Opening by Queen in person

8.32When the Queen meets Parliament in person, she proceeds in state1 to the House of Lords, where, seated on the Throne, adorned with her crown and regal ornaments, and attended by her officers of State (all the Lords being in their robes, and standing until Her Majesty commands them to be seated), she commands Black Rod, through the Lord Great Chamberlain, to let the Commons know ‘it is Her Majesty's pleasure they attend her immediately, in this House.’ Black Rod goes at once to the door of the House of Commons, and strikes it three times with their rod. On being admitted, Black Rod advances up the middle of the House towards the Table, making two obeisances to the Chair, and says, ‘Mr Speaker, the Queen commands this honourable House to attend Her Majesty immediately in the House of Peers’. The Speaker, accompanied by the Clerk and followed by Members of the House, immediately goes up to the Bar of the House of Lords; upon which the Queen reads her speech to both Houses of Parliament, from a printed copy, which is delivered into her hands by the Lord Chancellor, kneeling upon one knee.2

When the speech has been delivered, the House of Lords is adjourned during pleasure. The Commons retire and, returning to their own House, pass through it, the Mace being placed upon the Table by the Serjeant, and the House reassembles at 2.30 pm.3

Footnotes

  1. 1. Between 1917 and 1919 and between 1939 and 1948 Parliament was opened by the Sovereign with less than the customary ceremony, a course followed in special circumstances in March 1974, when the Queen interrupted a foreign tour at short notice to open Parliament in person, and in June 2017 following the earlier than expected General Election.
  2. 2. There are also precedents, followed for many years by Queen Victoria and throughout his reign by George I, for the speech to be read by the Lord Chancellor in the presence and under the personal direction of the Sovereign. See eg LJ (1509–77) 3; ibid (1578–1614) 357; ibid (1620–28) 435, 470; ibid (1714–18) 22, etc. In the absence of the Lord Chancellor in 1927 and 1936 the speech was delivered for the King by Earl Balfour and Viscount Halifax respectively.
  3. 3. At 2.15 pm in the first session of a Parliament to permit Members to be sworn before the resumption of business at 2.30 pm.