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The Queen and Prince Charles vetted 1,062 bills before they were passed by parliament

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Updated on March 28, 2021

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According to The Guardian, the government exempted the Queen from a 2006 law aimed at combating animal cruelty, preventing inspectors from visiting her estates.

According to The Guardian, more than 1,000 UK laws were secretly vetted by the Queen or Prince Charles before being ratified by UK members of parliament.

As part of an inquiry into the powers of the Queen’s approval — an ancient legislative formality under which the Queen is secretly informed of draft parliamentary bills concerning the Crown’s interests and asked for consent to discuss them — The Guardian discovered 1,062 laws ranging from matters of justice, food policy, and social security to smaller regulations on road safety and hovercraft.

Her failure to give consent may prohibit the parliament from discussing the legislation in question.

Documents from the United Kingdom’s National Archives showed that the Queen has exercised her powers in the practice to a greater degree than was previously thought.

After her accession to the throne in 1952, the Queen’s agents have refused to tell The Guardian how much she has used her right to consent to request changes to legislation. The role of the sovereign in giving consent is a “longstanding convention and necessity of the parliamentary process,” according to several statements from Buckingham Palace to the Guardian.

The declaration reads, “Consent is routinely sought by the government and agreed by the monarch as a matter of course.”

“Queen’s consent is a parliamentary process, with the role of sovereign purely formal. Consent is always granted by the monarch where requested by government. Any assertion that the sovereign has blocked legislation is simply incorrect ,” it continues.

ADDITIONAL REPORTING

Prince Charles’vetted Laws That Prevent His Tenants From Buying His Homes.’

According to the Guardian, the UK royal family used a “secretive process” to vet three legislative acts that have prohibited people on Prince Charles’ estate from purchasing their own homes for decades. The £1 billion Duchy of Cornwall estate of Queen Elizabeth II’s eldest son was later granted special exemptions in the acts that denied people the legal right to buy their own homes directly, according to the article.

The Queen and Prince of Wales were allegedly allowed to vet the contents of the bills by government officials and approve them before they were passed by the British parliament under a practice known as “Queen’s consent”.

The royal family vetted exemptions in this situation, leaving residents living in homes with decreasing to no financial value. Residents, according to the study, have reported that they are unable to borrow against their homes in order to pay for social care fees for family and friends.

These exemptions enable the Prince of Wales to maintain the financial value of his estate, and they also act as a source of income for him because the tenants would pay him rent each year. Residents have shared their frustration as to why and how Prince Charles, the heir to the throne, was able to receive preferential treatment from the UK government.