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
Non-affiliated members of the House of Lords excluding those on leave of absence or suspended: There are other members listed with an "Independent" designation within the House of Lords: Non-affiliated members of the House of Lords Members of the House of Lords are said to be non-affiliated if they do not belong to any parliamentary group. That is, they do not take a political party's whip, nor affiliate to the crossbench group, nor the Lords Spiritual (bishops). Formerly, the Lords of Appeal in Ordinary were also a separate affiliation, but their successors (the Justices of the Supreme Court) are now disqualified from the Lords while in office