The Church of Scotland (Lord High Commissioner) Bill would remove the restriction on people of the Roman Catholic faith holding the office of His Majesty’s lord high commissioner to the general assembly of the Church of Scotland.
Church of Scotland (Lord High Commissioner) Bill (324KB PDF)
Approximate read time: 10 minutes
At present, Roman Catholics are legally restricted from holding the office of lord high commissioner due to historic legislation, such as the Roman Catholic Relief Act 1829. The Church of Scotland (Lord High Commissioner) Bill would remove this restriction. This would facilitate the upcoming appointment of Lady Elish Angiolini, a practising Roman Catholic, as the lord high commissioner in 2025. She would become the first Roman Catholic to hold this office.
It is a government bill and is being fast-tracked. It was introduced in the House of Commons on 13 February 2025 and passed all its stages on 4 March 2025. Its second reading in the House of Lords is scheduled to take place on 19 March 2025.
Church of Scotland (Lord High Commissioner) Bill (324KB PDF)
The House of Lords (Alternative Second Chamber Bill) [HL] is a private member’s bill introduced by Baroness Smith of Llanfaes (Plaid Cymru). It would require the secretary of state to carry out a consultation regarding proposals for replacing the House of Lords with an alternative second chamber. The bill specifies whom the secretary of state would be required to consult with and the timeframe of that consultation.
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The Sovereign Grant Bill is a government bill which would amend how the sovereign grant is set. This is a grant paid to the King to support the work of the sovereign. The bill would enable the size of the sovereign grant to be reduced following the completion of a 10-year works project on Buckingham Palace. The bill received cross-party support and was not amended in the House of Commons.
The bill is a government bill that would make a range of changes to the legal framework concerning elections, including extending the franchise for UK parliamentary elections and other reserved elections to 16- and 17-year-olds. The bill was amended during both its committee and report stages in the House of Commons, with many of the government’s later amendments implementing recommendations from the Rycroft review on countering foreign financial influence and interference in UK politics.
