Can a British peer be stripped of his title(s)?

Factual Questions
1

For murder, treason, rape, other serious crime, etc., if convicted nowadays. I don’t think Jeffrey Archer was stripped of his title as a baron after being convicted of perjury and perverting the course of justice a few years back.

2

I don’t know of any examples where a peer has lost his title for what you might call ‘ordinary’ crimes (e.g. murder, theft etc).

Treason, though, is a different matter. The Titles Deprivation Act 1917 removed the titles of several peers in WWI. Presumably the same could be done nowadays.

I recall a fairly recent story about a (Labour?) life peer being convicted of fraud (possibly related to the parliamentary entitlements scandal). I think there was a suggestion that he’d be suspended from Parliament for a period, although I don’t know whether that means he lost his title too.

3

Not without a new Act of Parliament enabling it (either in general or for a specific peer). There was a proposal in 2004 to allow peerages to be stripped, but as far as I can tell that never went anywhere.

4

There was just actually, last year, a controversy over that. A new law last year, required MPs to be domiciled and tax resident in the UK, and five peers, Lords Foster, Baghri, McAlpine, and Laidlaw, as well as Baroness Dunn, took advantage of a provision in the law to give up their seats in the House of Lords so they wouldn’t have to pay UK tax. There was some talk that they should be stripped of their titles, but nothing came of it.

5

Peerages are not something I can answer for, but lesser titles like regular knighthoods (as opposed to heriditary baronetcies) can be taken away for offences. Sir Terrence Lewis, a former commissioner of police in Australia, was stripped of his imperial knighthood upon being convicted of corruption.

6

Thanks. That article seems to start midstream, as if the lead paragraph is missing…?

7

As this illustrates, it can be done by act of parliament – in British law, there are no limits on what an act of parliament can do. So Parliament could take away the titles of peers who are caught wearing orange socks, or shopping at Marks & Spencer. It also illustrates that, even in a case of treason, the only way to do it is by an act of parliament.