government takes the issue of gender inequalities very seriously. I have carefully noted the points made about the current system of hereditary peerage in the context of the Hereditary Titles (Female Succession) Bill. However, this issue is complex and is linked with several equally complex issues, including the system of courtesy titles.

Under the current arrangements, the Equality Act 2010 provides that neither a life peerage nor a hereditary peerage (as an honour conferred by the Crown), is a public or personal office for the purposes of the Act. This exemption means the rules surrounding the by-elections of hereditary peers is ultimately a matter for the House of Lords in regulating its own affairs.

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