Editing Royal assent (section)

===United Kingdom===
[[File:Reform Act 1832 First Page.jpg|thumb|Start of the parchment roll of the [[Reform Act 1832]], with the clerk's record of the royal assent of King [[William IV]] written above the bill, reading in full ''Le Roy le Veult. Soit baillé aux Seigneurs. A cette Bille avecque des amendemens les Seigneurs sont assentuz. A ces Amendemens les Communes sont assentuz.'']]
In the United Kingdom, a bill is presented for royal assent after it has passed all the required stages in both the House of Commons and the House of Lords.  Under the Parliament Acts 1911 and 1949, the House of Commons may, under certain circumstances, direct that a bill be presented for assent despite lack of passage by the House of Lords.<ref>"Once a bill has completed all the parliamentary stages in both Houses, it is ready to receive royal assent", ''Bill becomes an Act of Parliament'' [http://www.parliament.uk/about/how/laws/passage-bill/lords/lrds-royal-assent/] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131013202804/http://www.parliament.uk/about/how/laws/passage-bill/lords/lrds-royal-assent/|date=13 October 2013}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.parliament.uk/site-information/glossary/money-bills/|title=Money bills – Glossary page|website=UK Parliament|access-date=21 October 2013|archive-date=21 October 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131021205022/http://www.parliament.uk/site-information/glossary/money-bills/|url-status=live}}</ref>

A list of all bills that have thus passed Parliament is drawn up by the [[Clerk of the Crown in Chancery]]; this list is then approved by the [[Clerk of the Parliaments]].  (The Prime Minister, other ministers, and Privy Counsellors do not normally have any involvement in drawing up the list.)  The Clerk of the Crown then prepares [[letters patent]] listing all the relevant bills, which are then signed by the monarch.<ref>{{cite book |title=The Veiled Sceptre: Reserve Powers of Heads of State in Westminster Systems |first=Anne |last=Twomey |author-link=Anne Twomey (academic) |pages=627–628 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |location=Cambridge |isbn=9781107056787|date=12 April 2018 }}</ref>

Officially, assent is granted by the sovereign or by [[Lords Commissioners]] authorised to act by [[letters patent]].  Royal assent may be granted in parliament or outside parliament; in the latter case, each house must be separately notified before the bill takes effect.

The [[Clerk of the Parliaments]], the chief official of the House of Lords, traditionally pronounces a formula in [[Anglo-Norman language|Anglo-Norman]] [[Law French]], indicating the sovereign's decision. The granting of royal assent to a [[supply bill]] is indicated with the words "{{lang|nrf|Le Roy remercie ses bons sujets, accepte leur benevolence, et ainsi le veult}}",<ref name="bennion1981" /> translated as "The King thanks his good subjects, accepts their bounty, and so wills it." For other public or [[private bill]]s, the formula is simply "{{lang|nrf|[[Le Roy le veult]]}}" ("the King wills it"). For [[Local and personal Acts of Parliament in the United Kingdom|personal bill]]s, the phrase is "{{lang|nrf|Soit fait comme il est désiré}}" ("let it be done as it is desired"). The appropriate formula for withholding assent is the euphemistic "{{lang|nrf|Le Roy s'avisera}}" ("the King will consider it").<ref>{{citation|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FVwEAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA271 |title=The Assembled Commons; or, Parliamentary Biographer, with an abstract of the law of election and the usages of Parliament|author=A member of the Middle Temple|year=1838|publisher=Scott, Webster and Geary|location=London|page=271}}</ref>

When the sovereign is female, {{lang|nrf|Le Roy}} is replaced by {{lang|nrf|La Reyne}}.

