UK peerage law currently presents a sharp asymmetry: the creation of a peerage is largely a matter of prerogative (under the Life Peerages Act 1958 in the statutory case, or pure prerogative for hereditary creations), but its extinction is jealously reserved to Parliament. Halsbury's and the Cabinet Office confirm that 'no peer can be deprived of peerage except by or under the authority of an Act of Parliament' 1. Disclaimer is available only to successors to hereditary titles under s.1 of the Peerage Act 1963, and Purbeck (1678) closed off surrender at common law 2.
A second asymmetry runs between the peerage (the dignity) and membership of the House (the seat). The House can act on the seat unilaterally: under the House of Lords Reform Act 2014 ss.1-3 a peer is disqualified by resignation, by non-attendance during a session, or by a sentence of more than one year's imprisonment, and under s.1 of the House of Lords (Expulsion and Suspension) Act 2015 the House may pass a resolution to expel for misconduct on the Conduct Committee's recommendation under Standing Order 11 23. In each case, however, the peerage itself survives — the title and privilege of peerage continue, only the writ of summons is gone.
The Mandelson case in February 2026 made this gap politically untenable. Lord Mandelson resigned from the Lords on 3 February 2026 under s.1 of the 2014 Act and was removed from the Privy Council on 4 February 2026 by Order in Council; the peerage remained 1. The Government accordingly committed to legislate — Darren Jones told the Commons the Bill would be brought forward 'very, very shortly' 1, Baroness Smith confirmed the timetable would slip into the new session, and the King's Speech 2026 listed the Removal of Peerages Bill among the constitutional measures 456.
The regime sits alongside the recently-enacted House of Lords (Hereditary Peers) Act 2026, which ended the hereditary route and abolished the House's peerage-claim jurisdiction (transferring complex claims to the JCPC under s.4 Judicial Committee Act 1833) 27. It will also need to engage the conduct architecture: the Conduct Committee's HL Paper 66 review of the Code (Jan 2025) and the April 2025 Code edition supply the misconduct standard against which removal would likely operate 83, while the parallel Retirement and Participation Committee inquiry (reporting 31 July 2026) addresses related membership reform 9.
Design-space questions the Bill must answer include: grounds (criminal conviction, Conduct Committee finding, 'disrepute' threshold); decision-maker (House by resolution, Privy Council committee on the 1917 model, or independent panel); retrospectivity (whether Mandelson and Mountbatten-Windsor are reachable); judicial-review standard; interaction with the royal prerogative and King's Consent; and whether honours-system mechanisms (Forfeiture Committee, Letters Patent annulment of HRH/Prince) should be statutorily integrated 1.