Lord Chancellor
The Lord Chancellor, formally titled Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain, is the highest-ranking traditional minister among the Great Officers of State in Scotland[a] and England[b] in the United Kingdom, nominally outranking the prime minister. The lord chancellor is appointed by the sovereign on the advice of the prime minister. Prior to the union of England and Scotland into the Kingdom of Great Britain, there were separate lord chancellors[c] for the Kingdom of England (including Wales) and the Kingdom of Scotland. There were Lord Chancellors of Ireland until 1922.
Not to be confused with Chancellor of the Exchequer. For other uses, see Lord Chancellor (disambiguation).
United Kingdom
Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain
The Right Honourable
(within the UK and Commonwealth)
The Monarch
on the advice of the Prime Minister
- Lord High Chancellor of England
- Lord High Chancellor of Scotland
- 1707 (Great Britain)
- 1066 (England)
The 1st Lord Cowper
as Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain
The lord chancellor is a member of the Cabinet and is, by law, responsible for the efficient functioning and independence of the courts. In 2005, there were a number of changes to the legal system and to the office of the lord chancellor. Formerly, the lord chancellor was also the presiding officer of the House of Lords, the head of the judiciary of England and Wales and the presiding judge of the Chancery Division of the High Court of Justice. The Constitutional Reform Act 2005 transferred these roles to the lord speaker, the lord chief justice and the chancellor of the High Court respectively.
One of the lord chancellor's responsibilities is to act as the custodian of the Great Seal of the Realm, kept historically in the Lord Chancellor's Purse. A Lord Keeper of the Great Seal may be appointed instead of a lord chancellor. The two offices entail exactly the same duties; the only distinction is in the mode of appointment. Furthermore, the office of lord chancellor may be exercised by a committee of individuals known as lords commissioners of the Great Seal,[5] usually when there is a delay between an outgoing chancellor and their replacement. The office is then said to be in commission. Since the 19th century, however, only lord chancellors have been appointed, the other offices having fallen into disuse.
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Lord Chancellor (Tenure of Office and Discharge of Ecclesiastical Functions) Act 1974
An Act to declare the law relating to the tenure of the office of Lord Chancellor by Roman Catholics and to make provision for the exercise of ecclesiastical functions during any tenure of the office of Lord Chancellor by Roman Catholics.
1974 c. 25
9 July 1974
Functions[edit]
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Former functions[edit]
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Executive functions[edit]
The lord chancellor is a member of the Privy Council and of the Cabinet. The ministerial department the lord chancellor heads was known as the Lord Chancellor's Office between 1885 and 1971, and the Lord Chancellor's Department between 1971 and 2003. In 2003 the department was renamed the Department for Constitutional Affairs, and the lord chancellor was appointed Secretary of State for Constitutional Affairs. In 2007 this post was renamed Secretary of State for Justice, and the department became the Ministry of Justice.
By law, the lord chancellor is the minister of the Crown responsible for the administration of the courts and legal aid in England and Wales.[12] In their capacity as secretary of state for justice, the lord chancellor also administers the prison system and probation services in England and Wales.[13][14] It is for the lord chancellor to recommend the appointment of judges to English, Welsh, and UK-wide courts of law and tribunals. Since 2005, senior judges – i.e. Justices of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom, Lords Justices of Appeal and the heads of the divisions of the High Court – are appointed by the sovereign on the advice of the lord chancellor, who in turn consults an independent Judicial Appointments Commission. Since 2013, all other English and Welsh judges and judicial officers are also appointed by the sovereign on the advice of the lord chancellor in consultation with the Judicial Appointments Commission.[15][16][17][18] The lord chancellor's discretion over judicial appointments is limited by the Constitutional Reform Act 2005 and the Crime and Courts Act 2013. Nevertheless, when consulting the Judicial Appointments Commission, the lord chancellor may prescribe the scope for judicial nominations and choose to either accept or reject its recommendations. Similarly the lord chancellor no longer determines which barristers are to be raised to the rank of King's Counsel. Instead, the lord chancellor supervises the process of selection by an independent panel – to assure appointments comply with the principles of due process, fairness, and efficiency – and advises the sovereign to appoint nominees.[19] In addition, the lord chancellor officiates a ceremony in Westminster Abbey at the beginning of the legal year in front of all the judges. The ceremony is followed by a reception known as the lord chancellor's breakfast which is held in Westminster Hall.
