Key dates

1911 - Parliament Act
Removed the House of Lords' right to refuse a Bill passed in the Commons - except Bills that proposed to extend the life of Parliament.

1949 - Parliament Act
Reduced the Lords' ability to delay a Bill passed in the Commons from two years to one year.

1958 - Life Peerages Act
Permitted creation of peerages for life to persons of either sex, with no limit on numbers. First woman life Peer - Baroness Wootton of Abinger - is created.

1963 - Peerage Act
Allowed hereditary peerages to be disclaimed for life, hereditary peeresses to be Members of the House of Lords and for all Scottish Peers to sit. First woman hereditary peer to take her seat - Baroness Strange of Knokin.

1999 - House of Lords Act
Removed the right of all but 92 hereditary Peers to sit in the House of Lords by virtue of an inherited (hereditary) peerage.

2005 - Constitutional Reform Act
Removed the judicial functions of the House of Lords from Parliament and set up a new, independent Supreme Court (from October 2009). It also changed the role of the Lord Chancellor; ending his role as a judge and as Speaker of the House of Lords.

2006 - First Lord Speaker
Baroness Hayman elected as the first Lord Speaker.