Question to the Leader of the House:

To ask the Leader of the House, under what circumstances Right Honourable Members of the House would be (a) invited and (b) entitled to attend a meeting of the Privy Council.

There are currently some 680 members of the Privy Council, but only ministers of the current Government attend scheduled meetings of Her Majesty’s Privy Council, and are notified or invited on a meeting by meeting basis. I attend each Privy Council meeting in my capacity of Lord President of the Council, together with a quorum of three further Government ministers. The quorum are invited on a rota basis, dependent on availability.

There are, however, two occasions when the whole of the Privy Council is invited to attend a meeting; the announcement of the intention of a reigning Sovereign to marry; and, the Accession Council. The Privy Council Office has detailed procedures in place for contacting all Privy Counsellors in this event.