State Opening of Parliament


The State Opening of Parliament is a ceremonial event which formally marks the beginning of each session of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. At its core is His or Her Majesty's "gracious speech from the throne", which is read by the monarch but written by the government of the day. In the speech the monarch gives notice of forthcoming state visits, before setting out the government's legislative programme for the new parliamentary session. No business of either House of Parliament can proceed until the Sovereign’s speech has been delivered.
The State Opening takes place in the House of Lords chamber within the Palace of Westminster on the first day of the new parliamentary session. This traditionally tends to fall in November, but can occur at any time of year. It takes place in front of a formal gathering of both Houses of Parliament; the monarch customarily wears the Imperial State Crown and a Robe of State, and members of the House of Lords wear their parliament robes.
State Openings of Parliament are documented from as early as the 14th century and the first visual depictions date from the 15th century. The most recent State Opening was held on 17 July 2024, after the 2024 United Kingdom general election. It was the second of Charles III's reign, the first of the newly elected Labour government under Sir Keir Starmer, and the first State Opening with a Labour government since 2010.

Significance

The State Opening of Parliament is a ceremony filled with historical ritual, constitutional symbolism and practical significance relating to the governance of the United Kingdom.
Parliament is composed of the Sovereign, the House of Lords and the House of Commons, and a State Opening is the only routine occasion when the three are gathered together in one place. The monarch is seated on the throne, at one end of the chamber in front of the Cloth of Estate, flanked by an entourage of Great Officers of State and members of the Royal Household. The Lords are seated on "the floor of the House", while the Commons attend at "the bar of the House".
In addition to the Lords themselves, others are provided with seats on the floor of the House on the occasion of a State Opening, namely:
  • such members of the Royal Family as His Majesty may direct
  • Judges summoned by writ
  • the officers and attendants of the House
  • such Peeresses and members of the Diplomatic Corps as are in possession of an invitation issued by the Lord Great Chamberlain.

    Sequence of events

The ceremonial surrounding the opening of parliament can be broken down into several parts :

Searching of the cellars

First, the cellars of the Palace of Westminster are searched by the Yeomen of the Guard. This is derived from the 1605 Gunpowder Plot, an attempted assassination of James VI and I in which Guy Fawkes was caught guarding gunpowder in the cellars hours before the king was to open the second session of the Blessed Parliament. Since that year, the cellars have been searched, now largely, but not only, for ceremonial purposes. This is supervised by the Lord Great Chamberlain, and the Yeomen are paid for their services with a small glass of port wine.

Assembly of Peers and Commons

Peers and peeresses assemble in the House of Lords. The Lords Spiritual and the Lords Temporal wear their Parliament robes for the occasion. They are joined by senior representatives of the judiciary, who sit on woolsacks in the centre of the Chamber, and members of the diplomatic corps, who are seated behind the Bishops. The Commons assemble in their own chamber, wearing ordinary day dress, and begin the day, as any other, with prayers. Beforehand the Speaker's Procession takes place in the usual way: preceded by a doorkeeper, the Serjeant at Arms, leads the Speaker of the House of Commons from his official residence to the Commons Chamber, followed by his trainbearer, chaplain and secretary. In the Central Lobby, a police inspector makes the traditional cry of "Hats off, strangers!", instructing those assembled to remove their hats in deference to the highest-ranking commoner in the realm.

Delivery of parliamentary hostage

On the morning of the State Opening, the Treasurer, Comptroller and Vice-Chamberlain of the Household assemble with other senior members of the Royal Household at Buckingham Palace, carrying their ceremonial white staves of office. The Treasurer and Comptroller, along with other senior members of the Royal Household, accompany the monarch in the carriage procession; but the Lord Chamberlain does not join them. Instead, on behalf of the monarch, he remains at Buckingham Palace keeping one MP "hostage" for the duration of the state opening, by tradition as a surety for the safe return of the monarch. The hostage MP is well entertained until the successful conclusion of the ceremony, when they are released upon the safe return of the monarch. The Vice-Chamberlain's imprisonment is now purely ceremonial, though they do remain under guard; originally, it guaranteed the safety of the Sovereign as they entered a possibly hostile Parliament. The tradition is said to stem from the time of Charles I, who had a contentious relationship with Parliament and was eventually beheaded in 1649 during the Civil War between the monarchy and Parliament ; however it has been suggested that the custom in its present form is of much more recent origin. In 1845, by contrast, the Lord Chamberlain's routine absence from the State Opening was said to be due to "the department over which his lordship presides not being acknowledged in His Majesty's Palace at Westminster".
Hostage MPs in recent years have included:
Before the arrival of the sovereign, the Imperial State Crown is brought to the Palace of Westminster, together with the Great Sword of State and the Cap of Maintenance, in their own carriage. The King's Bargemaster and Watermen accompany it, acting as footmen. On arrival at the Sovereign's Entrance, under the Victoria Tower, the Crown is passed by the Bargemaster to the Comptroller of the Lord Chamberlain's Office, under the watchful eye of the Crown Jeweller. The regalia are then carried to be displayed in the Royal Gallery. Also in the procession, usually in King Edward VII's Town Coach, are the two maces which are carried by the Serjeants-at-Arms of the Royal Household who escort the regalia in procession.

