The Privy Council meets once a month, wherever the sovereign may be residing at the time, to give formal approval to Orders in Council.[3] Only a few privy counsellors need attend such meetings, and only when invited to do so at the government's request. As the duties of the Lord President are not onerous, the post has often been given to a government minister whose responsibilities are not department-specific. In recent years it has been most typical for the Lord President also to serve as Leader of the House of Commons or Leader of the House of Lords. The Lord President has no role in the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council.
In the history of British government, the President of the Council is a relatively recent creation. The first certain appointment to the office being that of the Duke of Suffolk in 1529.[4] Although there is a reference to Edmund Dudley serving as 'president of the council' in 1497, it was only in 1529 that the role was given the style and precedence of a Great Officer of State by act of Parliament (21 Hen. 8. c. 20).[5] Prior to 1679 there were several periods in which the office was left vacant. During coronations of the monarch, the Lord President carries the Sword of State.[6]
In the 19th century, the Lord President was generally the cabinet member responsible for the education system, amongst his other duties. This role was gradually scaled back in the late 19th and early 20th centuries but remnants of it remain, such as the oversight of the governance of various universities.
During times of National or coalition government the office of Lord President has sometimes been held by the leader of a minority party (e.g. Baldwin 1931–1935, MacDonald 1935–1937, Attlee 1943–1945, Clegg 2010–2015). It has been suggested that the office has been intermittently used for Prime Ministerial deputies in the past.[clarification needed][7][8]
A particularly vital role was played by the Lord President of the Council during the Second World War. The Lord President served as chairman of the Lord President's Committee. This committee acted as a central clearing house which dealt with the country's economic problems. This was vital to the smooth running of the British war economy and consequently the entire British war effort.
Winston Churchill, clearly believing that this wartime co-ordinating role was beneficial, introduced a similar but expanded system in the first few years of his post-war premiership.[9] The so-called 'overlord ministers' included Frederick Leathers as Secretary of State for the Co-ordination of Transport, Fuel and Power and Lord Woolton as Lord President. Woolton's job was to co-ordinate the then separate ministries of agriculture and food.[10] The historian Lord Hennessy of Nympsfield quotes a PhD thesis by Michael Kandiah saying that Woolton was "arguably the most successful of the Overlords" partly because his ministries were quite closely related; indeed, they were merged in 1955 as the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food.[11]
On several occasions since 1954, non-British Ministers have served briefly as acting Lords President of the Council, solely to preside over a meeting of the Privy Council held in a Commonwealth realm.[12][13][14] Examples of this practice are the meetings in New Zealand in 1990 and 1995, when Geoffrey Palmer and James Bolger respectively were acting Lords President.
Andrea Leadsom's appointment in June 2017 was the first in some time where the post holder was not a full Cabinet member.[15]
Role and responsibilities
Routine functions
"The Privy Council is the mechanism through which interdepartmental agreement is reached on those items of Government business which, for historical or other reasons, fall to Ministers as Privy Counsellors rather than as Departmental Ministers."[16]
The routine functions of the lord president are as follows:
Preside at Privy Council meetings, including any emergency meetings, and attend to both ministerial correspondence and parliamentary questions relating to Privy Council business.[17]
Consider for approval prerogative and statutoryOrders in Council.[18] Prerogative orders deal with the basic functioning of the British state and are thus applicable under a number of circumstances, including but not limited to the prorogation of Parliament, the granting, amendment, and revocation of royal charters, the appointment of high sheriffs, or the governance of British Overseas Territories.[19][20][21][22] On the other hand, statutory orders are a form of delegated legislation conferred on His Majesty's Government by Parliament for the purposes of creating detailed regulations through rulemaking.[23] Unlike prerogative orders, statutory Orders in Council are subject to parliamentary scrutiny.[24] As a consequence, most Orders in Council operate on statutory footing as opposed to the common law authorities conferred by the royal prerogative.[25]
Consider for approval Orders of Council concerning various matters of state, namely appointments to and regulation of professional bodies and institutions of higher education. Unlike Orders in Council which are enacted by the sovereign on the advice of the Privy Council, Orders of Council are enacted by the Privy Council itself pursuant to statutory authority conferred by Parliament.[26][27][28]
As a member of the Privy Council's Committee for the Affairs of Jersey and Guernsey, review laws passed by the bailiwicks of Jersey and Guernsey, and make recommendations to the sovereign concerning their approval.[29][30]
Visitorial functions
In addition to his or her routine functions, the lord president also serves as the visitor for several English universities, including:[31]
^"Privy Council: Guide to its origins, powers and members". BBC News. 8 October 2015. Retrieved 1 January 2018. The body convenes, on average, about once a month and its meetings – known as councils – are presided over by The Queen.
^Fryde, E. B. (1986) [1941]. Handbook of British Chronology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
^An Act that the President of the King's Counsel shall be associate with the Chancellor and Treasurer of England, and the Keeper of the King's Privy Seal.
^Viscount Samuel (18 May 1954). "Her Majesty's Return". Parliamentary Debates (Hansard). Vol. 187. House of Lords. col. 645. ... there has been constitutional work done, there have been acts of State: ... meetings of the Privy Council, an organ of the Constitution older than Parliament itself, for wherever the Sovereign is, and three Privy Counsellors are present, there may be meetings of the Council and Orders passed. So, during this tour there have been sessions of the Privy Council in Australia, in New Zealand and in Ceylon, with their own local Privy Council members – members of the one single Imperial Privy Council, but their own local members.
^Cox, Noel (1998–1999). "The Dichotomy of Legal Theory and Political Reality: The Honours Prerogative and Imperial Unity". Australian Journal of Law and Society. 1 (14): 15–42. Retrieved 19 November 2011. The Queen has in fact regularly presided over meetings of the Privy Council in New Zealand, since her first in 1954. That was the first held by the Sovereign outside the United Kingdom, although in 1920 Edward Prince of Wales held a Council in Wellington to swear in the Earl of Liverpool as Governor-General.
^Kumarasingham, Harshan (2010). Onward with Executive Power: Lessons from New Zealand 1947–57(PDF). Wellington, New Zealand: Institute of Policy Studies, Victoria University of Wellington. p. 71. ISBN978-1-877347-37-5. Archived from the original(PDF) on 11 January 2012. Retrieved 19 November 2011. The Queen held a meeting of the Privy Council [on 13 January 1954] at the 'Court at Government House at Wellington' with her New Zealand prime minister as 'acting Lord President' of the council. The deputy prime minister, Keith Holyoake, 'secured for himself a place in constitutional history by becoming the first member to be sworn of Her Majesty's Council outside the United Kingdom'.
1 Office is either vested in the Crown, or vacant. Status is currently debated. 2 There is debate around whether these offices constitute Officers of the Crown.
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