Lords Amendments are changes made by the House of Lords to a bill that started life in the House of Commons. If the Lords don’t make any changes, there are no Lords Amendments and the bill can move to Royal Assent.
Consideration of Lords Amendments is a stage of a bill when you can debate and decide on the Lords Amendments. The Commons can decide to:
- agree to a Lords Amendment
- agree to a Lords Amendment as long as it’s changed in a certain way (an amendment to the original Lords Amendment)
- agree to a Lords Amendment as long as some other changes to the bill are made (‘consequential amendments’)
- disagree with a Lords Amendment, but suggest an alternative (an ‘amendment in lieu’)
- disagree with a Lords Amendment
The Public Bill Office can help you with how to amend Lords Amendments.
If a bill starts in the Lords and is then changed by the Commons, it’s returned to the Lords with a list of Commons Amendments.