Government Defeats in the House of Lords (Hansard, 18 December 2000)

§ Lord Lipsey

asked the Leader of the House:

(a) how many government defeats were suffered in divisions in the House of Lords in each Session since 1970, a government defeat being defined as a division in which the tellers on the losing side were government whips;
(b) how many defeats there were on average during Sessions in which a Labour government was in power; and
(c) how many defeats there were on average during Sessions in which a Conservative government was in power. [HL75]

Divisions in the House of Lords since 1970–71
	Divisions
	Government victoriest†	Government defeats	Other divisions
Session	Number	As a percentage of the total	Number	As a percentage of the total	Number	As a percentage of the total	Total number of divisions
Conservative Government
‡1970–71	?		4?	2%?	?		196
1971–72	?		5	3%	?		171
1972–73	?		13	18%	?		73
†1973–74	?		4	21%	?		19
Labour Government
†1974	?		?		?		17
Labour Government
1974–75	?		?		?		119
1975–76	11	8%	126	86%	9	6%	146
1976–77	11	24%	25	56%	9	20%	45
1977–78	16	17%	78	81%	2	2%	96
1978–79	5	24%	11	52%	5	24%	21
Conservative Government
‡1979–80	280	92%	15	5%	8	3%	303
1980£81	153	83%	18	10%	13	7%	184
1981–82	126	85½%	7	4½%	14	9½%	147
†1982–83	79	89%	5	5½%	5	5½%	89
Conservative Government
‡1983–84	202	86%	20	9%	12	5%	234
1984–85	117	82%	17	12%	8	6%	142
1985–86	215	88%	22	9%	8	3%	245
†1986–87	75	95%	3	4%	1	1%	79
Conservative Government
‡1987–88	254	91%	17	6%	8	3%	279
1988–89	173	92%	12	6%	4	2%	189
1989–90	160	86%	20	11%	6	3%	186
1990–91	87	84%	17	16%	0	0%	104
†1991–92	73	88%	6	7%	4	5%	83
Conservative Government
‡1992–93	140	85%	19	11½%	6	3½%	165
1993–94	99	73%	16	12%	21	15%	136
1994–95	94	88½%	7	6½%	5	5%	106
1995–96	97	89%	10	9%	2	2%	109
†1996–97	55	82%	10	15%	2	3%	67
Labour Government
‡1997–98	134	75%	39	22%	6	3%	179
1998–99	61	61.6%	31	31.3%	7	7.1%	99
1999–00	147	76.6%	36	18.7%	9	4.7%	192
Notes:
Divisions where insufficient tellers were appointed are not included but divisions which resulted in an equality of votes are included.
Data are incomplete prior to Session 1975–76 and data followed by a question mark (?) are either unavailable at present or have not been verified. From Session 1975–76 onwards divisions where there was not a quorum have been omitted from this table (e.g. Session 1985–86 there were a total of 250 divisions and five of these had no quorum).
^* A government victory is defined as one where the tellers on the winning side are government whips. "Other" divisions include those without a quorum and unwhipped divisions.
† This Session was shorter than usual: it was terminated by a general election.
‡ This Session was longer than usual: it followed a general election and was about 18 months long (as opposed to the normal Session of one year running from November to November ).

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