Clerk of the Parliaments

The Clerk of the Parliaments is the chief clerk of the House of Lords in the Parliament of the United Kingdom. The position has existed since at least 1315, and duties include preparing the minutes of Lords proceedings, advising on proper parliamentary procedure and pronouncing the Royal Assent. Many of the Clerk's duties are now fulfilled by his deputies and the Clerk of the Parliaments' Office.

Clerk of the Parliaments
Incumbent Edward Ollard since 16 April 2017
Clerk of the Parliaments' Office
Appointer	Elizabeth II
Formation	1315

The Under Clerk of the Parliaments is the formal name for the Clerk of the House of Commons.[1]

The term Clerk of the Parliaments is also used as a formal alternative title by the Clerk of the Senate of Canada[2] and the Clerks of the Legislative Councils of New South Wales[3] and Western Australia.[4] In the Australian state of Victoria the title is given to the longer-serving of the Clerks of the Legislative Council and Legislative Assembly.[5] The title was also formerly used for the Clerk of the Australian Senate[6][7] and the longer-serving of the Clerks of the Legislative Council and Legislative Assembly of South Australia.[8]

History

The position has existed since at least 1315, when records from the parliament held by Edward II at Lincoln make reference to a clerk nominated by the king to serve as a "special deputy".[9] This clerk was tasked with reading out the titles of bills and the responses from Parliament. In later parliaments starting with those under Richard II, the Clerk of the Crown in Chancery would read the titles, and the Clerk of the Parliaments the responses.[10] The actual term "Clerk of the Parliaments" did not come into use until the reign of Henry VIII, and the plural (parliaments, rather than Parliament) signifies that it is a life appointment – the clerk is appointed for all parliaments, not just the one currently sitting.[9] On 12 March 1660 a deputy clerk was appointed for the first time after the clerk (Mr Bowyer) was too ill to attend Parliament.[11] The Clerk of the Parliaments Act 1824 defined the clerk's duties for the first time in statute, and the Act is still in force and binding on current clerks.[12]

Appointment and duties

The Clerk of the Parliaments is appointed by letters patent from the sovereign, who also holds the sole power to remove him or her.[13] The Clerk has a variety of tasks within the House of Lords. Appointees were originally ecclesiastical figures, although the nineteenth century saw a shift towards members of the legal profession.[14] He is assisted by two other clerks – the Clerk Assistant and the Reading Clerk.[15]

The Clerk of the Parliaments, or another clerk, sits in the chamber at the table of the house during sittings, and calls on items of business. At the start of a sitting all three table clerks (Clerk of the Parliaments, Clerk Assistant and Reading Clerk) are normally present. When at the Table the Clerk wears court dress (including a tail coat and waistcoat), a gown and a wig. The wig worn by the Clerk of the Parliaments is a bench wig as worn by a High Court judge; other clerks wear a barrister's wig.[16] Male clerks wear a wing collar and white bow tie, and female clerks bands as worn by barristers.

As well as providing advice on procedure, the clerk also prepares the minutes of proceedings in the Lords, signs all official documents and communications, returns bills to the House of Commons and pronounces the Royal Assent.[17] The clerk also supervises several offices, including his own (the Clerk of the Parliaments' Office), Black Rod's Department, which deals with security in the Lords, the Committee Office, which gives legal and procedural advice to committees within the Lords, and formerly (until 2009) the Judicial Office, which advised and assisted the Law Lords.[18] Since the nineteenth century many of these duties have been performed by his deputies and his own office.[11]

Office holders

Term	Name[12][19]	Notes
?1280-1290	John Kirkby
1290-1314	Gilbert of Rothbury
1315	Robert of Ashby
1316-	William of Airmyn
c1327-post 1334	Henry of Edenstowe
c1340-1346	Thomas of Brayton
in office 1351 & 1352	John of Coddington
in office 1377	Geoffrey Martin
in office 1377	Edmund Brudenell
?1372-1386	Richard de Ravenser
?c1381	John de Waltham
ante 1384-1394	John de Scarle
1394-1414	John Rome
1414-1423	John Frank
1424-1436	William Prestwyke
1437-1438	John Bate
1438-1447	Thomas Kirkby
1447-1470	John Fawkes
1470-1471	Baldwin Hyde
1471-1483	John Gunthorpe
1483-1485	Thomas Hutton
1485-1496	John Morgan
1496-1509	Richard Hatton
1509-1523	John Taylor
1523-1531	Brian Tuke
1531-1540	Edward North
1540-1541	Thomas Soulemont
1541-1543	William Paget
NA	Thomas Knight
1550-1551	John Mason
1574-NA	Francis Spelman
1574-1597	Anthony Mason
1597-1609	Thomas Smith	Knighted 1603
1609-1621	Robert Bowyer
1621-1635	Henry Elsynge
1635-1637	Thomas Knyvett
1637-1638	Daniel Bedingfield
1638-1644	John Browne
1644	Edward Norgate
1649-1660	Henry Scobell
1660-1691	John Browne
1691-1716	Matthew Johnson
1716-1740	William Cowper
1740-1788	Ashley Cowper
1788-1818	George Rose
1818-1855	George Henry Rose
1855-1875	John Shaw-Lefevre
1875-1885	William Rose
1885-1917	Sir Henry Graham
1917-1930	Sir Arthur Thring
1930-1934	Sir Edward Alderson
1934-1949	Sir Henry Badeley
1949-1953	Sir Robert Overbury
1953-1959	Sir Francis Lascelles
1959-1963	Sir Victor Goodman
1963-1974	Sir David Stephens
1974-1983	Sir Peter Henderson
1983[20]-1990	Sir John Sainty
1991-1997	Sir Michael Wheeler-Booth
1997-13 July 2003	Sir Michael Davies
14 July 2003[21]-3 November 2007	Sir Paul Hayter	Knighted 2007
4 November 2007[22][23]-15 April 2011	Sir Michael Pownall	Knighted 2011
16 April 2011[24]-15 April 2017	Sir David Beamish	Knighted 2017
16 April 2017[25]-present	Edward Ollard

