Woolsack of Appeal and the Justices of the High Court only attend Parliament for the State Opening. Woolsack The Woolsack is the seat of the Lord Speaker in the House of Lords, the Upper House of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. In the 14th century King Edward III (1327–1377) commanded that his Lord Chancellor whilst in council should sit on a wool bale, now known as "The Woolsack", in order to symbolise the central nature and huge importance of the wool trade to the economy of England in the Middle Ages. Indeed, it was largely to protect the vital English
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