Arrival of the Sovereign

The monarch travels "in State" from Buckingham Palace to the Palace of Westminster, arriving at the Sovereign's Entrance under the Victoria Tower. Travelling in a state coach, the monarch is usually accompanied by his or her consort and sometimes by other members of the royal family. Senior members of the Royal Household follow in other carriages. The Household Cavalry Mounted Regiment provides a Sovereign's Escort, and other members of the armed forces line the processional route from Buckingham Palace to the Palace of Westminster.
At the monarch's arrival, the national anthem is played, a gun salute is sounded in Green Park and the Royal Standard is hoisted in place of the Union Flag at the top of the Victoria Tower. The monarch is greeted on arrival by the Lord Great Chamberlain and the Earl Marshal, before proceeding to the Robing Room, where they put on the Parliament Robe of State and the Imperial State Crown.

Procession to the Chamber

A procession is formed of heralds, Great Officers of State and members of the Royal Household, and when all is ready a fanfare is sounded and the monarch proceeds in State through the Royal Gallery to the House of Lords. Directly ahead of the monarch walk two peers: one carrying the Cap of Maintenance, and the other carrying the Great Sword of State. Once seated on the throne, the monarch, wearing the Imperial State Crown, instructs the House by saying, "My Lords, pray be seated"; his or her consort, if present, sits on a throne to the sovereign’s left, and his or her children, if present, may be provided with seats elsewhere on the dais.
The Imperial State Crown has not been worn invariably: for example, on four occasions in the 20th century Parliament was opened by as yet uncrowned monarchs ; on these occasions the robe of state was worn but the crown was not.

Royal summons of the Commons to the Lords' chamber

Motioned by the monarch, the Lord Great Chamberlain raises his white staff of office to signal the official known as Black Rod to summon the House of Commons. Black Rod turns and, under the escort of the Door-keeper of the House of Lords, proceeds to the Members' Lobby of the House of Commons, and reaches the doors of the Commons.
On Black Rod's approach, the Doorkeeper of the Commons orders that the doors are slammed shut against them, symbolising the rights of parliament and its independence from the monarch. The Usher of the Black Rod then strikes with the end of their ceremonial staff three times on the closed doors of the Commons Chamber, and is then admitted.
File:John Hampden portrait.jpg|thumb|upright|Leading 17th-century parliamentarian John Hampden is one of the Five Members annually commemorated
This ritual is strongly associated with the occasion when King Charles I stormed into the House of Commons in 1642 in an unsuccessful attempt to arrest five members of Parliament, including the celebrated English patriot and leading parliamentarian John Hampden. The door-closing ritual, however, predates the 1640s, and although it has long since come to symbolise the independence of the Commons, its primary purpose is for the Commons to establish Black Rod's identity. Once this has been achieved, Black Rod cannot be refused admission, and all other business of whatever kind in the Commons chamber must cease.
The doors having been opened, the chief doorkeeper of the House of Commons introduces Black Rod. At the bar, Black Rod bows to the Speaker before proceeding to the table, bowing again, and announcing the command of the monarch for the attendance of the Commons, in the following words:
During the later decades of Elizabeth II's reign, a tradition developed for this command to be greeted with a defiant topical comment by republican-leaning Labour MP Dennis Skinner, upon which, with some mirth, the House rose to make its way to the Lords' Chamber. This customary intervention was omitted by Mr Skinner in 2015, claiming that he had "bigger fish to fry than uttering something", due to a dispute over seating with the Scottish Nationalists. Skinner resumed the practice in 2016, until he was unseated in 2019.