The Church of England Assembly (Powers) Act 1919 (9 & 10 Geo. 5 c. 76) is an Act of the

Parliament of the United Kingdom The Parliament of the United Kingdom is the supreme legislative body of the United Kingdom, the Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories. It meets at the Palace of Westminster, London. It alone possesses legislative suprem ...

that enables the

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Brit ...

to submit

primary legislation Primary legislation and secondary legislation (the latter also called delegated legislation or subordinate legislation) are two forms of law, created respectively by the legislative and executive branches of governments in representative democ ...

called Measures, for passage by Parliament. Measures have the same force and effect as Acts of Parliament.Section 4. The power to pass measures was originally granted to the Church Assembly, which was replaced by the

General Synod of the Church of England The General Synod is the tricameral deliberative and legislative organ of the Church of England. The synod was instituted in 1970, replacing the Church Assembly, and is the culmination of a process of rediscovering self-government for the Church ...

in 1970 by the Synodical Government Measure 1969. The Act, usually called the "Enabling Act", made possible the addition of a chamber of laymen to the chambers for bishops and clergy in the new Church Assembly. The historian Jeremy Morris has argued that it helped to buffer the Church from anti-establishmentarianism and calls it "probably the most significant single piece of legislation passed by Parliament for the Church of England in the twentieth century". The Church Assembly set up parochial church councils, which have formed the base of the Church's representative system ever since.

Procedure

The Act creates an

Ecclesiastical Committee The Ecclesiastical Committee is a statutory joint committee of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, created by the Church of England Assembly (Powers) Act 1919 to review Church of England measures submitted to Parliament by the Legislative Commi ...

, consisting of fifteen members of the

House of Lords The House of Lords, also known as the House of Peers, is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Membership is by appointment, heredity or official function. Like the House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminst ...

chosen by the

Lord Speaker The Lord Speaker is the presiding officer, chairman and highest authority of the House of Lords in the Parliament of the United Kingdom. The office is analogous to the Speaker of the House of Commons: the Lord Speaker is elected by the membe ...

, and fifteen members of the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. T ...

, chosen by the Speaker of the House of Commons. The members are appointed for the duration of each parliament, and vacancies may be filled by the speaker of the relevant House. A

quorum A quorum is the minimum number of members of a deliberative assembly (a body that uses parliamentary procedure, such as a legislature) necessary to conduct the business of that group. According to '' Robert's Rules of Order Newly Revised'', the ...

for business is twelve members. The General Synod refers any measures it desires to pass into law to the Legislative Committee, a body appointed by the General Synod from among its own members. This Committee forwards the proposed measure to the Ecclesiastical Committee, together with any comments or explanations that it or the General Synod wishes to add. The Legislative Committee may not amend the measure. Either Committee has the right to consult with the other in a joint conference to debate the measure.Section 3. The Ecclesiastical Committee then drafts a report for Parliament, "stating the nature and legal effect of the measure, and its views as to the expediency thereof, especially with relation to the constitutional rights of all erMajesty’s subjects". The Legislative Committee may then decide whether to allow the report to be presented to Parliament, or withdraw the measure. The General Synod may also direct the Committee to withdraw the measure. The Ecclesiastical Committee may not present the report without permission from the Legislative Committee. If the Legislative Committee wishes to proceed, then the report and the measure are both presented to each House of Parliament. If both Houses pass a resolution agreeing to the measure, then it is presented to the Monarch to receive

royal assent Royal assent is the method by which a monarch formally approves an act of the legislature, either directly or through an official acting on the monarch's behalf. In some jurisdictions, royal assent is equivalent to promulgation, while in oth ...

. On receiving royal assent it becomes a law.

Jurisdiction

The Act states: However, a measure may not affect the "composition or powers or duties" of the Ecclesiastical Committee, or the procedure in Parliament for passing measures.

Human Rights Act

Under Section 10(6) of the Human Rights Act 1998, measures of the Church Assembly or of the General Synod of the Church of England are exempt from the "fast track" procedure under that Act by which government ministers may, with a reduced level of parliamentary scrutiny, amend legislation incompatible with a

human right Human rights are moral principles or normsJames Nickel, with assistance from Thomas Pogge, M.B.E. Smith, and Leif Wenar, 13 December 2013, Stanford Encyclopedia of PhilosophyHuman Rights Retrieved 14 August 2014 for certain standards of hum ...

under the

European Convention on Human Rights The European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR; formally the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms) is an international convention to protect human rights and political freedoms in Europe. Drafted in 1950 by ...

. The courts may still issue a

declaration of incompatibility A declaration of incompatibility in UK constitutional law is a declaration issued by a United Kingdom judge that a statute is incompatible with the European Convention of Human Rights under the Human Rights Act 1998 section 4. This is a central pa ...

or, in preference, purposively interpret a measure to avoid incompatibility.Human Rights Act 1998, section 10(6)
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References

External links

Full text of the Act as currently in force
from the National Archives website
List of current members of the Ecclesiastical Committee
from the UK Parliament website
List of publications by the Ecclesiastical Committee
from the UK Parliament website {{UK legislation United Kingdom Acts of Parliament 1919 Constitution of the United Kingdom Church of England legislation Canon law of the Church of England Christianity and law in the 20th century Acts of the Parliament of the United Kingdom concerning England 1919 in Christianity Law about religion in the United Kingdom December 1919 events

Procedure

Jurisdiction

Human Rights Act

See also

References

External links