Separately, custody of the Great Seal of the Realm is entrusted to the lord chancellor, as has been the case for nearly a thousand years; this was confirmed by the Great Seal Act 1884 and reaffirmed by the Constitutional Reform Act 2005.[20][21] Documents to which the Great Seal is affixed include letters patent, writs of summmons, writs of election, royal warrants, royal charters and royal proclamations, among many other instruments. The actual sealing of documents is performed by order of the lord chancellor under the supervision of the permanent secretary of the Ministry of Justice, who holds the separate statutory post of Clerk of the Crown in Chancery and is thus head of the Crown Office. The lord chancellor is not keeper of the Great Seal of Scotland, the Great Seal of Northern Ireland, or the Welsh Seal. Rather, the First Minister of Scotland, the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, and the First Minister of Wales are the lawful custodians.
Legislative functions[edit]
Whenever the sovereign appoints lords commissioners to perform certain actions on his or her behalf (for example, to formally declare in Parliament that the royal assent has been granted, or to prorogue or dissolve Parliament), the lord chancellor usually serves as the principal or senior lord commissioner. The other lords commissioners, by convention, are members of the House of Lords who are privy counsellors (generally the leaders of the three main parties and the convenor of the crossbenches). In this role the lord chancellor wears parliamentary robes—a full-length scarlet wool gown decorated with miniver fur. The lord chancellor wears a tricorne hat, but the other lords commissioners wear bicorne hats. During the period that Jack Straw, an MP, was lord chancellor, he was officially named as one of the lords commissioners, but did not take part in the formal ceremonies of granting royal assent and proroguing Parliament. The Lord Speaker has been appointed a lord commissioner and does take part in the ceremonies. The role of principal lord commissioner during this period has been taken by the leader of the House of Lords. There is an exception: when John Bercow was presented for royal approbation for the office of speaker of the House of Commons in 2009, and again when Bercow's successor Sir Lindsay Hoyle was presented for approbation in 2019,[22] the lord chancellor (Straw and Buckland, respectively) were the principal lord commissioner, and the lord speaker was not in the commission. This precedent has continued since then. It is unclear how these arrangements would change if a future lord chancellor were appointed from the House of Lords.
Ecclesiastical functions[edit]
The lord chancellor performs various functions relating to the established Church of England. By law, the lord chancellor must be consulted before appointments may be made to ecclesiastical courts. Indeed, judges of Consistory Courts, the Arches Court of Canterbury, the Chancery Court of York and the Court of Ecclesiastical Causes Reserved are appointed only after consultation with the lord chancellor.[23] Additionally the lord chancellor is, ex officio, one of the thirty-three Church Commissioners, who manage the assets of the Church of England.[24] Moreover, the lord chancellor appoints clergy in such of the ecclesiastical livings under the patronage of the Crown as are officially listed as being worth less than £20 per annum. Lord chancellors exercise the same prerogative in regard to the less valuable livings in the Duchy of Cornwall when there is no duke of Cornwall, or when the duke of Cornwall is a minor. (The heir-apparent to the Crown, if he is the sovereign's eldest son, is automatically duke of Cornwall.) Finally, the lord chancellor is in some cases the patron of an ecclesiastical living in his own right. In total, the lord chancellor appoints clergymen in over four hundred parishes and ten cathedral canonries.[25][26]
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Head of the judiciary[edit]
The lord chancellor performed several different roles as head of the English and Welsh judiciary. He sat as a judge in the Appellate Committee of the House of Lords (the highest domestic court in the United Kingdom), and was a member of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council (the senior tribunal of the British Empire (except for the United Kingdom) and, latterly, parts of the Commonwealth). He was the president of the Supreme Court of England and Wales, and therefore supervised the Court of Appeal of England and Wales, the High Court of Justice of England and Wales and the Crown Court of England and Wales. He was also, ex officio, a judge in the Court of Appeal and the president of the Chancery Division. In modern times, these judicial functions were exercised very sparingly. The functions in relation to the House of Lords and the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council were usually delegated to the senior lord of appeal in ordinary. The task of presiding over the Chancery Division was delegated to the vice-chancellor, a senior judge (now known as the chancellor of the High Court). Most lord chancellors by the end of the twentieth century gave judgments only in cases reaching the House of Lords. The last lord chancellor to preside as a judge was Lord Irvine of Lairg (in office 1997–2003), who did so as a member of the Appellate Committee of the House of Lords. However, concerns were already being expressed, including by the judiciary, at the propriety of a cabinet minister sitting as a professional judge, and his successor, Lord Falconer, never performed such a role, even before his right to do so was abolished.
