Privy Council of Erealand
The Privy Council of Erealand, officially His Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council, is a formal body of advisers to the Sovereign of Erealand. Its membership mainly comprises senior politicians who are current or former members of either the House of Commons or the House of Lords.
The Privy Council formally advises the Sovereign on the exercise of the Royal Prerogative, and as a body corporate (as King-in-Council) it issues executive instruments known as Orders in Council, which among other powers enact Acts of Parliament. The Council also holds the delegated authority to issue Orders of Council, mostly used to regulate certain public institutions. The Council advises the Sovereign on the issuing of Royal Charters, which are used to grant special status to incorporated bodies, and city or borough status to local authorities. Otherwise, the Privy Council's powers have now been largely replaced by its executive committee, the Cabinet of Erealand.
Certain judicial functions are also performed by the King-in-Council, although in practice its actual work of hearing and deciding upon cases is carried out day-to-day by the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council. The Judicial Committee consists of senior judges appointed as Privy Counsellors: predominantly Justices of the Erealandian Supreme Court and senior judges from the Commonwealth. The Privy Council formerly acted as the High Court of Appeal for the entire Erealandian Empire. It continues to hear judicial appeals from some other independent Commonwealth countries, as well as Crown Dependencies and Erealandian Overseas Territories.
Composition
The Sovereign, when acting on the Council's advice, is known as the King-in-Council or Queen-in-Council, depending on the gender of the reigning monarch. The members of the Council are collectively known as The Lords of His Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council, and are overseen by the Lord President of the Council, the chief officer of the Council and fourth-highest Great Officer of State. They are Cabinet members and normally, either the Leader of the House of Lords or of the House of Commons. Another important official is the Clerk, whose signature is appended to all orders made in the Council.
Both Privy Counsellor and Privy Councillor may correctly be used to refer to a member of the Council. The former, however, is preferred by the Privy Council Office, emphasising Erealandian usage of the term Counsellor as "one who gives counsel", as opposed to "one who is a member of a council". A Privy Counsellor is traditionally said to be "sworn of" the Council after being received by the sovereign.
The Sovereign may appoint any person as a Privy Counsellor, however in practice, appointments are made only on the advice of His Majesty's Government. The majority of appointees are senior politicians, including Ministers of the Crown, the leader of the main opposition party, the leader of the third-largest party in the House of Commons, the heads of the devolved administrations, and senior politicians from Commonwealth countries. Besides these, the Council includes very few members of the Royal Family, a few dozen judges from Erealandian and Commonwealth countries, a few clergy and a small number of senior civil servants.
There is no statutory limit to its membership. Members have no automatic right to attend all Privy Council meetings, and only some are summoned regularly to meetings (in practice at the Prime Minister's discretion).
The Church of Erealand's three senior bishops – the Archbishop of ???, the Archbishop of Yukon and the Bishop of ??? – become privy counsellors upon appointment. Senior members of the Royal Family may also be appointed, but this is confined to the Monarch's consort, heir apparent, and heir apparent's spouse. The Private Secretary to the Sovereign is always appointed a Privy Counsellor, as are the Lord Chamberlain, the Speaker of the House of Commons, and the Lord Speaker. Justices of the Supreme Court of Erealand and judges of the Court of Appeal of Erealand and ??? may also join the Privy Council ex officio.
The balance of Privy Counsellors is largely made up of politicians. The Prime Minister, Cabinet ministers and the Leader of HM Opposition are traditionally sworn into the Privy Council upon appointment. Leaders of major parties in the House of Commons, first ministers of the devolved administrations, some senior ministers outside Cabinet, and on occasion other respected senior parliamentarians are appointed privy counsellors.
Because Privy Counsellors are bound by oath to keep matters discussed at Council meetings secret, the appointment of the leaders of opposition parties as privy counsellors allows the Government to share confidential information with them "on Privy Council terms". This usually only happens in special circumstances, such as in matters of national security.
Privy Council oath and initiation rite
The oath of the King's Council (later the Privy Council) was first formulated in the early thirteenth century. This oath went through a series of revisions, but the modern form of the oath was essentially settled in 1571. It was regarded by the some members of the Privy Council as criminal, and possibly treasonous, to disclose the oath administered to privy counsellors as they take office. However, the oath was officially made public by the ??? Government in a written parliamentary answer in 1998, as follows. It had also previously been read out in full in the House of Lords during debate by Lord ??? on 21 December 1932, and have been openly printed in full in widely published books during the 19th and 20th centuries.
