Clerk of the House of Commons

For the Canadian official, see Clerk of the House of Commons (Canada).

Clerk of the House of Commons
Incumbent Tom Goldsmith since 1 October 2023
House of Commons
Status	Principal constitutional adviser to the House and Corporate Officer of the House
Seat	Palace of Westminster
Appointer	The Crown (de jure) Clerk of the Parliaments (de facto)
Inaugural holder	Robert de Melton
Formation	1363 first permanent appointment

The clerk of the House of Commons is the chief executive of the House of Commons in the Parliament of the United Kingdom, and before 1707 in the House of Commons of England.

The formal name for the position held by the Clerk of the House of Commons is Under Clerk of the Parliaments;[1] The chief clerk of the House of Lords is the Clerk of the Parliaments.

Appointment

The Clerk of the House is appointed by the sovereign by Letters Patent, in which they are styled "Under Clerk of the Parliaments [...] to attend upon the Commons".[2] Before 1748, the Clerkship of the House of Commons could be purchased until Jeremiah Dyson (then Clerk of the House) ended the practice of purchase when he left the Clerkship.[3]

Duties

Sir Courtenay Ilbert

The Clerk of the House is the principal constitutional adviser to the house, and adviser on all its procedure and business, including parliamentary privilege, and frequently appears before select and joint committees examining constitutional and parliamentary matters. As with all the members of the House Service, he is politically entirely impartial and is not a civil servant. Until 1 January 2008, when the reforms to the house's governance proposed by the Tebbit Review of management and services of the house were implemented, the clerk was the head of the Clerk's Department.[4] He sits at the table of the house, in the right-hand chair (the left-hand chair, looking towards the Speaker’s chair) for part of every sitting. The historic role of the clerks at the table is to record the decisions of the house (not what is said, which is recorded by Hansard). This they (but not the clerk) still do. The clerks at the table used to wear court dress with wing collar and white tie, a bob (barrister’s) wig and a silk gown. However, as of February 2017 the clerks will only have to wear gowns.[5] For the State Opening of Parliament and other state occasions, the Clerk of the House wears full court dress with breeches, and a lace jabot and cuffs.[6]

Incumbent

As of October 2023^[update], the office is currently held by Tom Goldsmith, previously the Principal Clerk of the Table Office, who replaced Sir John Benger when he retired on 1 October 2023.[7]

List of Clerks of the House of Commons

14th century

• 1363 – Robert de Melton
• 1385 – John de Scardeburgh

15th century

• 1414 – Thomas Haseley
• 1440 – John Dale
• 1461 – Thomas Bayen

16th century

• 1504 – Thomas Hylton
• 1510 – William Underhill
• 1515 – Robert Ormeston
• 1547 – John Seymour
• 1570 – Fulk Onslow

17th century

• 1603 – Ralph Ewens
• 1611 – William Pinches
• 1612 – John Wright
• 1639 – Henry Elsyng
• 1649 – Henry Scobell
• 1658 – John Smythe
• 1659 – John Phelips
• 1659 – Thomas St. Nicholas
• 1660 – William Jessop
• 1661 – William Goldsborough
• 1678 – William Goldsborough the Younger
• 1683 – Paul Jodrell

18th century

• 1727 – Edward Stables
• 1732 – Nicholas Hardinge
• 1748 – Jeremiah Dyson
• 1762 – Thomas Tyrwhitt
• 1768 – John Hatsell (1733–1820)
  • 1797 - Hatsell retired, and John Ley (1733–1814), Deputy Clerk, took over his duties[8]
  • 1814 - Jeremiah Dyson the younger, Deputy Clerk [9]

19th century

• 1820 – John Henry Ley (on the death of Hatsell)
• 1850 – Sir Denis Le Marchant, Bt
• 1871 – Sir Thomas Erskine May
• 1886 – Sir Reginald Palgrave KCB

20th century

• 1900 – Sir Archibald Milman KCB[10]
• 1902 – Sir Courtenay Ilbert KCB KCSI CIE
• 1921 – Sir Thomas Lonsdale Webster KCB
• 1930 – Sir Horace Dawkins KCB MBE
• 1937 – Sir Gilbert Campion GCB
• 1948 – Sir Frederic Metcalfe KCB
• 1954 – Sir Edward Fellowes KCB CMG MC
• 1962 – Sir Barnett Cocks KCB OBE
• 1974 – Sir David Lidderdale KCB
• 1976 – Sir Richard Barlas KCB OBE
• 1979 – Sir Charles Gordon KCB
• 1983 – Sir Kenneth Bradshaw KCB
• 1987 – Sir Clifford Boulton GCB
• 1994 – Sir Donald Limon KCB
• 1998 – Sir William McKay KCB

21st century

• 2003 – Sir Roger Sands KCB
• 2006 – Sir Malcolm Jack KCB
• 2011 – Sir Robert Rogers KCB
• 2015 – Sir David Natzler KCB (acting 2014–2015)[11]
• 2019 – Sir John Benger KCB[12]
• 2023 – Tom Goldsmith[13]

See also

• Clerk of the Parliaments
• Clerk of the Scottish Parliament
• Chief Executive and Clerk of the Senedd
• Clerk of the Northern Ireland Assembly

References

1. Parliamentary Corporate Bodies Act 1992, section 2(2): "The individual who for the time being is by letters patent appointed to the office of the Under Clerk of the Parliaments (and who is customarily referred to as the Clerk of the House of Commons) shall be the Corporate Officer of the Commons."
2. "Clerk of the House of Commons". erskinemay.parliament.uk. Houses of Parliament. Retrieved 16 February 2021.
3. Rogers, Robert (18 September 2012). Who Goes Home? A Parliamentary Miscellany. Biteback Publishing. ISBN 9781849544801.
4. "Clerk of the House of Commons". www.parliament.uk. Retrieved 28 May 2020.
5. "Speaker Bercow says Commons clerks' wigs to get chop – BBC News". BBC News. Retrieved 6 February 2017.
6. "Clerk of the House and Chief Executive". Parliament.uk. 24 July 2014.
7. Lindsay Hoyle, Speaker of the House (30 March 2023). "Speaker's Statement". Parliamentary Debates (Hansard). United Kingdom: House of Commons.
8. Ley is pictured with Hatsell in 1795 by James Sayers in "Cicero in Catilinam". National Portrait Gallery. Retrieved 22 October 2024.
9. Williams, Orlo (1954). The Clerical Organization of the House of Commons, 1661-1850. Clarendon Press. pp. 103–105, 355. Retrieved 22 November 2022.
10. "No. 27164". The London Gazette. 13 February 1900. p. 999.
11. "House of Commons Commission decisions, 16 October 2014". parliament.uk. 20 October 2014.
12. "Clerk of the House of Commons appointment: Dr John Benger". GOV.UK. Prime Minister's Office, 10 Downing Street. 5 February 2019. Retrieved 15 February 2019.
13. "Tom Goldsmith appointed as Clerk of the House of Commons". Parliament of the United Kingdom. 30 March 2023.

External links

• Information sheet – Clerk of the House – UK Parliament website
• Records of the Department of the Clerk of the House – UK Parliamentary Archives website
• Records of the Office of the Clerk of the House - UK Parliamentary Archives website