Published 13:33 IST, February 9th 2021
UK Royals vetted laws 'secretly' before country's elected members of parliament: Report
More than 1,000 laws have been vetted by Queen Elizabeth II or Prince Charles through a secretive procedure even before they were approved by the parliament.
More than 1,000 laws have been vetted by Queen Elizabeth II or Prince Charles through a secretive procedure even before they were approved by the UK’s selected members of the parliament, reported the Guardian citing documents from the National Archives. The significant number of laws subject to the royal vetting cover a range of issues. Reportedly, it included justice, social security, pensions, race relations, food policy, rules on car parking charges and hovercraft.
The media outlet compiled a database of at least 1,062 parliamentary bills that have been subjected to the consent of the UK monarch that mainly included the draft laws that affected Queen’s personal property such as her private estates in Balmoral and Sandringham. As per the documents, the Royal vetted laws since the beginning of Elizabeth II’s reign through the present day.
The paper even noted that the database uncovered by its investigation illustrates that the opaque procedure of ‘Queen’s consent’ has been exercised ‘far more extensively’ than previously perceived. Under the secretive procedure, the British lawmakers privately notify the UK monarch of clauses in draft parliamentary bills, seeking her consent to debate them on House of Commons floor.
'Queen pressurised UK govt to conceal private wealth'
The UK and Commonwealth Head of State, Queen Elizabeth II lobbied the British government to change a draft law in the order to conceal her “embarrassing” private wealth from the public, reported The Guardian previously. Following the uncovering of a series of government memos in the National Archives, it has been reportedly revealed that Elizabeth Windsor’s private lawyer, Matthew Farrer pressurised the UK ministers to alter proposed legislation to prevent her shareholdings from being disclosed to the public.
After the UK monarch was intervented, the government inserted a clause into the law granting itself the authority to exempt the companies used by the “heads of state” from new transparency measures. The newspaper reportedly maintained that the Queen’s consent, an archaic procedure of seeking a go-ahead from the sovereign before legislation is passed in its final reading acted as a hurdle for the law.
Updated 13:33 IST, February 9th 2021