Freedom of access

12.6The third of the Speaker's petitions is for freedom of access to Her Majesty whenever occasion shall require. This claim is medieval (probably fourteenth century) in origin, and in an earlier form seems to have been sought in respect of the Speaker in person, and to have encompassed also access to the Upper House.1 Even when the four petitions were only hesitantly becoming standard in the mid-sixteenth century, the claim for access seems to have been consistently made. The privilege of freedom of access is exercised by the Commons as a body and through their Speaker. The Commons attends the Queen on summons to the House of Lords, for purposes prescribed by Her Majesty. Out of Parliament, the Commons exercises its right of access for the purpose of presenting Addresses (see paras 9.10 –9.13 ), which may deal with any subject of public policy chosen by the House. Such an Address may be presented by the whole House or, more usually, by such Members as have access to Her Majesty as Privy Counsellors or as members of Her Majesty's Household. On occasion, the House has ordered that the Address be presented by certain specified Members.2

The right of access to Her Majesty is a corporate privilege of the House; it is denied to individual Members,3 so that the Queen receives only the decisions of the House as a whole and cannot take notice of matters pending in the House, still less of debates or the speeches of individual Members.4 Indeed, the Commons has long established the principle that the Sovereign may not, even as a spectator, attend its debates.

The House of Lords, like the Commons, is entitled to access to the Sovereign, as a body, and peers in addition possess the right of access as individuals, as part of the privilege of peerage (see para 12.2 ). No principle exists restricting the Sovereign's attendance at debates in the Lords.5

Footnotes

  1. 1. CJ (1547–1628) 73; D'Ewes 16. Rather surprisingly, the claim for freedom of access was omitted in 1523 by Speaker Sir Thomas More, when he made his well-known request for freedom of speech (see para 12.4 ).
  2. 2. See para 9.12.
  3. 3. The only right claimed and exercised by individual Members in availing themselves of the privilege of access to the Queen is that of entering the presence of royalty, when accompanying the Speaker with Addresses, in their ordinary attire, the privilege entitled them to dispense with the forms and ceremonies of the court.
  4. 4. 3 Rot Parl 456 (1400); CJ (1641–42) 345.
  5. 5. 2 Hatsell 371 n.