By Michael Cross2020-12-23T09:45:00+00:00 The government has restored the century-old tradition of appointing retiring masters of the rolls to the House of Lords by including Sir Terence Etherton in the 2020 political peerages list. Sir Terence, who steps down as the head of civil justice in England and Wales at the end of this year, will sit as a cross-bencher. Serving judges have not been entitled to sit in the lords following the abolition of the law lords in 2009. Sir Terence's predecessor, Lord Dyson, was not granted a peerage on his retirement in 2016 - a disappointment made public in his autobiography published last year. His title is a courtesy one granted for life to all Supreme Court justices.