Editing Peerages in the United Kingdom (section)

===Executive function===

[[File:Alec Douglas-Home (c1963).jpg|thumb|The Earl of Home (c1963), the last Prime Minister of the United Kingdom to serve from the House of Lords]]
Peers in the House of Lords can serve in the British government, when invited to do so, as [[British Government frontbench|ministers]] including within the [[Great Offices of State]] (for example [[David Cameron|Lord Cameron]] who served as [[Foreign Secretary (United Kingdom)|Foreign Secretary]] in the [[Premiership of Rishi Sunak]]). The only consistent role for a peer in the [[Cabinet of the United Kingdom|cabinet]] is that of [[Leader of the House of Lords]], who must be a member of the House of Lords by nature of the appointment.

Historically the Lord Chancellor was by convention a peer, and a member of the cabinet (in addition to serving a judicial and legislative role). The ministerial department of the lord chancellor was known as the Lord Chancellor's Office between 1885 and 1971, and the [[Lord Chancellor's Department]] between 1971 and 2003. In 2003 the department was renamed the [[Department for Constitutional Affairs]], and the lord chancellor was appointed [[Secretary of State for Constitutional Affairs]]. In 2007 the department became the [[Ministry of Justice (United Kingdom)|Ministry of Justice]] and in June 2007 Jack Straw was the first commoner to be appointed as Lord Chancellor since 1587.

Peers can even serve as [[Prime Minister of the United Kingdom|prime minister]], though this is no longer convention, and the last to do so was the [[Alec Douglas-Home|14th Earl of Home]] in 1963, who disclaimed his peerage within a few days of being appointed as prime minister to fight a by-election to sit in the Commons.

Peers in the House of Lords are often appointed by the sovereign, on the advice of the government, to serve as a [[Privy Council (United Kingdom)|Privy Counsellor]]. The Privy Council is a formal body of advisers to the monarch, on matters such as the issuing of [[royal charter]]s. Peers can serve as [[Lords Commissioners]] when appointed (privy councillors appointed by the monarch of the United Kingdom to exercise, on his or her behalf, certain functions relating to Parliament which would otherwise require the monarch's attendance at the Palace of Westminster).

In theory all peers, life and hereditary, are also prospective members of the ''[[Magnum Concilium]]'' regardless of whether they sit in the House of Lords. This is a council summoned for nobles to discuss the affairs of the country with the monarch; however, it has not been convened since 1640, though nothing prevents it from being assembled in the future.

Peers can also be appointed as [[Lord-in-waiting|Lords-in-waiting]] where they may be called upon periodically to represent the sovereign; for example, one of their number is regularly called upon to greet visiting heads of state on arrival at the start of a state visit.

Prior to the ''Regency Act of 1937'', peers serving as Lord Chancellor, or in other senior political roles, could also be delegated royal functions to serve as [[Counsellor of State|Counsellors of State]]; however, this is now reserved to the monarch's spouse and the members of the Royal Family in the immediate line of succession.