This Library Note describes the wash-up process; reviews the proceedings on wash-up in 2010; and provides details of bills that received Royal Assent in each of the last six wash-up periods.
Wash-up 2010 (1 MB , PDF)
The wash-up period at the end of a Parliament allows a Government to get onto the statute book essential or non-controversial legislation that would not otherwise complete its passage through Parliament because of dissolution.
In 2010, wash-up proved more contentious than on recent previous occasions and prompted calls for the procedure to be reviewed or for additional checks and balances to protect against limited parliamentary scrutiny.
This paper has been jointly authored by staff in the House of Lords and House of Commons Libraries. The same paper has been published as both a House of Lords Library Note (LLN 2011/007) and a House of Commons Library Research Paper (RP 11/18).
Wash-up 2010 (1 MB , PDF)
UK prime ministers may draw up a resignation honours list on their departure from office, in which they may request that the reigning monarch grant honours to any number of people. Such honours may include peerages, knighthoods and damehoods, or other awards. However, not all have chosen to draw up such a list. This briefing lists those prime ministers who have requested that peerages be conferred on their departure from office.
The Church of Scotland (Lord High Commissioner) Bill would remove the restriction on people of the Roman Catholic faith holding the office of His Majesty’s lord high commissioner to the general assembly of the Church of Scotland.
In 2024 the restoration and renewal programme announced it would be developing three options to preserve the Palace of Westminster. Details should be presented to Parliament in 2025. Members will then decide whether the programme should temporarily relocate both Houses of Parliament, keep the Commons Chamber onsite while temporarily relocating the Lords, or conduct a rolling programme of works “to deliver enhanced maintenance and improvement”. Surveying, design and remediation work was also progressed in 2024.
