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
Members of the House of Lords and the Bishop of Sodor and Man). Under the Lords Spiritual (Women) Act 2015, female bishops take precedence over men until May 2025 to become new Lords Spiritual for the 21 seats allocated by seniority. Lords Temporal include life peers, excepted hereditary peers elected under the House of Lords Act 1999, and remaining law life peers. There are also peers who remain members of the House, but are currently ineligible to sit and vote. Under section 23 of the Standing Orders of the House of Lords, peers may obtain a leave of absence for the remainder of a parliament. The