Section 2 of the Act, however, provides an exception from this general exclusion of membership for up to 92 hereditary peers: 90 to be elected by the House, as well as the holders of two royal offices, the Earl Marshal and the Lord Great Chamberlain, who sit as ex officio members.
Candidature for both the 1999 elections and subsequent by-elections is restricted to peers in the Peerages of England, Scotland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom.
[2] These numbers elected by each group reflected the relative strengths of the parties among hereditary peers in 1999; this allocation has remained unchanged since then.
The fifteen peers elected by the whole House were intended to provide a group of experienced members ready to serve as deputy speakers or other officers.
The Lord Great Chamberlain is a hereditary office in gross post among the Cholmondeley, Heathcote-Drummond-Willoughby and Carington families.