header-logo header-logo

Home Login E-newsletter About us

Counsellors of State: time to widen the circle? (Pt 2)

© Copyright LexisNexis 2025. All Rights Reserved.
27 January 2023 / Neil Parpworth
Issue: 8010 / Categories: Features , Constitutional law , Public
printer mail-detail
Is the Counsellors of State Act 2022 a short-term solution? Neil Parpworth suggests it may be a missed opportunity for bolder reforms

In brief

  • The modest changes made to the Regency Act 1937 by virtue of s 1, Counsellors of State Act 2022, which received royal assent in December 2022.
  • Consideration of why the new Act might be regarded as a missed opportunity to make more significant reforms with longer lasting effects.

The Counsellors of State Act 2022 (CSA 2022) received royal assent on 6 December 2022 and came into effect the day after (see s 2(2), CSA 2022). Unusually, it is a piece of legislation which was effectively requested by the sovereign, as was evident from a message sent by the king to both Houses of Parliament on 14 November 2022, which read as follows:

‘To enable continued efficiency of public business when I am unavailable, such as while I am undertaking official duties overseas, I confirm that I would be most content, should Parliament

If you are not a subscriber, subscribe now to read this content
If you are already a subscriber sign in
...or Register for two weeks' free access to subscriber content

MOVERS & SHAKERS

Read All
Sponsored by
CBI South-East Council—Mike Wilson

CBI South-East Council—Mike Wilson

Blake Morgan managing partner appointed chair of CBI South-East Council

Birketts—Phillippa O’Neill

Birketts—Phillippa O’Neill

Commercial dispute resolution team welcomes partner in Cambridge

Charles Russell Speechlys—Matthew Griffin

Charles Russell Speechlys—Matthew Griffin

Firm strengthens international funds capability with senior hire

NEWS
Read All
NLJ this week: Motor finance faces £11bn reckoning
The proposed £11bn redress scheme following the Supreme Court’s motor finance rulings is analysed in this week’s NLJ by Fred Philpott of Gough Square Chambers
NLJ this week: Gold on Awaab’s Law & digital divorce
In this week's issue, Stephen Gold, NLJ columnist and former district judge, surveys another eclectic fortnight in procedure. With humour and humanity, he reminds readers that beneath the procedural dust, the law still changes lives
NLJ this week: AI in the dock—courts need literacy, not fear
Generative AI isn’t the villain of the courtroom—it’s the misunderstanding of it that’s dangerous, argues Dr Alan Ma of Birmingham City University and the Birmingham Law Society in this week's NLJ
NLJ this week: Landlords lose their upward climb
James Naylor of Naylor Solicitors dissects the government’s plan to outlaw upward-only rent review (UORR) clauses in new commercial leases under Schedule 31 of the English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill, in this week's NLJ. The reform, he explains, marks a seismic shift in landlord-tenant power dynamics: rents will no longer rise inexorably, and tenants gain statutory caps and procedural rights
NLJ this week: Privy Council undresses the ‘shareholder rule’
Writing in NLJ this week, James Harrison and Jenna Coad of Penningtons Manches Cooper chart the Privy Council’s demolition of the long-standing ‘shareholder rule’ in Jardine Strategic v Oasis Investments
Copyright © 2025 LexisNexis
back-to-top-scroll