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Privy Council (United Kingdom)

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In English law and politics, Her Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council originated as a council of personal advisers to the Monarch.

Role

Today the functions of the Privy Council are largely but not exclusively ceremonial.

The Privy Council exercises judicial authority through the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, which functions as one of the highest courts in the United Kingdom (on the same level as the House of Lords, though with very limited scope), and also acts as the highest court for several other countries around the world which still provide for appeals to Her Majesty in Council.

The Privy Council exercises executive authority through the means of Orders in Council, a type of Statutory Instrument. In theory, these are made by the Monarch after consulting the Council; in practice, however, they originate with government ministers, the Monarch and the Privy Council being a mere rubberstamp, with Privy Council meetings involving the assembly of the Monarch and a few Privy Counsellors in whatever Royal Residence the monarch is at that time residing in. The Lord President of the Council reads out a list of Orders-in-Council. After a number, the Queen says simply 'Agreed', validating the Orders. Some Privy Council meetings run for as short as five minutes; meetings are rarely long since they are held standing up. Technically, the British cabinet is a committee of the Privy Council, hence the appointment of new cabinet ministers to the Council. Administrative services for the Privy Council are carried out by the Privy Council Office.

The Privy Council is also responsible for issuing and amending Royal Charters. This includes the granting of degree-awarding powers and university status to higher education institutions, on the recommendation of the Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education.

Full meetings of the Privy Council occur only on the death of a monarch and the accession of a new monarch, when the Council issues a proclamation of the accession and announces the name of the new Sovereign.

Membership

Membership is for life, although a person can be removed by the Sovereign from the Privy Council. There are currently over 500 members. Various groups are invariably appointed to the Council. These include:

  • Senior members of the Royal Family
  • All members of the Cabinet, and some senior ministers outside the Cabinet
  • Law Lords and judges of the Courts of Appeal of England and Wales, Northern Ireland, and New Zealand
  • The Lord President of the Court of Session (who also holds the post of Lord Justice-General of the High Court of Justiciary), and some other senior members of the Scottish judiciary
  • The Archbishops of Canterbury and York, and incumbents of the more important sees, e.g. London
  • The Leader of the Opposition and other leaders of recognised parties (i.e., those with sufficient MPs to be recognised as a unit for parliamentary speaking time)

Current Privy Counsellors include:

For a full list of Privy Councilors, see List of members of the Privy Council.

As Privy Counsellors, they are styled "The Right Honourable" (or "The Rt Hon.") and have priority speaking status in parliament. (It should be noted that some people who are not Privy Counsellors may also be known as "The Right Honourable" as a result of their offices, e.g. Earls, Viscounts, Barons, the Prime Minister and Chief Justice of Canada, and Lords Mayors and Lord Provosts of some of the major cities in Great Britain, Ireland and Australia.)

Generally, the post-nominal "PC" is not appended to the name - "Right Honourable" being sufficient identification as a Privy Counsellor - unless the individual in question is a peer, who are already Right Honourable, if not higher.

In addition, although the Privy Council is a United Kingdom institution, the prime ministers and one or two ministers of some Commonwealth countries, most notably New Zealand, are always appointed to the Privy Council. Canada has its own Privy Council and Australia ceased to recommend Privy Counsellors in the 1980s.

Membership of the Privy Council also enables senior opposition figures to get confidential briefings on matters of major public concern or security.

The Lord President of the Council functions as Visitor to several English universities, and as such can hear appeals from students against the university authorities. The Lord President is a Government minister, usually in recent years the Leader of the House of Commons; however, from July 2003 the Lord President was the Leader of the House of Lords.

Other Privy Councils Around the World

Other countries have or have had privy councils. Denmark's and Norway's Privy Councils still function as part of the constitutional structures of the two kingdoms. Sweden's Privy Council, in contrast, was abolished as part of the reorganisation of the structures of government in the 1974 Instrument of Government (i.e., constitution dealing with the structures of government.) Ireland's Privy Council ceased to exist when the Irish Free State came into existence in 1922. The Privy Council of Northern Ireland, which succeeded it, went into abeyance upon the dissolution of the Parliament of Northern Ireland and the imposition of direct rule.

See Also

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