Second Report of Session
2007-08 from the Procedure committee
Royal Commissions for Prorogation
1. The Committee has considered a memorandum
from the Lord Chancellor, the Rt Hon Jack Straw, MP, inviting
it to review the role of the Lord Chancellor in Royal Commissions
for Prorogation. The memorandum is annexed to this Report.
2. According to Appendix E of the Companion
to the Standing Orders, a Royal Commission "consists
of three or more (usually five) Commissioners, including the Lord
Chancellor and Lord Speaker". The description of the procedure
at Prorogation in Appendix J of the Companion envisages
the Lord Chancellor presiding over the Royal Commission and reading
the Queen's Speech.
3. However, Standing Order 77, which dates back
to 1621, states that "If Her Majesty is not personally present
to prorogue Parliament at the close of a session, such prorogation
is not to be by Writ, but by Commission directed unto some of
the Lords of the Upper House". The reference to "Lords
of the Upper House" appears to preclude the Lord Chancellor,
when not a Member of the House of Lords, from presiding over the
Royal Commission.
4. The Lord Chancellor therefore invited us to
consider an amendment to the Standing Order, replacing the words
"the Upper House" with the words "Her Majesty's
Privy Council". Mr Straw attended our meeting on 30 June
to present his memorandum in person.
5. In support of his suggestion, the Lord Chancellor
argues that the Standing Order is inappropriate, in seeking to
limit Her Majesty's choice of Commissioners; he points out the
inconsistency between Standing Order 77 and the Companion;
and he notes an apparent inconsistency in the fact that the Standing
Order refers only to Royal Commissions to prorogue Parliament
at the close of a session, not to Royal Commissions on other occasions,
such as at the start of a new Parliament.
6. We do not find these arguments persuasive.
We fully acknowledge that the Standing Order does not and cannot
bind Her Majesty. However, that is as much an argument against
change as for it. While the Standing Order describes the ceremony
of prorogation as it was conceived in the early seventeenth century,
it has proved sufficiently flexible to accommodate almost four
centuries of evolution in the way Prorogation is managed.
7. The most recent stage in this evolution was
the decision in October 2007 that the Lord President, the Leader
of the House, should preside over the Royal Commission for Prorogation
and deliver the Queen's Speech. This was an appropriate response
to the changed circumstances since the passage of the Constitutional
Reform Act 2005, and demonstrated the flexibility inherent in
the procedure set out in the Standing Order.
8. We accept that the Standing Order refers only
to Prorogation, and that there is nothing to prevent non-Members
presiding over Royal Commissions on other occasions, such as the
start of a new Parliament. This flexibility has in fact been useful
in recent times, allowing newly appointed Lord Chancellors, who
had yet to take their titles, to preside at the opening of new
Parliaments in 1974 (Frederick Elwyn Jones) and 1987 (Sir Michael
Havers). It will be for the Government of the day to decide how
best to make use of this flexibility at the opening of future
Parliaments.
9. We therefore recommend no change to Standing
Order 77, and make this Report to the House for information. We
shall ensure that the descriptions of the various types of Royal
Commission contained in the appendices to the Companion
are updated when the next edition is prepared.
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