Hereditary peer

The hereditary peers in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland form part of the peerage in the United Kingdom. As of October 2025, there are 799 hereditary peers: 29 dukes (including five royal dukes, of which the Duke of Edinburgh is a life peerage, the holder being a hereditary earl), 34 marquesses, 189 earls, 108 viscounts, and 439 barons (not counting subsidiary titles).

As a result of the Peerage Act 1963, all peers except those in the peerage of Ireland were entitled to sit in the House of Lords. After the House of Lords Act 1999 came into force only 92 of them, elected from all hereditary peers, were permitted to do so, unless they were also life peers. The rights of these 92 to sit in the Lords will be removed by a 2026 bill, currently pending royal assent, and they will leave the Lords when the current session ends, probably in May 2026.

Not all hereditary titles are titles of the peerage. For instance, baronets and baronetesses may pass on their titles, but they are not peers. Scottish barons are also titled nobles but not peers. Conversely, the holder of a non-hereditary title may belong to the peerage, as with life peers. Peerages may be created by means of letters patent, but the granting of new hereditary peerages has dwindled: seven hereditary peerages have been created since 1965, four of them for members of the British royal family.

The most recent grant of a hereditary peerage was in 2019 for the youngest child of Elizabeth II, Prince Edward, who was created Earl of Forfar. The most recent grant of a hereditary peerage to a non-royal was in 1984 for former Prime Minister Harold Macmillan, who was created Earl of Stockton with the subsidiary title of Viscount Macmillan.

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