Study title

Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.

The objectives of the project were:
to produce the first ethnography of the House of Lords and contribute to knowledge about Parliament;
to explore cultural and political changes within the House of Lords and contribute to anthropological theory about culture and power;
to disseminate findings to academics, those involved in reform, and the public.
The data collected from the project comprised two parts - a database of information on the experience and expertise of members of the House of Lords, and ethnographic materials - including fieldnotes, interview transcripts and questionnaires. The database aimed to cover the range of experience and expertise of all 714 members of the House of Lords in 2002. Users should note that the database is available from the UK Data Archive, but the ethnographic materials are subject to a 30-year embargo, ending January 2033 (see 'Availability' section).


Main Topics:

The database comprises 12 columns, covering identification number, title, peerage type, gender, party, other experience, attendance of more or less than 100 days, actual attendance, experience in the House of Commons, experience in local government, education and experience in the House of Lords. In the 'experience' columns, peers usually fall into more than one category, so totals greatly exceed number of peers in the House of Lords. Interests or hobbies have not been included, but areas of main experience within career have been included. The principal investigators have distinguished between regular attenders (those sitting in the House of Lords for more than 100 days out of the total 177 days in the 2000/2001 Parliamentary session) and those visiting less frequently (less than 100 days). Please see documentation for further details - the explanatory notes detail limitations of the database and offer suggestions about how to carry out searches.