Parliament Acts 1911 and 1949

Background The 1911 act was a reaction to the clash between the Liberal government and the House of Lords, culminating in the so-called "People's Budget" of 1909. In this Budget, the Chancellor of the Exchequer David Lloyd George proposed the introduction of a land tax based on the ideas of the American tax reformer Henry George. This new tax would have had a major effect on large landowners, and was opposed by the Conservative opposition, many of whom were large landowners themselves. The Conservatives believed that money should be raised through the introduction of tariffs on imports, which they claimed would help British industry. Contrary to British constitutional convention, the Conservatives used their large majority in the Lords to vote down the Budget. The Liberals made reducing the power of the Lords an important issue of the January 1910 general election. The Liberals returned in a hung parliament after the election: their call for action against the Lords had energised believers in hereditary principle to vote for the Conservatives, but had failed to generate much interest with the rest of the voting public. The Liberals formed a minority government with the support of the Labour and Irish nationalist MPs. The Lords subsequently accepted the Budget. However, as a result of the dispute over the Budget, the new government introduced resolutions (that would later form the Parliament Bill) to limit the power of the Lords. The Prime Minister, H. H. Asquith, asked King Edward VII to create sufficient new Liberal peers to pass the Bill if the Lords rejected it. The king said he would not be willing to do so unless Asquith obtained a clear mandate for such sweeping change by winning a second general election. The Lords voted this 1910 bill down. Edward VII had died in May 1910, but his son George V agreed to grant Asquith a second general election in December 1910 (this also resulted in a minority government), and at the time he agreed that, if necessary, he would create hundreds of new Liberal peers to neutralise the Conservative majority in the Lords. The Conservative Lords then backed down, and on 10 August 1911, the House of Lords passed the Parliament Act by a narrow 131–114 vote, with the support of some two dozen Conservative peers and eleven of thirteen Lords Spiritual. The Parliament Act was intended as a temporary measure. The preamble states: One of the reasons for the Irish Parliamentary Party MPs' support for the Parliament Act, and the bitterness of the Unionist resistance, was that the loss of the Lords' veto would make possible Irish Home Rule (i.e. a devolved legislature). The previous Liberal government's attempt to initiate Irish Home Rule had been vetoed by the House of Lords in 1893: at the time of his retirement in 1894, William Ewart Gladstone had not attracted sufficient support from his colleagues for a battle with the House of Lords. The Parliament Act resulted in the eventual enactment of the Irish Home Rule Government of Ireland Act 1914. Provisions The act abolished any power of the House of Lords to veto any public bill introduced in the House of Commons other than a bill containing any provision to extend the maximum duration of Parliament beyond five years or a bill for confirming a provisional order. The Act does not affect Bills introduced in the House of Lords, The effect of the act is that the House of Lords can delay those bills that it could formerly veto. If they have been sent up to the House of Lords at least one month before the end of the session, money bills can be delayed for up to one month after being sent up, and other bills can be delayed for up to one year after being sent up. The period for which bills other than money bills could be delayed was originally two years. Section 1(2) defines the expression "money bill". Section 1(3) provides: Section 2: Restriction of the powers of the House of Lords as to bills other than money bills This section originally provided that a bill to which this section applied which was rejected by the House of Lords would be presented for royal assent if it was passed by the Commons in three successive sessions, provided that two years had elapsed between second reading of the bill and its final passing in the Commons, notwithstanding that the Lords had not consented to the bill. Section 1 of the Parliament Act 1949 provides that the Parliament Act 1911 has effect, and is deemed to have had effect from the beginning of the session in which the bill for the Parliament Act 1949 originated (save as regards that bill itself), as though sections 2(1) and (4), of Parliament Act 1911, read as they are printed in the following revised text of section 2 of that act: The words in square brackets are those substituted by section 1 of the Parliament Act 1949. Before it was repealed in 1986, the proviso to section 1 of the Parliament Act 1949 read: This proviso provided for the application of the Parliament Act 1911 to any bill rejected for the second time by the House of Lords before royal assent was given to the Parliament Act 1949 on 16 December 1949. In a report dated 27 September 1985, the Law Commission and the Scottish Law Commission said that this proviso had never been invoked and was, by that date, incapable of being invoked. They recommended that it be repealed. Section 6: Saving for existing rights and privileges of the House of Commons This section provides: The prime minister, H. H. Asquith, said of the clause that became this section: Section 7: Duration of Parliament This section amended the Septennial Act 1715, reducing the maximum duration of any parliament from seven years to five. The President of the Board of Education, Walter Runciman, said: This section was repealed by the Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011 for the United Kingdom on 15 September 2011, when parliament was given a fixed five-year term. Repeal in Ireland This act was repealed for the Republic of Ireland on 16 May 1983 by section 1 of, and Part IV of the Schedule to, the Statute Law Revision Act 1983 (No.11). == Parliament Act 1949 ==