Before the reign of Henry VIII, the sovereign always granted his or her assent in person. The sovereign, wearing the Crown, would be seated on the throne in the Lords chamber, surrounded by [[herald]]s and members of the royal court—a scene that nowadays is repeated only at the annual [[State Opening of Parliament]]. The Commons, led by their [[Speaker of the House of Commons (United Kingdom)|Speaker]], would listen from the Bar of the Lords, just outside the chamber. The Clerk of the Parliaments presented the bills awaiting assent to the monarch, save that supply bills were traditionally brought up by the Speaker. The Clerk of the Crown, standing on the sovereign's right, then read aloud the titles of the bills (in earlier times, the entire text of the bills). The Clerk of the Parliaments, standing on the sovereign's left, responded by stating the appropriate Norman French formula.<ref name=so29>{{cite web|url=https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld/ldcomp/ldctso56.htm|title=Companion to the Standing Orders and guide to the Proceedings of the House of Lords|access-date=18 November 2007|publisher=United Kingdom Parliament|archive-date=21 November 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071121221657/http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld/ldcomp/ldctso56.htm|url-status=live}}</ref>

[[File:Hans Holbein, the Younger, Around 1497-1543 - Portrait of Henry VIII of England - Google Art Project.jpg|thumb|[[Henry VIII of England|Henry VIII]] introduced a new method of granting royal assent.]]

A new device for granting assent was created during the reign of King [[Henry VIII]]. In 1542, Henry sought to execute his fifth wife, [[Catherine Howard]], whom he accused of committing adultery; the execution was to be authorised not after a trial but by a [[bill of attainder]], to which he would have to personally assent after listening to the entire text. Henry decided that "the repetition of so grievous a Story and the recital of so infamous a crime" in his presence "might reopen a Wound already closing in the Royal Bosom".<ref>Quennell, Peter (1951). "History Today", Stanford University. p. 767.</ref> Therefore, Parliament inserted a clause into the Act of Attainder, providing that assent granted by Commissioners "is and ever was and ever shall be, as good" as assent granted by the sovereign personally.<ref>[[Royal Assent by Commission Act 1541]] (33 Hen.8 c. 21)</ref> The procedure was used only five times during the 16th century, but more often during the 17th and 18th centuries, especially when [[George III]]'s health began to deteriorate. [[Queen Victoria]] became the last monarch to personally grant assent in 1854.<ref name=Richardson>{{citation| url=http://www.revparl.ca/27/2/27n2_04e_Richardson.pdf| last=Richardson| first=Jessica J.| title=Modernisation of Royal Assent in Canada| journal=Canadian Parliamentary Review| volume=27| issue=2| access-date=17 October 2013| archive-date=19 October 2013| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131019064716/http://www.revparl.ca/27/2/27n2_04e_Richardson.pdf| url-status=live}}</ref><ref>Robertson, James R. "[http://www.parl.gc.ca/About/Parliament/LegislativeSummaries/bills_ls.asp?lang=F&ls=S15&Parl=36&Ses=1 Bill S-15: The Royal Assent Act] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150220174445/http://www.parl.gc.ca/About/Parliament/LegislativeSummaries/bills_ls.asp?lang=F&ls=S15&Parl=36&Ses=1 |date=20 February 2015 }} ". Library of Parliament, Canada, 2002. Retrieved 20 February 2015.</ref>

When granting assent by commission, the sovereign authorises three or more (normally five) lords who are [[Privy Council of the United Kingdom|privy counsellors]] to declare assent in his or her name. The [[Lords Commissioners]], as the monarch's representatives are known, wear scarlet parliamentary robes and sit on a bench between the throne and the [[Woolsack]]. The Lords Reading Clerk reads the commission aloud; the senior commissioner then states, "My Lords, in obedience to His Majesty's Commands, and by virtue of the Commission which has been now read, We do declare and notify to you, the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons in Parliament assembled, that His Majesty has given His Royal Assent to the several Acts in the Commission mentioned."<ref>"[https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld/ldcomp/ldctso33.htm Companion to the Standing Orders and guide to the Proceedings of the House of Lords] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170314182028/https://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld/ldcomp/ldctso33.htm |date=14 March 2017 }}". The Stationery Office Ltd. Retrieved 11 April 2007.</ref><ref>Anson's Law and Custom of the Constitution, 5th ed, 1922, Vol 1, p. 338</ref>