References

1. "Parliamentary Corporate Bodies Act 1992, Section 2". The National Archives. Retrieved 14 January 2017. The individual who for the time being is by letters patent appointed to the office of the Under Clerk of the Parliaments (and who is customarily referred to as the Clerk of the House of Commons) shall be the Corporate Officer of the Commons.
2. "Officers and Officials of Parliament". Parliament of Canada. Retrieved 14 January 2017.
3. "Structure of the Department of the Legislative Council". Parliament of New South Wales. Archived from the original on 6 December 2010. Retrieved 19 June 2010.
4. "Clerks of the Houses" (PDF). Parliament of Western Australia. Archived from the original (PDF) on 18 January 2017. Retrieved 14 January 2017.
5. "Fact Sheet H3: The Clerk". Parliament of Victoria. Retrieved 14 January 2017.
6. "Administration - The Parliamentary Departments". Parliament of Australia. 2009. Archived from the original on 6 January 2011. Retrieved 14 January 2017.
7. "Chapter 20 - Bills: 137 Presentation for assent". Parliament of Australia. 2010. Archived from the original on 5 May 2010. Retrieved 14 January 2017.
8. "Statistical Record of the Legislature 1836-2007" (PDF). Parliament of South Australia. 2007. Archived from the original (PDF) on 11 March 2019. Retrieved 14 January 2017.
9. Macqueen (1842) p.63
10. Pollard (1942) p.314
11. Macqueen (1842) p.64
12. "The Clerk of the Parliaments: Role and Functions". Houses of Parliament. Archived from the original on 15 October 2009. Retrieved 14 January 2017.
13. The Stationery Office (2007) p.18
14. Macqueen (1842) p.65
15. "Clerk of the Parliaments". BBC News. 14 August 2008. Retrieved 31 August 2009.
16. "The Clerk of the Parliaments Office". Houses of Parliament. Retrieved 14 January 2017.
17. The Stationery Office (2007) p.19
18. The Stationery Office (2007) p.21
19. Appointments prior to 1485 are taken from Guide to the Records of Parliament by M F Bond (HMSO 1971), p.303
20. "No. 52373". The London Gazette. 1 August 1983. p. 10125.
21. "No. 57004". The London Gazette. 18 July 2003. p. 8985.
22. "No. 58508". The London Gazette. 12 November 2007. p. 16365.
23. "No. 59601". The London Gazette. 10 November 2010. p. 21635.
24. "No. 59769". The London Gazette. 27 April 2011. p. 7952.
25. "House of Lords Minutes 10 January 2017". UK Parliament website. Retrieved 18 April 2017.

External links

• The records of the Clerk of the Parliaments are held by the UK Parliamentary Archives

Bibliography

• Pollard, A.F. (1942). "The Clerk of the Crown". The English Historical Review. Oxford University Press. 57 (227): 312–333. doi:10.1093/ehr/lvii.ccxxvii.312. ISSN 0013-8266.
• Macqueen, John Fraser (1842). A practical treatise on the appellate jurisdiction of the House of Lords & Privy Council: together with the practice on parliamentary divorce. A. Maxwell & son. OCLC 60725157.
• The Stationery Office (2007). Companion to the standing orders and guide to the proceedings of the House of Lords: laid on the table by the clerk of the parliaments (21st ed.). The Stationery Office. ISBN 0-10-400709-5.
• Todd, Alpheus (1840). The practice and privileges of the two Houses of Parliament: with an appendix of forms. Rogers & Thompson. ISBN 0-665-27779-2. OCLC 16440023.