4.2. Separation of Power in England

The United Kingdom (UK) constitution is often described as having "a weak separation of powers" doctrine.

In the UK:

♤ The executive forms a subset of the legislature. The judiciary also formed its part until the establishment of the Supreme Court (SC) of the UK.

♤ The Prime Minister (PM), the Chief Executive, sits as a member of the Parliament, either in the House of Lords or as an elected member of the House of Commons (by convention, and as a result of the supremacy of the Lower House, the PM now sits in the House of Commons) and can effectively be removed from office by a simple majority vote.

♤ The UK follows the principle of Parliamentary sovereignty which limits the scope for judicial review by the courts.

♤ Furthermore, while the courts in the UK are undoubtedly amongst the most independent in the world, the Law Lords, who were the final arbiters of judicial disputes in the UK sat simultaneously in the House of Lords, the upper house of the legislature, although this arrangement ceased in 2009 when the SC of the UK came into existence.

♤ Until 2005, the Lord Chancellor fused the Legislature, Executive and Judiciary, as he was the ex officio Speaker of the House of Lords, a Government Minister who sat in Cabinet and was head of the Lord Chancellor's Department which administered the courts, the justice system and appointed judges, and was the head of the Judiciary in England and Wales and sat as a judge on the Judicial Committee of the House of Lords, the highest domestic court in the entire UK, and the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, the senior tribunal court for parts of the Commonwealth. The Lord Chancellor also had certain other judicial positions, including being a judge in the Court of Appeal and President of the Chancery Division. The Lord Chancellor combines other aspects of the Constitution, including having certain priestly functions of the established state church, making certain church appointments, nominations and sitting as one of the thirty-three Church Commissioners. These functions remain intact and unaffected by the Constitutional Reform Act.

♤ In 2005, the Constitutional Reform Act separated the powers with Legislative functions going to an elected Lord Speaker and the Judicial functions going to the Lord Chief Justice. The Lord Chancellor's Department was replaced with a Ministry of Justice and the Lord Chancellor currently serves in the position of Secretary of State for Justice.