The Privy Council. Historically the Privy Council was the name given to the group of ministers who acted as chief advisers to the King or Queen

Historically the Privy Council was the name given to the group of ministers who acted as chief advisers to the King or Queen. As the power of the monarch declined, the Cabinet replaced the Privy Council as the senior decision-making body.

Today the Privy Council’s duties are largely formal and ceremonial. It has about three hundred members, including all Cabinet members (past and present), the leaders of all the main parties, and the Speaker. Its formal tasks include advising the monarch on a range of matters, like the resolution of constitutional issues and the approval of Orders in Council, such as the granting of Royal Charters to public bodies. The most important task of the Privy Council today is performed by its Judicial Committee. This serves as the final court of appeal from the dependencies and Commonwealth countries. It may also act as an arbiter for a wide range of courts and committees in Britain and overseas, and its rulings can be influential. The office of Privy Councillor is an honorary one, conferred, for example, on former Prime Ministers. In the House of Commons a Privy Councillor will take precedence over a normal MP when the Speaker calls MPs to speak, and may speak for longer.

Membership of the Council, which is retained for life, except for very occasional removals, is granted by the Sovereign, on the recommendation of the Prime Minister, to people eminent in public life in Britain and the independent monarchies of the Commonwealth. Cabinet ministers must be Privy Counsellors and, if not already members, are admitted to membership before taking their oath of office at a meeting of the Council. 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.

(1800)

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