Proposals for legislation and amendments to existing legislation are treated in the same way. Following approval by local committees or groups (e.g. in a division), all proposals must be considered by General Purposes Committee (GPC). Most proposals are then recommended by GPC to Council (apart from regulations on Academic and Other Posts (Council regulations 24 of 2002) and Trusts (Council regulations 25 of 2002)).
Some statutes (or sections of statutes) are described as ‘King-in-Council’, in which case the published statute will say ‘This statute/sections x-y is/are a ‘King-in-Council’ statutes’. King-in-Council statutes also need approval by the Privy Council; the other statutes require approval of Congregation.
All legislative proposals are published in the Gazette. This ‘Gazetting’ allows an opportunity under the Congregation Regulations 2 of 2002 for any two members of Congregation to give notice to the Registrar that they intend to vote against the proposal or to submit a proposed amendment being put to Congregation. Publication in the Gazette is always a minimum of 19 days in advance of the date of the corresponding ‘meeting’ of Congregation, to allow time for this to happen. For legislative amendments that do not need the approval of Congregation, approval takes effect 15 days after the date of publication, unless twenty members of Congregation submit a resolution to Council to annul or amend the regulation.
