Editing Peerages in the United Kingdom (section)

===Entitlement and Heritability===

All honours, including peerages, are granted at the discretion of the monarch as the [[fount of honour]] (though functionally and mostly on the advice of the government); there is, therefore, no entitlement to be granted a peerage. However, historic precedent means some individuals are granted peerages by convention. For example, since the [[Wars of the Three Kingdoms]] it has been convention for a retiring [[Speaker of the House of Commons (United Kingdom)|speaker of the House of Commons]] to be granted a hereditary viscountcy; however, the last to receive the honour was in 1983, and the convention is now accepted to have changed to a life peerage at the rank of baron instead. British prime ministers are also offered a peerage by convention when leaving office. This was previously a hereditary earldom. However, the last prime minister to receive this honour was [[Harold Macmillan]] in 1984. When she resigned in 1990 [[Margaret Thatcher]], as the first female prime minister, was not offered a hereditary earldom or any other peerage, but instead a [[baronet]]cy (a hereditary knighthood and not a peerage) was awarded to her husband [[Denis Thatcher]] (this was the last non-royal hereditary honour of any variety created in the UK to date). Thatcher was later given a life peerage in her own right in 1992. The most recent prime minister to receive a peerage was [[Theresa May]], who was given a life peerage in 2024.

Most peerage nominations are 'political peers' or 'working peers', nominated by the prime minister of the governing party, or by other party leaders to ‘top up’ each of the party groups’ strengths and on the expectation that they will attend parliament regularly and take on [[frontbench]] work. However, since 2001 any member of the public can make a nomination to the House of Lords Appointment Commission, to nominate someone to sit with the "[[Crossbencher|cross bench]]" peers, as a non-party political peerage - sometimes called [[House of Lords Appointments Commission#People's peers|'people's peers']]. As of 2023, since 2001 67 'people's peers' have been appointed.

Historically monarchs sold peerage titles under limited circumstances. This was often done to raise funds. For example, in the early [[Stuart period]], King James I sold peerages, adding sixty-two peers to a body that had included just fifty-nine members at the commencement of his reign. Some governments through history also sold peerages to fund government activities, or more controversially, party activities. The selling of peerages by a government was made illegal in 1925 with the ''[[Honours (Prevention of Abuses) Act 1925]]''. The act was the result of the administration of [[David Lloyd George]] selling a high number of controversial peerages. The Blair administration was later accused of trying to skirt this law in 2006 in the so called "[[Cash-for-Honours scandal]]", as was an aide of [[Charles III|Prince Charles]] in the 2021 [[Honours (Prevention of Abuses) Act 1925#2021: Cash for favours scandal|Cash-for-Favours scandal]]. Unlike the feudal titles they replaced, peerages are not a form of property and cannot be transferred, bought, or sold by the title holder.

The exact terms of the peerage are set out in the letters patent. All peerages are strictly personal and for life. However, historic peerages are often [[heritable]], primarily by [[Primogeniture|agnatic primogeniture]] with some exceptions of male-preference cognatic primogeniture. For most of their history, hereditary peerages were the norm. Today, the only new hereditary peerages granted are, by convention, to members of the [[British royal family|royal family]]. The last non-royal awardees of hereditary titles were in the [[Premiership of Margaret Thatcher|Thatcher]] era. Since then, [[Government of the United Kingdom|ruling parties]] have instead exclusively created [[life peers]] and refrained from recommending any others to be elevated to a hereditary peerage, although this is simply present convention and there is nothing preventing future governments from doing so.