Click any step to jump to it - the lit step is the one showing below. Two tracks - cutting powers and changing composition - while never reaching election. Green = strengthened or expanded · Amber = mixed or contested · Red = weakened or reversed.
Timeline tucked away while you test yourself. Close the quiz to bring it back.
What happened. The Parliament Act 1911, after the 1909 People's Budget crisis, removed the Lords' veto over money bills and limited their delay of other bills to two years.
What it shows. The elected Commons is made supreme over the unelected Lords - the chamber loses its veto. Power cut
What happened. The Parliament Act 1949 cut the maximum delay from two years to one.
What it shows. The Lords' remaining weapon, delay, is weakened further. Power cut
What happened. The Life Peerages Act 1958 allowed life peers to be appointed for expertise, including women for the first time.
What it shows. Composition is reformed - the chamber gains expertise, but stays unelected. Expertise added
What happened. The House of Lords Act 1999 under Tony Blair removed all but 92 hereditary peers.
What it shows. The biggest composition reform - more legitimate, but still appointed, not elected. Composition reformed
What happened. The coalition's House of Lords Reform Bill proposed a mostly elected chamber; it was abandoned after a large Conservative backbench rebellion.
What it shows. Elected reform can be proposed but not passed - the elected question stalls. Reform stalls
What happened. The Lords defeated the government over tax credits on a statutory instrument, forcing a retreat and prompting the Strathclyde Review.
What it shows. An assertive revising chamber can still force the Commons to think again. Assertiveness
What happened. The House of Lords (Hereditary Peers) Bill under Labour removes the remaining 92 hereditary peers.
What it shows. Reform resumes where 1999 stopped - composition keeps being tidied, the elected question unanswered. Reform resumes
Roll up and down: use the arrows, scroll or swipe inside the box, the up and down keys, or click any step in the arc above.
The pattern across a century is two tracks. The Parliament Acts of 1911 and 1949 cut the chamber's powers, making the elected Commons supreme and reducing the Lords to a revising and delaying body. The Life Peerages Act 1958 and the House of Lords Act 1999 reformed who sits there.
What has never happened is election. The 2012 Reform Bill is the key case: a serious cross-party plan for a mostly elected chamber that collapsed under backbench rebellion. The 2024 Hereditary Peers Bill picks up where 1999 left off - tidying composition while leaving the chamber unelected.
The assertiveness the chamber retains is real: the 2015 tax credits defeat shows an unelected Lords still able to force the elected Commons to think again, which is exactly why reformers and defenders disagree about whether more legitimacy would make it too powerful.
The same events split by side. Build each paragraph around one point from each column, then judge.
The 2015 assertiveness cuts both ways: proof the chamber works, but also the reason critics fear that an elected, more legitimate Lords would challenge the Commons too often.
For "Evaluate the view that the House of Lords is in need of further reform", this timeline gives both sides. The 1911/1949/1999 reforms and the 2015 assertiveness argue reform has done its job; the failed 2012 Bill and the still-unelected composition argue it is unfinished. End each paragraph with an interim judgement.
Keep the dates precise: Parliament Acts 1911 and 1949, Life Peerages Act 1958, House of Lords Act 1999, the abandoned 2012 Reform Bill, the 2015 tax credits defeat, the 2024 Hereditary Peers Bill.