UK Parliament / Open data

Succession to the Crown Bill

Proceeding contribution from Lord Trefgarne (Conservative) in the House of Lords on Wednesday, 13 March 2013. It occurred during Debate on bills on Succession to the Crown Bill.

My Lords, I am concerned—I think that there was reference to this in the letter that my noble and learned friend very kindly wrote to me the other day—about the possibility of different parts of the Bill coming into force at different times in different parts of the Commonwealth. For example, it seems possible for one nation to agree that the eldest child of the sovereign became its head of state and for another nation not to agree, or at least to delay agreeing—and therefore it might be the second child of the sovereign who became its head of state. That seems to be a confusion and complication that we would not wish to see. My amendment proposes that we should wait until all the nations that want to agree have agreed, so we avoid that difficulty. My amendment proposes that the Act will come into force when all the relevant Commonwealth Parliaments have given their consent to all its provisions. The word “relevant” relates, of course, to the fact that some Commonwealth nations do not have our Queen as their head of state. Therefore, their consent is irrelevant.

I hope that my noble and learned friend will be persuaded as to the point that I have made. I beg to move.

Type
Proceeding contribution
Reference
744 cc308-9 
Session
2012-13
Chamber / Committee
House of Lords chamber
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