Lord Speaker the bar, and finish by walking up the Temporal (opposition) side toward the Woolsack. The Mace is placed on the Woolsack, where the Lord Speaker sits after a bishop has led the House in prayers. When the Sovereign appoints Lords Commissioners to perform certain actions on his or her behalf (for example, to open or prorogue Parliament, or formally declare Royal Assent), the Lord Speaker is one of them. The other Lords Commissioners, by convention, are the Leader of the House (who has acted as the principal Commissioner since the Lord Chancellor's functions were transferred to the Lord Speaker), the
Reform of the House of Lords the only democratic members of the House. In 1999 a Royal Commission was appointed, under Lord Wakeham, to examine proposals for Lords Reform and make recommendations. It published its report (See Wakeham Report) in 2000 with 132 recommendations of which the main were: In a debate in the House of Lords on 7 March 2000, Baroness Jay expressed the Government's broad acceptance of the Commission's report: The Government accept the principles underlying the main elements of the Royal Commission's proposals on the future role and structure of this House, and will act on them. That is, we agree that the