The Spectator

How many members of the House of Lords are there?

[Getty Images] 
issue 17 June 2023

No platformed

What effect have strikes had on rail travel?

– In the first quarter of this year, some 389m journeys were made on the rail network, up on 2022 but only 88% of the number of journeys made in the same period in 2019, before the pandemic

– Ticket revenue was £2.2bn, 70% of the same period in 2019

– LNER (111% of 2019 levels), East Midlands (101%), Hull Trains (122%) and Grand Central (111%) all managed to increase passenger numbers on 2019; all other franchises saw a decline

– Passenger numbers fell the most on the Transpennine service (60%), which was recently relieved of its franchise

Source: Office of Rail and Road 

Crowded house

Boris Johnson’s resignation honours list was published, minus several expected peers. How many members of the House of Lords are there?

– As of September last year, there were 798 members, 755 of whom were entitled to attend proceedings

24 were Church of England bishops and 86 are ‘excepted hereditary’ peers

645 of them were life peers

29% were women compared with 35% in the House of Commons

– The oldest was 97 and the youngest 36, with an average age of 71

18 members retired last year

– The Lords has grown in recent years, but is still a long way short of the size it reached in 1999, before the removal of most hereditary peers, when membership peaked at more than 1,300

Source: House of Lords Library

Best laid plans

The planning system is often blamed for a shortage of housing.

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