Immediately after the Second World War, the Labour government of Clement Attlee decided to amend the 1911 act to reduce further the power of the Lords, as a result of their fears that their radical programme of nationalisation would be delayed by the Lords and hence would not be completed within the life of the parliament. The House of Lords did not interfere with nationalisations in 1945 or 1946, but it was feared that the proposed nationalisation of the iron and steel industry would be a bridge too far, so a bill was introduced in 1947 to reduce the time that the Lords could delay bills, from three sessions over two years to two sessions over one year. Since the 1911 act required a delay over three "sessions", a special short "session" of Parliament was introduced in 1948, with a King's Speech on 14 September 1948, and prorogation on 25 October. In every bill presented to the sovereign under sections 1 to 3 of the Parliament Act 1911 (as amended) the words of enactment are: The usual enacting formula, used on other acts, also refers to the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and omits the reference to the Parliament Acts. ==Use of the Parliament Acts==

The original form of the 1911 act was used three times. on the same day as the Suspensory Act 1914, which meant that neither would come into force until after the War. After the Labour government came to power in 1997, there was repeated speculation that it would rely on the Parliament Acts to reverse a check from the Lords, but it did not prove necessary. The Parliament Acts were not required to enact, for example, the Criminal Justice (Mode of Trial) (No 2) Bill in 2000 The Hunting Bill was mentioned in the Labour Party manifesto for the 2001 general election, so, depending upon how the convention is interpreted, the attempt to block it could be taken as a breach. However, as conventions are merely convention and not law, the House of Lords would not be taking illegal action if they were to act otherwise. The Government of Ireland Act 1914 was repealed in entirety by the Government of Ireland Act 1920, the European Parliamentary Elections Act 1999 was repealed in entirety by the European Parliamentary Elections Act 2002 and most provisions of the Sexual Offences (Amendment) Act 2000 were repealed by the Sexual Offences Act 2003. While the War Crimes Act 1991 remains in force, to date only Anthony Sawoniuk has been convicted under it. The threat of the Parliament Acts has been employed by several British governments to force the Lords to accept its legislation. In at least three cases, the procedure authorised by the Parliament Act 1911, or by the Parliament Acts 1911 and 1949, was started, but the legislation was approved by the House of Lords as a result of the government making concessions. These were: • Temperance (Scotland) Act 1913, which allowed the voters in a district to hold a poll to vote on whether their district went "dry" or remained "wet". • Trade Union and Labour Relations (Amendment) Act 1976, which amended the Trade Union and Labour Relations Act 1974 to reverse changes made to that Act as it passed through Parliament. • Aircraft and Shipbuilding Industries Act 1977, which nationalised large parts of the UK aerospace and shipbuilding industries and established two corporations, British Aerospace and British Shipbuilders. == Validity of the 1949 act ==

Since the 1949 act became law, doubts were raised by some legal academics as to whether the use of the 1911 act to pass the 1949 act, which amended the 1911 Act itself, was valid. Three main concerns were raised: • The continued ability of the House of Lords to veto a bill to prolong the life of Parliament would not be entrenched if the 1911 act could be used to amend itself first, removing this restriction. • The 1949 act could be considered to be secondary legislation, since it depended for its validity on another act, the 1911 act; and the principle that courts will respect an act of Parliament without enquiring into its origins (an emanation of parliamentary sovereignty) would not apply. • Under the 1911 act, Parliament (that is, the Commons and the Lords acting together) delegated its ability to pass legislation to another body (the Commons alone). Following legal principles established when the United Kingdom granted legislative powers to assemblies in its colonies in the late 18th century, a subordinate legislative body cannot use the act under which legislative power was delegated to it to expand its competence without an express power to do so in the enabling act (see Declaratory Act). To address these concerns, a Law Lord, Lord Donaldson of Lymington, presented a private member's bill in House of Lords in the 2000–2001 session of Parliament (the Parliament Acts (Amendment) Bill), which would have had the effect of confirming the legitimacy of the 1949 act, but prohibiting any further such uses of the Parliament Act to amend itself, or use of it to further modify or curtail the powers of the House of Lords. Another Parliament Acts (Amendment) Bill was introduced independently by Lord Renton of Mount Harry in the next session, but neither of these bills proceeded to a third reading. Because a second defendant was successfully prosecuted under the War Crimes Act and sentenced to life imprisonment, and since the War Crimes Act was later amended by both two further acts (the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 and the Criminal Procedure and Investigations Act 1996), which were passed by both Houses and received royal assent, the validity of the War Crimes Act is not under question. In the High Court, the wording of the 1911 act was held not to imply any entrenchment. == Future developments ==

After the "first stage" of reform of the House of Lords was implemented in the House of Lords Act 1999, the Wakeham Royal Commission on the proposal of a "second stage" of reform reported in January 2000. Subsequently, the government decided to take no action to change the legislative relationship between the House of Commons and the House of Lords. (although a compromise of 6 months has also been suggested). The Labour Government made no attempt to enact such changes before the 2010 general election, which Labour lost. In May 2011, Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg announced the Coalition Government's plans to legislate for a mainly elected House of Lords in the House of Lords Reform Bill 2012. In the face of fierce opposition from the overwhelming majority of the Lords, he indicated that he would consider use of the Parliament Act. Ultimately this did not happen, as the bill was withdrawn. ==See also==