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At head of title: Department of Agriculture. ; "Printed by authority." ; Electronic reproduction. ; Mode of access: Internet. ; 44

The Parliament Act of 1911 received the royal assent on August 18. By the terms of its important preamble further legislation is promised, which will define both the composition and powers of a new second chamber "constituted on a popular instead of hereditary basis;" although "such substitution cannot be immediately brought into operation," the positive provisions of the measure restrict the "existing powers of the House of Lords." This law, therefore, is intentionally temporary, the first probably of several enactments embodying further constitutional changes.In the mean time and briefly what does this law now provide? (1) A public bill passed by the House of Commons and certified by the Speaker of the House of Commons to be a "money bill" within the terms of the act shall, "unless the Commons direct to the contrary," "become an Act of Parliament on the Royal assent being signified, notwithstanding that the House of Lords have not consented to the Bill," within one month after it has been "sent up to that House."

The Parliament Act 1911 is a short act of parliament, which had a profound effect on constitutional and political legislation in the 20th century. The purpose of the Parliament Act was very clear: to limit the power of the house of lords to impede the programme of a government with a majority in the house of commons. The act achieved this by introducing three innovations: (1) it put on the statute book the primacy of the house of commons over financial legislation; (2) the house of lords' absolute veto over legislation in most areas was replaced by a suspensory veto of approximately two years; (3) the act reduced the maximum duration of a parliament from seven years to five. But at the start of the parliament, in 1906, it was not clear that this programme would prevail: its enactment over alternative proposals was helped by a combination of the leadership of Campbell‐Bannerman and Asquith, political conflict, electoral and parliamentary arithmetic, and the politics of the Irish question. The Parliament Act fundamentally and irreconcilably altered the legislative process in the United Kingdom, whilst arguably leaving the de facto constitutional position unchanged. In doing so, it facilitated a century of constitutional legislation.

A previous article attempted a summary of the contents of the Parliament Act of 1911 and a mention of its immediate ancestry. There followed notice of some historical alleviatory suggestions regarding the composition of the House of Lords and an analysis both of the actual provisions of the Act and of proposals alternative to them with respect to the powers of the Upper House in the matter of "money bills."This second article, continuing the method of the first, includes at the outset the question of the powers of the House of Lords as to "general legislation," i. e. public bills other than money bills. There follows reference to historical ancestry in these matters. Thus the consideration of the means by which the Act became law, that potential resort to the use of the royal prerogative by the temporary executive, may clear the way for speculation as to the significance of the Parliament Act as a whole.Briefly the Act provides for a final reduction of the powers of the House of Lords as to general legislation to a suspensive veto operative against House of Commons measures only in two successive sessions; after a lapse of two years after the first introduction of the measure in the Lower House and on its third passage there the bill can become law on the royal assent being given, the Lords notwithstanding.

The Parliament Act 1911, limiting the veto power of the house of lords, constitutes a major piece of constitutional legislation in the United Kingdom. The vulnerability of the house of lords to major change was long‐standing and to be found in the actions of prime ministers over more than a century. The constitutional crisis leading to the passage of the act was triggered by the rejection of the budget by the Lords in 1909. However, the outcome of the crisis was by no means certain, either in terms of the provisions of the Parliament Bill or its passage. It was neither a product of a clash between peers and people or a principled debate as to the place of the second chamber in the nation's constitutional arrangements. It was the result of the stances taken on the issue that had dominated British politics since the 1880s: Irish home rule. This determined that the house of lords would be subject to change, not in terms of composition but in respect of its powers. In terms of the contemporary relevance of the act, attempts at further changes to the second chamber constitute neither history repeating itself nor unfinished business.