The dissolution of the Parliament of the United Kingdom occurs automatically five years after the day on which

Parliament In modern politics and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...

first met following a

general election A general election is an electoral process to choose most or all members of a governing body at the same time. They are distinct from By-election, by-elections, which fill individual seats that have become vacant between general elections. Gener ...

, or on an earlier date by royal proclamation at the advice of the

prime minister A prime minister or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. A prime minister is not the head of state, but r ...

. The

monarch A monarch () is a head of stateWebster's II New College Dictionary. "Monarch". Houghton Mifflin. Boston. 2001. p. 707. Life tenure, for life or until abdication, and therefore the head of state of a monarchy. A monarch may exercise the highest ...

's prerogative power to dissolve Parliament was revived by the

Dissolution and Calling of Parliament Act 2022 The Dissolution and Calling of Parliament Act 2022 (c. 11) is an Act of Parliament (United Kingdom), act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that repealed the Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011 and reinstated the prior constitutional situatio ...

, which also repealed the

Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011 The Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011 (c. 14) (FTPA) was an Act of Parliament (United Kingdom), act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom which, for the first time, set in legislation a default fixed-term election, fixed election date for gener ...

. By virtue of amendments made by the Dissolution and Calling of Parliament Act to Schedule 1 to the

Representation of the People Act 1983 The Representation of the People Act 1983 (c. 2) is an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It changed the British electoral process in the following ways: * Amended the Representation of the People Act 1969 (c. 15). * Stated that a ...

, the dissolution of Parliament automatically triggers a general election. The last dissolution of Parliament occurred on 30 May 2024, following the announcement that the 2024 general election would be held on 4 July.

Mechanism

Parliament is dissolved by the King on the Prime Minister's request. After agreeing to the request the King will authorise a

proclamation A proclamation (Lat. ''proclamare'', to make public by announcement) is an official declaration issued by a person of authority to make certain announcements known. Proclamations are currently used within the governing framework of some nations ...

at a Privy Council meeting, which he will then

order Order, ORDER or Orders may refer to: * A socio-political or established or existing order, e.g. World order, Ancien Regime, Pax Britannica * Categorization, the process in which ideas and objects are recognized, differentiated, and understood ...

to be issued under the

Great Seal of the Realm The Great Seal of the Realm is a seal that is used in the United Kingdom to symbolise the sovereign's approval of state documents. It is also known as the Great Seal of the United Kingdom (known prior to the Treaty of Union of 1707 as the Gr ...

. As soon as Parliament is dissolved, members of Parliament cease to hold office, and they may not enter the

Palace of Westminster The Palace of Westminster is the meeting place of the Parliament of the United Kingdom and is located in London, England. It is commonly called the Houses of Parliament after the House of Commons and the House of Lords, the two legislative ch ...

, although they and their staff continue to be paid until polling day. Ministers retain their positions until the election, but government activity is limited to prevent public funds being used to support the incumbent government's electoral campaign. Parliament is usually prorogued or

adjourned In parliamentary procedure, an adjournment ends a meeting. It could be done using a motion to adjourn. A time for another meeting could be set using the motion to fix the time to which to adjourn. Law In law, to adjourn means to suspend or postp ...

before it is dissolved. Parliament may continue to sit for a wash-up period of a few days after the

Prime Minister A prime minister or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. A prime minister is not the head of state, but r ...

has announced the date when Parliament will be dissolved, to finish some last items of parliamentary business. Business left unresolved after this period will not be entered into law. After Parliament has dissolved, a

royal proclamation A proclamation (Lat. ''proclamare'', to make public by announcement) is an official declaration issued by a person of authority to make certain announcements known. Proclamations are currently used within the governing framework of some nations ...

is made summoning a new Parliament, fixing the date when the new Parliament is to assemble, and requiring the issuing of writs of summons to the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and

writs of election A writ of election is a writ issued ordering the holding of an election. In Commonwealth countries writs are the usual mechanism by which general elections are called and are issued by the head of state or their representative. In the United S ...

for the members of the House of Commons. If Parliament is dissolved by proclamation, the proclamation dissolving it will usually also summon the next one. While it is the royal proclamation, and subsequent

Order in Council An Order in Council is a type of legislation in many countries, especially the Commonwealth realms. In the United Kingdom, this legislation is formally made in the name of the monarch by and with the advice and consent of the Privy Council ('' ...

