A Guardian investigation last year revealed the Queen’s consent procedure had been used by the monarch in recent decades to privately lobby for changes to proposed UK legislation. In Scotland, where the procedure is known as crown consent, research by the Guardian identified at least 67 instances in which Scottish bills were vetted by the Queen.
The Queen’s representatives have previously refused to say how many times she requested alterations to legislation as part of this procedure. Buckingham Palace and the government insist the process is “purely formal” and maintain the Queen does not use the procedure to change the nature of draft bills.
But the newly obtained internal memo, prepared in response to a parliamentary question on the use of crown consent, contains the first explicit admission that the procedure may be used to change legislation to address the Queen’s concerns.