The Life Peerages Act 1958 (6 & 7 Eliz II c. 21) established the modern standards for the creation of life peers by the monarch of the United Kingdom. Life peers are barons and are members of the House of Lords for life, but their titles and membership in the Lords are not inherited by their children. Judicial life peers already sat in the House under the terms of the Appellate Jurisdiction Act 1876. The Life Peerages Act vastly increased the ability of the Prime Minister to change the composition of the House of Lords and considerably lessened the dominance of hereditary "part-time" peers.
The Act allowed for the creation of female peers; the first such women peers sat in the House of Lords from 21 October1958.[1]
