Parliamentary Act

The name of an the House of Lords as it at present exists a second chamber constituted on a popular instead of hereditary basis, but such substitution cannot immediately be brought into operation”; it provides that money bills, if sent to the House of Lords at least one month before the end of the session and not passed by it without amendment within one month, shall, upon the royal assent being signified, become acts of parliament. Public bills (other than a money bill or a bill extending the duration of parliament beyond five years), if passed by the Commons at three successive sessions, whether of the same parliament or not, and sent to the House of Lords at least one month before the end of the session and rejected by it in each of these sessions, shall on their rejection for the third time become acts of parliament, upon the royal assent being signified thereto, but this provision shall not take effect unless two years have elapsed between the second reading in the first of these sessions in the Commons and the passage of the bill in the Commons in the third of these sessions. The speaker of the House of Commons conclusively decides as to whether a money bill is such, and whether the provisions as to the passage of public bills other than money bills, etc., have been complied with. If the House of Lords amends such public bills (the Commons not concurring), it is made equivalent to a rejection by the former. The enacting clause of bills so passed reads: ‘‘Be it enacted by the King’s Most Excellent Majesty by and with the consent of the Commons.” The duration of parliament, fixed at seven years in 1715, is reduced to five years.