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Last updated: 17 November 2009
39.1 When a Bill has been passed by both Houses it is ready to receive Royal Assent.
39.2 For Bills which complete their Parliamentary passage right at the end of the session, Royal Assent will be communicated at prorogation (the end of the session) by the Commissioners who are commissioned to prorogue Parliament and declare Royal Assent for those Bills on behalf of the Queen.
39.3 For Bills which complete their Parliamentary passage earlier on in the session, Royal Assent is notified to each House by its Speaker. The two Houses are normally notified on the same day, but not necessarily at the same time; Royal Assent is effective when the second of the two Houses is notified.
39.4 Royal Assent by notification is given at intervals throughout the session, but the Queen should not be asked to give Royal Assent too frequently, so a Bill that has completed its passage may have to wait until a suitable date (e.g. when other Bills have completed passage) before receiving Royal Assent.
39.5 It is possible to make a request through the Government Whips' Office in the Lords for Royal Assent to be notified on a particular date, if the occasion is important enough and the timing is reasonable, but no guarantees can be given that this will be possible. (This is different from requests for Royal Assent before a particular deadline, for example in order to comply with an EC directive. These latter requests must be made when bidding for a slot in the legislative programme, and must be agreed to by Legislation Committee. Such requests should only be made where absolutely necessary, and should be made as early as possible to allow Business Managers to plan business accordingly, if the request is sufficiently pressing.)
39.6 When a Bill receives Royal Assent, it becomes an Act.
39.7 The Lords Public Bill Office is responsible for the correctness of prints of Acts and will send the proof prints of the Act to Parliamentary Counsel. Proofs should be carefully checked by Parliamentary Counsel and the Bill team. The Public Bill Office should be informed through Parliamentary Counsel at an early stage if a large number of proofs are required. Corrections to these proofs should be channelled through Parliamentary Counsel.
39.8 Once any corrections have been made, the Act is printed and published by HMSO, with the date of Royal Assent included after the long title. The Act will be published on the website of the Office of Public Sector Information in pdf format immediately the approved text has been received from the Lords Public Bill Office and in html format at the same time as the printed copy is made available.
39.9 If any provisions of the Bill are to take practical effect immediately or soon after Royal Assent, or if there are other reasons why it should be given priority over other Bills for early printing/publication on enactment, the department should let Parliamentary Counsel and HMSO know as early as possible, and where appropriate the Public Bill Office will prioritise the proof prints and HMSO will arrange to expedite printing on receipt of the approved text.
39.10 Where an Act cannot be published before it takes practical effect, the department should seek to disseminate the final text of the relevant sections to those most interested, or their representatives.
Finalising the Explanatory Notes
39.11 On completion of Parliamentary passage, the Explanatory Notes (including any Transposition Notes) must be updated to reflect any substantive changes to the Bill at Consideration or pingpong. Irrespective of any amendments, certain other changes must be made as well, such as removing any reference to ECHR compatibility or a section 19 statement – see Revisions when the Bill becomes an Act. It is the Bill team's responsibility to finalise the Explanatory Notes and clear them with Parliamentary Counsel before sending them to publishing.services@opsi.gsi.gov.uk for formatting and publishing alongside the text of the Act, or as soon as possible thereafter.
39.12 Rather than publishing the final Act and Explanatory Notes on their own website, departments should provide a link to the documents on the http://www.opsi.gov.uk/ [External website] – as these are the official documents that will be updated with any necessary changes in future.
39.13 Unless the Act states otherwise, it commences (comes into operation) on the date of Royal Assent. Detail on commencement provisions and consent for early commencement can be found earlier in this guide. Officials responsible for the implementation of different parts of an Act will need to work together to ensure that, where provisions are to be brought into operation by commencement order, the number of orders made and commencement dates specified should be kept to a minimum. If sections are to be commenced by Welsh Assembly Government Ministers, the department should work closely with the Welsh Assembly Government to coordinate commencement in Wales with commencement in England.