, which direct the issue of writs of election, the amended parliamentary election rules direct that a writ is to be deemed to have been received the day after Parliament has been dissolved and that therefore, the general election process can begin before the writ is received by returning officers. The poll for the general election is held 25 working days (a day which is not a weekend, bank holiday or a day of national mourning or thanksgiving) after Parliament is dissolved. By tradition, a copy of the royal proclamation is delivered by hand from the Privy Council Office to Mansion House in the

City of London The City of London, also known as ''the City'', is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county and Districts of England, local government district with City status in the United Kingdom, city status in England. It is the Old town, his ...

. The proclamation is then read out on the steps of the Royal Exchange by the Common Cryer and Serjeant-At-Arms of the City. Similar reading also takes place on the

Royal Mile The Royal Mile () is the nickname of a series of streets forming the main thoroughfare of the Old Town, Edinburgh, Old Town of Edinburgh, Scotland. The term originated in the early 20th century and has since entered popular usage. The Royal ...

in Edinburgh by the

Lord Lyon King of Arms The Right Honourable the Lord Lyon King of Arms, the head of Lyon Court, is the most junior of the Great Officer of State, Great Officers of State in Scotland and is the Scotland, Scottish official with responsibility for regulating heraldry i ...

. This tradition was again carried out in May 2024.

History

Prior to the

Triennial Acts The Triennial Act 1640 ( 16 Cha. 1. c. 1), also known as the Dissolution Act, was an act passed on 15 February 1641,Parliaments of England could be summoned and dissolved at the Sovereign's discretion. The Acts mandated that gaps between parliaments must not exceed three years, but did not originally put in provisions for mandated dissolution, leading to the

Long Parliament The Long Parliament was an Parliament of England, English Parliament which lasted from 1640 until 1660, making it the longest-lasting Parliament in English and British history. It followed the fiasco of the Short Parliament, which had convened f ...

which was formed in 1640 and was not dissolved until 1660, and the

Cavalier Parliament The Cavalier Parliament of England lasted from 8 May 1661 until 24 January 1679. With the exception of the Long Parliament, it was the longest-lasting English Parliament, and longer than any Great British or UK Parliament to date, enduring ...

which sat continuously for 18 years. The 1694 Act set the maximum duration to three years, with mandatory

general elections A general election is an electoral process to choose most or all members of a governing body at the same time. They are distinct from by-elections, which fill individual seats that have become vacant between general elections. General elections ...

between each. This legislation was carried forward into the

Parliament of Great Britain The Parliament of Great Britain was formed in May 1707 following the ratification of the Acts of Union 1707, Acts of Union by both the Parliament of England and the Parliament of Scotland. The Acts ratified the treaty of Union which created a ...

following the ratification of the

Acts of Union 1707 The Acts of Union refer to two acts of Parliament, one by the Parliament of Scotland in March 1707, followed shortly thereafter by an equivalent act of the Parliament of England. They put into effect the international Treaty of Union agree ...

. The

Septennial Act 1715 The Septennial Act 1715 ( 1 Geo. 1. St. 2. c. 38), sometimes called the Septennial Act 1716, was an act of the Parliament of Great Britain. It was passed in May 1716. It increased the maximum length of a parliament (and hence the maximum perio ...

increased the maximum length of a parliament to seven years, after which time it would automatically expire. This was later amended by the

Parliament Act 1911 The Parliament Act 1911 ( 1 & 2 Geo. 5. c. 13) is an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It is constitutionally important and partly governs the relationship between the House of Commons and the House of Lords, the two Houses of Parl ...

, reducing the maximum term to five years. This could, however, be overridden at the pleasure of Parliament. The length of a Parliament has been extended on two occasions since 1911, once during each of the two

World War A world war is an international War, conflict that involves most or all of the world's major powers. Conventionally, the term is reserved for two major international conflicts that occurred during the first half of the 20th century, World War I ...

s. At any time the Sovereign could dissolve Parliament and call a general election. In accordance with constitutional convention, the Sovereign did not act independently, but at the request of the

. Constitutional experts held that the monarch might refuse permission under the Lascelles Principles if a Parliament had more than a year still to run and if another person could potentially command a majority in the House of Commons. In practice, this meant that a Prime Minister with a Commons majority and the support of his party had ''de facto'' authority to dissolve Parliament at a time of his choosing. Prior to 1918, it was the Cabinet who collectively sought permission from the monarch in order for Parliament to be dissolved. However, since 1918, the Prime Minister alone sought the permission of the Sovereign.

