Executive Functions
The Lord Chancellor is a member of the Privy Council and of the Cabinet. The office he heads was known as the Lord Chancellor's Office between 1885 and 1971 and the Lord Chancellor's Department between 1971 and 2003. In 2003 the Department was renamed the Department for Constitutional Affairs and the Lord Chancellor was appointed Secretary of State for Constitutional Affairs. In 2007 this post was renamed Secretary of State for Justice and the department became the Ministry of Justice.
The Department headed by the Lord Chancellor has many responsibilities, such as the administration of the courts. Furthermore, the Lord Chancellor has a role in appointing many judges in the courts of England and Wales. Senior judges (Justices of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom, Lords Justices of Appeal and the Heads of the Divisions of the High Court) are officially appointed by the Sovereign on the advice of the Lord Chancellor, but since 2005 the Lord Chancellor has been advised by an independent Judicial Appointments Commission and can only choose whether to accept or reject its recommendations. Similarly the Lord Chancellor no longer determines which barristers are to be raised to the rank of Queen's Counsel but merely supervises the process of selection by an independent panel.
Custody of the Great Seal of the Realm is entrusted to the Lord Chancellor. Documents to which the Great Seal is affixed include letters patent, writs and royal proclamations. The sealing is actually performed under the supervision of the Clerk of the Crown in Chancery (who holds the additional office of Permanent Secretary to the Lord Chancellor). The Lord Chancellor does not maintain custody of the Great Seal of Scotland (which is kept by the First Minister of Scotland) or of the Great Seal of Northern Ireland (which is kept by the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland).
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