Royal prerogative

22.16Questions may be asked of Ministers who are among the confidential advisers of the Crown regarding matters relating to those public duties for which the Sovereign is responsible. It has been ruled that the Prime Minister cannot be interrogated as to the advice that they may have given to the Sovereign with regard to the grant of honours,1 the ecclesiastical patronage of the Crown,2 the appointment and dismissal of Privy Counsellors,3 or, in certain circumstances, the exercise of the prerogative of mercy.4

Footnotes

  1. 1. Parl Deb (1907) 178, c 61; ibid (1908) 190, c 1338; HC Deb (1922) 155, c 1842.
  2. 2. Speaker's private ruling, 9 March 1923.
  3. 3. Speaker's private ruling, 24 June 1926.
  4. 4. For the previous practice with regard to questions relating to capital sentences, see Erskine May (22nd edn, 1997), p 298, fn 9.