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There have always been hereditary and non-hereditary peerages (and other titles - the members of the house also include bishops and law lords).
However, in the last few years there have been a lot of political moves to remove the hereditary peers from the house. The replacement would be an increase in non-hereditary peers (which are mostly given to retired politicians). This process has been partially implimented by the current government, but has not yet been fully achieved, and is looking unlikely to be in the immediate future, as there is a lot of political upheaval involved.
But even after the reforms, the hereditary peers would still retain their titles; the only difference is that those titles would no longer automatically grant them a seat in the house.
This is quite a wooly subject though; I recommend you research a few political web sites - there's plenty around that are making the case for abolishing the hereditary lords.
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