Privy Council

Privy Council is theoretically a council, a formal advisory body to the British monarch, associated with the sovereign to advise in matters of government. was originally the executive arm of English government from as early as the 13th century, although its powers declined as political authority shifted to the Cabinet in the late 17th and early 18th centuries. As it was the custom, it included the members of the royal family, the Cabinet, the two archbishops and the bishop of London, the principal English and Scotch judges, some of the chief ambassadors, the Commander-in-Chief, the First Lord of the Admiralty, &c. No members attended except those summoned, usually the Cabinet, the officers of the Household, and the Primate.

Currently, Counsellors are appointed for life by the King on the advice of the Prime Minister. They are individuals who hold or have held senior political, judicial or ecclesiastical office in the UK or in Commonwealth Realms. All Cabinet ministers are Privy Counsellors, as are others by custom, for example the Archbishops of Canterbury and York, the Speaker of the House of Commons, the Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales and, more recently, the First Ministers of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

The functions of the Privy Council may be grouped as: (1) executive, in which its duties are discharged by the Cabinet, which is technically a committee of the Privy Council; (2) administrative - the Board of Trade, the Local Government Board, and the Board of Agriculture originated in committees; the Education Department is still a committee, and the Council retains such branches as the supervision of medical, pharmaceutical, and veterinary practice, the granting of municipal charters, &c.; (3) judicial - the Judicial Committee is a court of law, whose principal function is the hearing of appeals from ecclesiastical and some other courts.

Nearby pages
Privy Seal, Priyada Chakraborty, Pro bono publico, Pro parte, Probability