Petition Bishops should remain in the House of Lords and the number of lords spiritual should be increased.

There are currently 26 lords spiritual (Bishops in the House of Lords). Five of them have ex officio seniority and they are: the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Archbishop of York, the Bishop of London, the Bishop of Durham and the Bishop of Winchester. The other lords spiritual have seniority of service and are the 21 longest-serving English Diocesan Bishops. Bishops have been consulted about legislation since before the 11th century. By signing this e-petition, you declare that there should still be Bishops in the House of Lords today and that the number of lords spiritual should be increased because they currently have little influence in terms of their number when compared with that of party-affiliated lords (552) and crossbenchers (181). The Lords spiritual do much invaluable work, giving hours of their time to the House for no money in return. They also have good attendance and represent the majority of the country who are religious despite a sudden rise of secularism.