Crown consent

In tabling the royal succession bill yesterday morning, Justice Minister Rob Nicholson reported to the House the following.

Mr. Speaker, it is my duty and honour to inform the House that His Excellency the Governor General, having been informed of the purport of a bill entitled “An Act to assent to alterations in the law touching the Succession to the Throne” has given his consent as far as Her Majesty’s prerogatives may be affected to the consideration by Parliament of the bill, and that Parliament may do therein as it thinks fit.

So before the bill was tabled, the Governor General was consulted and provided consent for the legislation to go forward. Is that odd? Not really.

The consent of the Crown is necessary anytime a bill involves the prerogatives of the Crown—see here, here and here. Here is a list of bills that have passed Parliament with Crown consent. If the royal succession bill passes, it will be the first such bill to do so since 2001.

Crown consent has become a bit of a controversy in Britain.