During the 1960s, the ceremony of assenting by commission was discontinued and is now only employed once a year, at the end of the annual parliamentary session. In 1960, the Gentleman Usher of the [[Black Rod]] arrived to summon the House of Commons during a heated debate and several members protested against the disruption by refusing to attend the ceremony. The debacle was repeated in 1965; this time, when the Speaker left the chair to go to the House of Lords, some members continued to make speeches. As a result, the [[Royal Assent Act 1967]] was passed, creating an additional form for the granting of royal assent. As the attorney-general explained, "there has been a good deal of resentment not only at the loss of Parliamentary time that has been involved but at the breaking of the thread of a possibly eloquent speech and the disruption of a debate that may be caused."<ref>[https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1967/apr/17/royal-assent-bill-lords#S5CV0745P0_19670417_HOC_23 Hansard] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231016033458/https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1967/apr/17/royal-assent-bill-lords#S5CV0745P0_19670417_HOC_23 |date=16 October 2023 }}, 7 April 1967, House of Commons, columns 7–25</ref>

Under the Royal Assent Act 1967, royal assent can be granted by the sovereign in writing, by means of letters patent, that are presented to the presiding officer of each house of Parliament.<ref name="so29" /> Then, the presiding officer makes a formal, but simple statement to the house, acquainting each house that royal assent has been granted to the acts mentioned. Thus, unlike the granting of royal assent by the monarch in person or by royal commissioners, the method created by the Royal Assent Act 1967 does not require both houses to meet jointly for the purpose of receiving the notice of royal assent. The standard text of the letters patent is set out in the [[Crown Office (Forms and Proclamations Rules) Order 1992]] ([[SI 1992]]/1730),<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/1992/1730/contents/made | title=The Crown Office (Forms and Proclamations Rules) Order 1992 | publisher=[[The National Archives (United Kingdom)|The National Archives]] | year=2002 | access-date=30 August 2014 | archive-date=5 October 2014 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141005214330/http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/1992/1730/contents/made | url-status=live }}</ref> with minor amendments in 2000. In practice this remains the standard method, a fact that is belied by the wording of the letters patent for the appointment of the Royal Commissioners and by the wording of the letters patent for the granting of royal assent in writing under the 1967 Act ("... And forasmuch as We cannot at this time be present in the Higher House of Our said Parliament being the accustomed place for giving Our Royal Assent...").<ref>
"[http://image.sl.nsw.gov.au/Ebind/f990_1_c/a111/a111000.html Souvenir of the inauguration of the Australian Commonwealth, 1901] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070815131621/http://image.sl.nsw.gov.au/Ebind/f990_1_c/a111/a111000.html |date=15 August 2007 }} ". State Library of New South Wales, 2001. Retrieved 11 April 2007.
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Independently of the method used to signify royal assent, it is the responsibility of the [[Clerk of the Parliaments]], once the assent has been duly notified to both houses, not only to endorse the act in the name of the monarch with the formal Norman French formula, but to certify that assent has been granted.<ref>{{citation| url=http://www.legislation.gov.uk/apgb/Geo3/33/13| title=Acts of Parliament (Commencement) Act 1793| publisher=[[UK Statute Law Database]]| access-date=4 December 2014| archive-date=10 May 2019| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190510203300/http://www.legislation.gov.uk/apgb/Geo3/33/13| url-status=live}}</ref> The Clerk signs one authentic copy of the bill and inserts the date (in English) on which the assent was notified to the two houses after the title of the act.<ref>[https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/lords/1967/mar/02/royal-assent-bill-hl#column_1191 Hansard] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231016033458/https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/lords/1967/mar/02/royal-assent-bill-hl#column_1191 |date=16 October 2023 }}, House of Lords, 2 March 1967, column 1191</ref>