William cuts the ribbon on a building that will cut royal power

Do not be fooled by the so called pop star welcome for Prince William or reports of royal fever the building he has opened is a Supreme Court and it means that where previously New Zealanders' final right of appeal to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, based in London it is now to the Supreme Court in a much more convenient location New Zealand.

The Privy Council itself is a symbol of the power of the monarch in making legislation, judicial matters and executive matters.

EDM 589

I asked my MP to propose an EDM on this subject and he now has, please write to your MP and get them to sign as well.

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EDM 589

FREEDOM OF INFORMATION AND COMPANIES OWNED BY TWO OR MORE PUBLIC AUTHORITIES

"That this House notes that section 6 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 with certain exceptions makes companies wholly owned by the Crown or by a single public authority subject to the Act; further notes that a company wholly owned by two or more public authorities or 95 per cent. owned by a single public authority will be outside the scope of the Freedom of Information Act 2000; and calls for the closure of this loophole and for companies owned 90 per cent. or more by any number of public authorities to be subject to the Freedom of Information Act 2000."

• Text of: EDM 589


• Twitter hashtag: #edm589


• Tinyurl: http://tinyurl.com/edm589

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The legislative powers of the Duchy of Lancaster

The context to this blog post is that I am trying to convince the ICO that the Duchy of Lancaster is a public authority.

I have already submitted detailed evidence to the ICO but I have not yet focussed heavily of the legislative powers of the Duchy. This blog post is based on an email I sent to the ICO today.

I gave example from the London Gazette:

"The Queen has been pleased to appoint by Letters Patent under the seal of the Duchy and County Palatine of Lancaster Mr. Eric Jones, J.P., as Constable of Lancaster Castle in succession to the late Mr. Michael Fitzherbert-Brockholes, O.B.E., J.P., D.L."

London Gazette - Issue Number: 55113 - Notice Code: 1109

It is clear from the Oxford English Dictionary definition (below) of "letters patent" that these letters are instruments of the monarch or government. The use of the Duchy's Seal demonstrates the fact that these law making powers are derived from Duchy offices. The Chancellor of the Duchy is the keeper of the seal [1].

"a. Law. letters patent n. (also in 14th cent. lettre patent) Originally: an open letter or document (see quot. 1891) issued by a monarch or government to record a contract, authorize or command an action, or confer a privilege, right, office, title, or property. In later use esp.: such a document which grants for a set period the sole right to make, use, or sell some process, invention, or commodity."

This short extract from OED online (see patent adj.) is reproduced under fair use.

The Gazette is the Government's Official Newspaper. Duchy of Lancaster announcements are included State Notices

Prince and Princess Michael of Kent have to pay rent from today

"From today, Prince and Princess Michael of Kent will have to meet the £120,000-a-year rent on their Kensington Palace apartment out of their own pockets."

Source: Daily Mail

I welcome this but I call on the Government to make further reforms during 2010:

(1) ensuring a clear split between the public and private expenditure of the Royal Family.
(2) making the publicly funded bodies subject to the Freedom of Information Act
(3) allowing the National Audit Office to audit the publicly funded bodies
(4) reducing Civil List payments by 20%

The Commonwealth a popular club for Republics?

I sometimes get the feeling that one reason some people in the UK want to keep the monarchy is because of the Commonwealth. The Queen appears to offer us membership of a sort of international club who share a single head of state. Except they don't:

There are 54 member states, of these 16 have the Queen as head of state, 33 members are republics and 5 members have distinct monarchs:

• the Sultan of Brunei (a country without press freedom)


• the King of Lesotho


• the Yang di-Pertuan Agong


• the King of Swaziland


• the King of Tonga (a King committed to further devolution of more royal prerogatives to Parliament)

Whilst many countries may feel it is advantageous to be seen to be part of the Commonwealth a majority of these have a Republican system of Government and others are likely to follow.

ICO comprehensively rejects royal secrecy exemptions

It is worth taking a closer look at a recent ICO ruling to see just how desperate the Government is to keep information about the Royal's secret.

The Government tried to use no less than eight separate exemptions to keep the information secret the ICO found that five of these exemptions were not relevant and two of the others should not have been used to withhold information. I have to concede that one of the exemptions was correctly applied but it related to less than 4% of the documents falling in the scope of the request.

Today is a good day for anyone who believes in transparency. The ICO has issued a polite yet damming ruling against the Governments attempt to protect the Royal Finances from scrutiny.

FOI requestors will be able to use the arguments in this Decision Notice to get more information about the Royal Family released more quickly.

The Government refused to disclose the information under:

1. FOI section 21: Information Accessible By Other Means [relevant, applied to just four out of more than 100 documents]


2. FOI section 31: Law Enforcement [not relevant]


3. FOI section 36: Prejudice To Effective Conduct Of Public Affairs [relevant but public interest was still in favour of disclosure]


4. FOI section 37: Communications With Her Majesty, With Other Members Of The Royal Household, And The Conferring By The Crown Of Any Honour Or Dignity [relevant but public interest was still in favour of disclosure]


5. FOI section 38: Health And Safety [not relevant]


6. FOI section 43: Commercial Interests [not relevant]


7. EIR reg 12(5)(d): Confidentiality of the Proceedings [not relevant]


8. EIR reg 12 (5)(f):Adverse impact on the interests of the person who provided the information [not relevant]

Three Cheers for the Chairman of the House of Commons justice committee

"The chairman of the House of Commons justice committee, which scrutinises secrecy laws, called for the disclosure of recent letters from the prince to cabinet ministers including Ed Balls and Yvette Cooper, on subjects thought to range from the standard of primary school education to the design of ecotowns."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/dec/18/prince-charles-letters