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The long title of the Parliament Act 1911 is "An Act to make provision with respect to the powers of the House of Lords in relation to those of the House of Commons, and to limit the duration of Parliament."
The 1911 Act stopped the Lords from vetoing any public legislation that originated in and had been approved by the Commons, and restricted their ability to delay such legislation to one month for " money bill s" (dealing with taxation) and two years for other bills. The Speaker can certify bills as money bills. If a money bill is not passed by the Lords without amendment within one month after it is received, the bill can be presented for Royal Assent without being passed by the Lords. For other public bills, the Act originally provided that a rejected bill would become law without the consent of the Lords, if passed by the Commons in three successive sessions, providing two years elapsed between Second Reading and final passing in the Commons.
The only bill the Lords could veto was one to prolong the lifetime of a parliament. The act could only be used to force through a bill originating in the House of Commons and so the Lords also retained the power to veto any bill that it had itself initiated. In addition to curtailing the power of the Lords the 1911 Act also amended the Septennial Act 1715 , reducing the maximum duration of any parliament from seven years to five, and provided for payment for MPs.
The act was a reaction to the clash between the Liberal government and the Lords, culminating in the so-called "People's Budget" of the Chancellor of the Exchequer David Lloyd George in 1909, which proposed the introduction of a land tax based on the ideas of the American tax reformer Henry George. This would have had a major effect on large landowners and the Conservative opposition, which consisted mostly of large landowners, had a large majority in the Lords. Furthermore they believed that money should be raised through the introduction of tariffs on imports, thus helping British industry. They voted down the new budget. They did so, and the Liberals built on the unpopularity of the Lords to make the issue of the 1910 General Election reducing the power of the Lords. The Liberals won the election and used this mandate to introduce the Parliament Act. However the Land tax proposal was quietly dropped.
When the House of Lords attempted to stop the passage of the bill, the new Prime Minister, Herbert Henry Asquith, went to George VGeorge V (George Frederick Ernest Albert) ( 3 June 1865- 20 January 1936) was the last British monarch of the House of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, changing the name to the House of Windsor in 1917. As well as being King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and I. The king agreed with Asquith that, if necessary, he would create 250 new Liberal peers to neutralise the Conservative majority in the Lords. The Conservative Lords then backed down.
The 1911 Act was amended in 1949 to reduce the power of the Lords further by cutting the time they could delay bills from three sessions over two years to two sessions over one year. The Lords attempted to block this change and the 1911 Act had to be used to force it through.
Some doubts have been raised as to whether this was valid, as if the restriction on the Parliament Act being used to prolong the life of Parliament were to be effective then it would have to be entrenched (as otherwise the Commons could first use the Parliament Act to abolish that part of the Parliament Act, then use the amended Parliament Act to abolish elections). However the wording of the Act implies no such entrenchment. In addition, use of the 1911 Act required a delay over three "sessions", so a special short "session" of parliament was introduced into 1948, with a King's SpeechQueen Beatrix of The Netherlands reads her country's Speech from the Throne The Speech from the Throne sometimes referred to by the shorter term Throne Speech is an event in certain monarchies in which the monarch (or a represenative) reads a prepared spe on 14 September 19481948 is a leap year starting on Thursday (link will take you to calendar). Events January January 1 Nationalisation of UK railways to form British Railways. Arab militants lay siege to the Jewish Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem. First day of the Ital, and prorogationA prorogation is the period between two sessions of a legislative body. When a legislature or parliament is prorogued, it is still constituted (that is, all members remain as members and a general election is not necessary), but all orders of the body ( b on 25 October.
After the usage of the Acts to force through the Hunting Act 2004The Hunting Act 2004 is an Act of Parliament in the United Kingdom passed in 2004. The effect of the act will be to outlaw hunting with dogs (particularly fox hunting) in England and Wales from February 18 2005. The Act received the Royal Assent on Novemb to ban fox huntingFox hunting is a form of hunting for foxes using a pack of scent hounds. The pack is often followed by riders on horses. Like all forms of hunting, fox hunting is a blood sport, and as such it is controversial and has been outlawed in some countries., the Countryside Alliance raised the question of the validity of the 1949 Act. They plan to take the matter to the High Court.