In this Act—

• F1“the Corporate Officers” means the Corporate Officer of the House of Commons and the Corporate Officer of the House of Lords, acting jointly;

• “the Delivery Authority” has the meaning given by section 3(3);

• “the Estimates Commission” means the Parliamentary Works Estimates Commission;

• “financial year”, in relation to the Sponsor Body or the Estimates Commission, means—

  1. a

     the period beginning with the date on which the Sponsor Body or the Estimates Commission (as the case may be) is established and ending with the 31 March following that date, and

  2. b

     each successive period of 12 months;

• “financial year”, in relation to the Delivery Authority, means—

  1. a

     the period beginning with the date on which the Delivery Authority is formed and ending with the 31 March following that date, and

  2. b

     each successive period of 12 months;

• “the House Commissions” means the House of Commons Commission and the House of Lords Commission (and see subsection (2));

• “House of Lords Commission” means any committee of the House of Lords whose terms of reference include the provision of strategic and political direction for the administration of the House of Lords on behalf of the House;

• “Leader of the House of Commons” means the Minister of the Crown who is for the time being designated as Leader of the House of Commons by the Prime Minister;

• “Leader of the House of Lords” means the Minister of the Crown who is for the time being designated as Leader of the House of Lords by the Prime Minister;

• “Minister of the Crown” has the same meaning as in the Ministers of the Crown Act 1975;

• “Palace restoration works” has the meaning given by section 1(2);

• “the Parliamentary building works” has the meaning given by section 1(1);

• “the Sponsor Body” means the Parliamentary Works Sponsor Body F2(but by virtue of regulation 9(7) of the Parliamentary Works Sponsor Body (Abolition) Regulations 2022 references to the Sponsor Body in this Act are after the commencement of those Regulations to be treated as references to the Corporate Officers).

References in this Act to the doing of anything by the House Commissions are to the doing of the thing by them jointly.

Any question arising in relation to the definition of “House of Lords Commission” in subsection (1) is to be determined by the Speaker of the House of Lords.

This Act extends to England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

This is subject to paragraph 28(3) of Schedule 1.

Section 13, this section and section 15 come into force on the day on which this Act is passed.

The other provisions of this Act come into force at the end of the period of 6 months beginning with the day on which this Act is passed (subject to subsection (3)).

Before making regulations under subsection (3), the Leader of the House of Commons must obtain the consent of the Leader of the House of Lords.