Her Majesty: Advice from the Privy Council

Privy Council: The Oldest
Arm of Government

• The Privy Council currently has 450 members - a pool mainly of UK and Commonwealth dignitaries who hold, or have held, high political office, such as a Cabinet post, judicial or senior ecclesiastical position, as well as the occasional eminent person in the field of science or letters.
• In practice the council, which advises the Queen, and transacts some official business, comprises of a handful of current UK Cabinet ministers, the Sovereign, or a representative, and the Lord President of the Council.
• Once awarded a place on the Privy Council, it is for life, unless a member resigns or is forced to leave.
• Only one serving minister and one ex-minister have resigned from the council this century.
• Former minister John Profumo resigned in the early 1960s following the Christine Keeler affair.
• Former Labour Cabinet Minister John Stonehouse resigned in the early 1970s after he faked his own disappearance and was then jailed for theft, fraud and forgery.
• Only one person, Sir Edgar Speyer, has been removed against his own will from the council, in 1921, for trading with Germany during the First World War.
• It usually meets monthly during a Parliamentary session, though the exact date is confidential. Extraordinary meetings can also be called.
• The Privy Council works through committees, with the most famous being the judicial committee which listens to appeals from ecclesiastical courts and some Commonwealth courts.
• It is the oldest organ of Government in the UK, instituted by King Alfred in 895.
• It descends from the Curia Regis, which consisted of the King's tenants in chief, household officials, and anyone else the Monarch chose.
• This group performed all the functions of Government in either small groups, which became the King's council, or large groups, which grew into the great council and Parliament.
• As the Monarch's influence subsided from the middle of the 17th century onwards, so did the role of the Privy Council.
• Despite a brief revival under Charles II the Crown turned more and more to the Cabinet.
• From the time of George I's accession to the throne the Privy Council became purely a formal body meeting on purely formal occasions to transact formal business.