Dear Anne Palmer

Thank you for your enquiry. You asked if the Queen actually signs treaties or Acts of Parliament.

ROYAL ASSENT
Had she been living 500 years ago, the Queen would have signed all Bills herself. She would also have gone in person to the House of Lords to announce in Norman French whether she agreed to a Bill ('La Reyne le veult') or wished to reject it ('La Reyne s'avisera'). No monarchs since the sixteenth century have signed Bills themselves, and, as you noticed, Queen Victoria was the last monarch to give the Royal Assent in person in 1854.

Nevertheless, the monarch still has a part to play, which involves signing relevant documents.

There are two ways in which the Queen can assent to a Bill.

Usually she signs what are known as Letters Patent which allow the Speakers of the two Houses (the Speaker of the House of Commons and the Lord Chancellor) to announce that the Queen has given her assent.

The other method of giving the Royal Assent occurs about once a year, usually at the end of a session. The Queen signs a document known as a Commission which commands certain Lords, known as Royal Commissioners, to go to the House of Lords and let Members of both Houses know that the Royal Assent has been given.

The Queen always knows which Bills she is consenting to because she is given a list of the Bills involved when she signs the Letters Patent or Royal Commission. It is unlikely that she reads through the contents of every Bill before giving the Royal Assent because she knows that both Houses of Parliament will already have considered the Bill very carefully. The Queen would, in any case, know a great deal about important Bills because she reads all the official papers very thoroughly. She also meets the Prime Minister once a week to discuss business. Important Bills are likely to be mentioned in some of their meetings.

Once a Bill has received the Royal Assent it becomes an Act of Parliament.

For further information on this, please see Page 9 of our Parliament Explained booklet No.4 "Making a Law". The booklet is available online at http://www.explore.parliament.uk/cms/DocumentUploads/teacherses04.pdf

TREATIES
The Queen does not sign treaties herself. The Government has the power to make treaties under prerogative powers: most treaties are signed either by government ministers or ambassadors.

Further information on this may be found in the following sources:

1) The Foreign Office website has a detailed section on who signs treaties: this is available here

2) A Parliamentary written answer appeared on this topic in Commons Hansard in 1998: here
(HC Deb 11 February 1998 c247W)

3) The House of Commons Public Administration Select Committee issued a press notice in connection with their inquiry Ministerial Powers and the Prerogative on 20 October 2003: here

I hope this is useful.

Yours sincerely
Tony Williams
House of Commons Information Office Phone: 020 7219 4272
House of Commons Fax: 020 7219 5839
London Email: hcinfo@parliament.uk
SW1A 2TT Web: www.parliament.uk