Parliament Act of 1911

Parliament Act of 1911, act passed Aug. 10, 1911, in the British Parliament which deprived the House of Lords of its absolute power of veto on legislation. The act was proposed by a Liberal majority in the House of Commons.

Chancellor of the Exchequer David Lloyd George, in his 1909 “People’s Budget,” had included a tax on the “unearned increment” of land enhanced in value by industrial or other developments nearby. (The budget also included higher death duties and a higher income tax.) The Lords rejected the land tax on the grounds that such a tax involved a land-valuation plan and did not belong in a finance bill. Their veto held up the national finances and caused a struggle between the two houses. To solve the crisis, two general elections were called in 1910. The second gave authority to carry a Parliament Bill that would end such struggles. The bill was endangered by the House of Lords’ veto power; so the Liberal government threatened a mass creation of Liberal peers, if the Lords failed to pass it.

Under the act, any bill passed by the House of Commons in three separate sessions without being altered could be presented for the royal assent without the consent of the Lords, providing that two years had elapsed since the bill had been introduced. (The royal assent is required for an act of Parliament to become law.) Financial measures could now be presented one month after they passed the House of Commons. The maximum period that the House of Commons could remain in session was reduced from seven years to five.

In subordinating the House of Lords to the House of Commons, the 1911 Act was regarded as another step in the gradual democratization of the British Constitution.