Parliament Act 1949
Encyclopedia
The Parliament Act 1949 is an Act
Acts of Parliament in the United Kingdom
An Act of Parliament in the United Kingdom is a type of legislation called primary legislation. These Acts are passed by the Parliament of the United Kingdom at Westminster, or by the Scottish Parliament at Edinburgh....

 of the Parliament of the United Kingdom
Parliament of the United Kingdom
The Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the supreme legislative body in the United Kingdom, British Crown dependencies and British overseas territories, located in London...

.

This Act must be construed
Statutory interpretation
Statutory interpretation is the process by which courts interpret and apply legislation. Some amount of interpretation is always necessary when a case involves a statute. Sometimes the words of a statute have a plain and straightforward meaning. But in many cases, there is some ambiguity or...

 as one with the Parliament Act 1911
Parliament Act 1911
The Parliament Act 1911 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It is constitutionally important and partly governs the relationship between the House of Commons and the House of Lords which make up the Houses of Parliament. This Act must be construed as one with the Parliament Act 1949...

. This Act, and that Act, may be cited
Citation of United Kingdom legislation
This article explains the citation of United Kingdom legislation, including the systems used for legislation passed by devolved parliaments and assemblies, for secondary legislation, and for prerogative instruments...

 together as the Parliament Acts 1911 and 1949
Parliament Acts 1911 and 1949
The Parliament Acts 1911 and 1949 are two Acts of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, which form part of the constitution of the United Kingdom. Section 2 of the Parliament Act 1949 provides that that Act and the Parliament Act 1911 are to be construed as one.The Parliament Act 1911 The...

.

This Act reduced the power of the House of Lords
House of Lords
The House of Lords is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminster....

 to delay certain types of legislation – specifically public bills other than money bills – by amending the Parliament Act 1911.

Parliament Act 1911

The bill was also an attempt to place the relationship between the House of Commons and House of Lords on a new footing.

Other public bills could no longer be veto
Veto
A veto, Latin for "I forbid", is the power of an officer of the state to unilaterally stop an official action, especially enactment of a piece of legislation...

ed; instead, they could be delayed for up to two years. This two year period meant that legislation introduced in the fourth or fifth years of a parliament could be delayed until after the next election, which could prove an effective measure to prevent it being passed. Specifically, two years had to elapse between the second reading in the House of Commons in the first session and the passing of the bill in the House of Commons in the third session.

Result

The 1949 Act effectively reduced this delay to a single year, by altering the wording of the 1911 Act. Section 2 defined the act's short title as the "Parliament Act 1949" and that the Parliament Acts 1911 and 1949 should be construed together under that name, particularly with reference to Section 4 of the 1911 Act, which described the wording used when an act was passed in this method.

Legal challenge

In Jackson v Attorney General
Jackson v Attorney General
Jackson v Attorney General [2005] UKHL 56 was a House of Lords case concerning the legality of the use of the Parliament Acts 1911 and 1949 to pass the Hunting Act to ban fox hunting...

,[2005] UKHL 56, [2005] 4 All ER 1253. the validity of the Parliament Act 1949 was questioned because it used the 1911 Act. The challenge asserted foremost that the 1949 Act was delegated rather than primary legislation, and that the 1911 Act had delegated power to the Commons. If this were the case, then the Commons could not empower itself through the 1949 Act without direct permission from the Lords. Since it was passed under the 1911 Act, it had never received the required consent of the Lords. However, the 1949 Act was found to be legal. The 1911 Act, it was concluded, was not primarily about empowering the Commons, but rather to restrict the ability of the Lords to affect legislation. This ruling also means that efforts to abolish the House of Lords (a major constitutional change) using the Acts could be successful, although the issue was not directly addressed in the ruling.

Citations

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