Talk:UK Constitution and Government/Parliament

I am confused by the term "Minister of the Crown". How many of these ministers are there? Do they sit in the Houses of Parliament along with MPs and Lords? I see that the Lord Chancellor is a Minister of the Crown, but who else?


 * There are 90-odd ministers, some more senior than others. They are almost always members of the House of Commons or the House of Lords, and the vast majority are in the House of Commons (so they have to be elected there first).  It is always possible to appoint someone to the House of Lords if necessary.

The section on Speakership in the House of Lords is now wrong; the law was recently ammended, and there is now a speaker of the House of Lords. The Lord Chancellor, whilst still technically holding the title, is usually referred to as 'Secretary of State for Constitutional Affairs' by the Government.

Use of "sovereign"
The use of the word sovereign in this is very confused. The monarch is not the sovereign - the Parliament, including the monarch, is. Although sovereign is indeed a common term used for monarchy, this is not a legally accurate use of the word: in addition, when discussing both sovereignty in terms of the person(s) who are sovereign and in terms of the concept of sovereignty as in the first paragraph, it would be sensible to use an alternative word to describe the former, in order to avoid confusion.