1,062

The number of U.K. laws were secretly vetted by the Queen or Prince Charles before they were approved by members of the British parliament, The Guardian reports. Laws that are subject to vetting range from matters of justice, food policy and social security to smaller rules on road safety and hovercraft. The Guardian compiled a database as part of an investigation into the powers of the Queen's consent — an old parliamentary formality whereby the Queen is privately told of draft parliamentary bills affecting the Crown's interests and asked for consent to debate them. The Queen's representatives would not tell The Guardian how often she exercised her right to consent to ask for alterations to legislation since ascending the throne in 1952. Multiple statements from Buckingham Palace to the Guardian have emphasized that the role of sovereign in giving consent is a “longstanding convention and requirement of the parliamentary process.” “Consent is routinely sought by the government and agreed by the monarch as a matter of course,” one statement reads.