When peers had the right to be tried for felonies or for high treason by other peers in the House of Lords (instead of commoners on juries), the lord high steward, instead of the lord chancellor, would preside. This also occurred in impeachment trials. The office of lord high steward has generally remained vacant since 1421. Whenever a peer was to be tried in the House of Lords, a lord high steward would be appointed pro hac vice [for this occasion]. In many cases, the lord chancellor would merely be elevated to the office of lord high steward temporarily. Trials of peers in the House of Lords were abolished in 1948, and impeachment is considered obsolete, so this is unlikely to occur again.
The judicial functions of the lord chancellor (as opposed to his role in the administration of the court system) were removed by the Constitutional Reform Act 2005.
Presiding officer in House of Lords[edit]
The lord chancellor used to be the presiding officer of the House of Lords by right of prescription. The Constitutional Reform Act 2005 removed this function, leaving the choice of a presiding officer to the House of Lords itself. Ultimately, the Lords chose to elect a Lord Speaker of the House of Lords, which title was already used in the Standing Orders.
Precedence and privileges[edit]
The lord high chancellor outranks all other great officers of state with the exception of the lord high steward, which has generally been vacant since the 15th century. Under modern conventions, the office of lord high steward is only filled on the day of a new monarch's coronation; thus, at all other times, the lord chancellor remains the highest ranking great officer. The importance of the office is reflected by the Treason Act 1351, which makes it high treason to slay the lord chancellor. A lord high treasurer would be entitled to the same protection—but the office is now held in commission—as would a judge whilst actually in court, determining a case.
The lord chancellor's position in the modern order of precedence is an extremely high one, generally being outranked only by the royal family and high ecclesiastics. In England, the lord chancellor precedes all non-royal individuals except the archbishop of Canterbury. In Scotland, they precede all non-royal individuals except the lord high commissioner to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland. Although lord chancellor "of Great Britain", they maintain a position in the order of precedence in Northern Ireland; there, they outrank all non-royal individuals with the exception of the Anglican and Roman Catholic archbishops of Armagh, the Anglican and Roman Catholic archbishops of Dublin and the moderator of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland. Throughout the United Kingdom, the lord chancellor technically outranks the prime minister, although the latter generally possesses more power. The precedence of a lord keeper of the Great Seal is equivalent to that of a lord chancellor. The precedence of lords commissioners of the Great Seal is much lower (see United Kingdom order of precedence).
The lord chancellor is entitled to an annual emolument of £227,736 and to an annual pension of £106,868. The lord chancellor's salary is higher than that of any other public official, including even the prime minister, although sometimes the officeholder may voluntarily decide to receive a reduced salary (recent holders have taken the salary of a secretary of state).
Fictional depictions[edit]
A fictional depiction of a lord chancellor occurs in Iolanthe, the frequently-revived comic opera by W. S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan.[35][36][37] The lord chancellor is the central character in the work but is identified only by his title.
William Rehnquist, late Chief Justice of the United States, was inspired to add four golden stripes to the sleeves of his judicial robes after seeing the costume of the lord chancellor in a production of Iolanthe. The current chief justice, John Roberts, has not continued the practice.
A fictional lord chancellor also appears in Charles Dickens' novel Bleak House (also identified only by title), presiding over the interminable chancery case of Jarndyce and Jarndyce.
Anthony Trollope's Palliser novels feature a number of references to fictitious lord chancellors. The Liberal Lord Weazeling holds the office in the Liberal governments of Mildmay and Gresham in Phineas Finn and Phineas Redux; the Conservative Lord Ramsden holds the position in the Duke of Omnium's coalition government in The Prime Minister. In Gresham's final government at the end of The Prime Minister, the former Liberal Attorney General, Sir Gregory Grogram, is finally given the position, which he had desired for some time.
"King Hilary and the Beggarman", a children's poem by A. A. Milne, relates the story of a fictional lord high chancellor, "Proud Lord Willoughby", who is dismissed for refusing to obey his king.
In David Gurr's thriller A Woman Called Scylla, set in 1977, the main villain is an utterly ruthless and unscrupulous lord chancellor, who grossly abuses his many functions and powers in order to cover up his treason during the Second World War and as a stepping stone towards becoming prime minister. As the writer clearly states, this was not intended to refer to the actual holder of the office at the time of writing or at any other time.
The Lord Chancellor is portrayed by Preston Lockwood in “Rumpole and the Tap End” episode of the Rumpole of the Bailey TV series. He is shown making himself a necklace/chain of office from coloured paper clips, whilst reprimanding Judge Featherstone.
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