Summary of historical term lengths of the Parliament of the United Kingdom

Fixed-term Parliaments Act

Fixed term parliaments were introduced by the

following the

Conservative–Liberal Democrat coalition agreement The Conservative–Liberal Democrat coalition agreement (officially known as The Coalition: Our Programme for Government) was a policy document drawn up following the 2010 United Kingdom general election, 2010 general election in the United Ki ...

promulgated after the 2010 election, thereby repealing the Septennial Act 1715 and abolishing the ability of the Prime Minister unilaterally to request an election prior to the expiry of the five-year term. By the Fixed-term Parliaments Act, general elections were to be held at fixed intervals and Parliament was to be dissolved 17, later 25, working days before the polling day for the next general election. The date for the next general election could be brought forward if the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the Bicameralism, bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of ...

passed a motion of no confidence in the Government or passed a motion for an early general election with a two-thirds majority. The Act did not affect the Sovereign's power to prorogue Parliament. Under the Fixed-term Parliaments Act,

were issued to the returning officers of each constituency automatically by virtue of section 3(3) of the Act. This was due to the fact that the royal proclamation no longer summoned the holding of the election, but only the meeting of the new Parliament. Parliament was dissolved automatically due to the expiration of its term for the first time on 30 March 2015, as opposed to being dissolved by royal proclamation. Although Prime Minister

David Cameron David William Donald Cameron, Baron Cameron of Chipping Norton (born 9 October 1966) is a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2010 to 2016. Until 2015, he led the first coalition government in the UK s ...

met the Queen on the day of the dissolution, the only business discussed was the calling of the new Parliament, and not a request for a dissolution, as had happened at every such meeting historically, and the subsequent royal proclamation made on 30 March simply called for the holding of the next Parliament. At the 2015 general election, the period between the dissolution of the previous Parliament and the meeting of the new Parliament was the longest period the United Kingdom had been without a Parliament since 1924. The 2017 general election was called by virtue of a motion for an early general election under the Fixed-term Parliaments Act. The motion was passed in the House of Commons with a vote of 522 to 13. In accordance with the provisions of the

Early Parliamentary General Election Act 2019 The Early Parliamentary General Election Act 2019 (c. 29), also known as the Election Bill, was an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that made legal provision for the holding of the 2019 general election on 12 December 2019. The a ...

, Parliament was dissolved without passing the motion cited under the provisions of section 2(2) of the

, which was then the default mechanism for dissolving Parliament prior to the expiration of its term. The 2019 Act fixed the polling day for the next general election as 12 December 2019, as if it had under section 2(7) of the Fixed-term Parliaments Act. This caused Parliament to be dissolved by virtue of section 3(1) of the Fixed-term Parliaments Act on 6 November.

Dissolution and Calling of Parliament Act

In December 2020, the Conservative government published a draft Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011 (Repeal) Bill, later retitled the

Dissolution and Calling of Parliament Bill Dissolution may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Dissolution'', a 2002 novel by Richard Lee Byers in the War of the Spider Queen series * ''Dissolution'' (Sansom novel), by C. J. Sansom, 2003 * ''Dissolution'' (Binge novel), by Nicholas Bing ...

when it was introduced to the House of Commons in May 2021, which would repeal the Fixed-term Parliaments Act in its entirety, restore the monarch's prerogative powers to dissolve Parliament at the prime minister's request, and ensure that a parliamentary term automatically ends five years after a Parliament's first meeting, with the polling day being held 25 working days later. The bill was given

royal assent Royal assent is the method by which a monarch formally approves an act of the legislature, either directly or through an official acting on the monarch's behalf. In some jurisdictions, royal assent is equivalent to promulgation, while in othe ...

on 24 March 2022. The first dissolution of Parliament under this bill occurred on 30 May 2024, following its

prorogation Prorogation in the Westminster system of government is the action of proroguing, or interrupting, a parliament, or the discontinuance of meetings for a given period of time, without a dissolution of parliament. The term is also used for the period ...

six days earlier.

References

External links

Frequently Asked Questions: General Election

Election Timetables
House of Commons Library Research Paper 09/44, 13 May 2009
Dissolution of Parliament 2010

Prorogation of the 54th Parliament of the United Kingdom
video on

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

. {{UK law Parliament of the United Kingdom Parliamentary procedure Constitution of the United Kingdom