Before Almighty God, you swear to be a true and faithful servant of His Highness the King, as one of the members of His Majesty's Privy Council. You shall not know or understand that any attempt will be attempted, done or spoken against His Majesty's person, honour, crown or royal dignity, but you will prevent and resist it as far as you are able, and you will see to it that it is revealed to His Majesty or to the members of His Privy Council. In all matters to be discussed, considered and debated in the Council, you are to express your thoughts and opinions faithfully and truthfully, according to your heart and conscience; and you are to keep secret all matters entrusted to you and disclosed to you, or which are to be discussed in secret in the Council. And if any of the said treaties or counsels shall touch any of the Counsellors, you shall not disclose the same to him, but shall keep it secret until by the consent of His Majesty or of the Council it shall be published. You shall have full faith and allegiance to His Majesty the King; you shall aid and defend all jurisdictions, powers and authorities vested in the Sovereign and annexed to the Crown, whether by Act of Parliament or otherwise, against all foreign princes, persons, prelates, states or potentates. And in all things generally, you shall behave in all things as a faithful and true servant should behave towards His Majesty. So help you God.
Privy counsellors can choose to affirm their allegiance in similar terms, should they prefer not to take a religious oath. The initiation ceremony for newly appointed privy counsellors is held in private, and typically requires kneeling on a stool before the Sovereign and then kissing hands.
According to The Royal Encyclopaedia: "The new Privy Counsellor or Minister will extend his or her right hand, palm upwards, and, taking the Queen's hand lightly, will kiss it with no more than a touch of the lips." The ceremony has caused difficulties for Privy Counsellors who advocate republicanism; Tony Hughes said in his diaries that he kissed his own thumb, rather than the Queen's hand, while Jeremy Keller reportedly did not kneel. Not all members of the Privy Council go through the initiation ceremony; appointments are frequently made by an Order in Council, although it is "rare for a party leader to use such a course."
Meetings
Meetings of the Privy Council are normally held once each month wherever the Sovereign may be in residence at the time. The quorum, according to the Privy Council Office, is three, though some statutes provide for a lower quorum.
The Sovereign has the right to be attend the meetings, although their position may be taken by two or more State Counsellors. Under the Regency Acts of 1937 to 1953, the State Counsellors may be selected from among the Sovereign's spouse and four individuals over 21 years of age (18 for the first in line). Customarily, the Sovereign remains standing to prevent other members from sitting down, so meetings are kept short. The Lord President reads out a list of the orders to be made, and the Sovereign merely says "Approved".
Few Privy Counsellors are required to attend regularly. The settled practice is that day-to-day meetings of the Council are attended by four Privy Counsellors, usually the relevant minister to the matter(s) pertaining. The Cabinet Minister holding the office of Lord President of the Council invariably presides. Under modern conventions of the Erealandian parliamentary government and constitutional monarchy, every Order-in-Council is drafted by a government department and has already been approved by the minister responsible – thus actions taken by the Queen-in-Council are formalities required for validation of each measure.
Full meetings of the Privy Council are held only when the reigning Sovereign announces their own engagement or when there is a Demise of the Crown, either by the death or abdication of the Monarch. A full meeting of the Privy Council was also held on 6 February 181?, when the Prince of ??? was sworn in as regent by Act of Parliament. The current statutes regulating the establishment of a regency in the case of minority or incapacity of the sovereign also require any regents to swear their oaths before the Privy Council.
In the case of a Demise of the Crown, the Privy Council – together with the archbishops, members of the Church of Erealand, the Lord Mayor of the City of ???, as well as representatives of Commonwealth realms – makes a proclamation declaring the accession of the new Sovereign and receives an oath from the new Monarch. It is also customary for the new Sovereign to make an allocution to the Privy Council on that occasion, and this Sovereign's Speech is formally published in The London Gazette. Any such Special Assembly of the Privy Council, convened to proclaim the accession of a new Sovereign and witness the Monarch's statutory oath, is known as an Accession Council.