The Crown Steward and Bailiff of the Chiltern Hundreds and the Crown Steward and Bailiff of the Manor of Northstead are infamous British civil service positions that once had a real purpose but are now used as a legal loophole for an MP to resign from Parliament. MP’s aren’t legally allowed to just resign, but there’s a policy that any MP who is appointed to a civil service position is automatically disqualified, so MP’s who want to resign can ask to be appointed to one of these positions (heh heh) and they usually get it, since nobody wants a grudging goofoff hanging around Parliament. Once in their sinecure civil service position, they aren’t expected to actually do anything and they get paid no more than a few pence, since the salary hasn’t been updated in decades, if not centuries.
Other Sinecure positions legally exist within the British government and many are actually held by someone.
Of course, British society being what it is, I would expect that the vast majority of people appointed to one of these positions are going to “behave” and treat the position as what it is today - something that is more or less meaningless.
To what extent do these positions have latent de jure power that could theoretically be used? For example, the Crown Steward and Bailiff positions appear to be, at least in theory, LEO positions. For example, if the Crown Steward and Bailiff of the Chiltern Hundreds strapped a pistol on his belt and went around the Chiltern Hundreds writing citations, making arrests, etc. would they be legally valid? Socially inappropriate yes, but does he have a leg to stand on in terms of legally being an LEO? I would expect that the position doesn’t provide much of a budget and so he’d be buying his equipment, squad car, etc. on his own penny.
Smartarse answer; he’d be arrested. Bailiffs don’t carry guns in the UK, and being appointed even a proper court bailiff doesn not enititle you to carry a gun. Nor do bailiffs require or use squad cars, or arrest people.
Bailiffs (court bailiffs, that is) enforce judgments. They turn up at the judgment debtor’s house or place of business, take his property and auction it to pay his judgment debt. Or they enforce eviction orders. If they need muscle, they call on the police.
Longer answer; public officers only have the powers they need to discharge their functions. As these particular offices no longer carry any functions, they have no special powers.
All the sinecures have had any real power they may have once had legally stripped from them and placed into the hands of others. For example, the Lord Privy Seal was once simply the dude who looked after the Privy Seal (no laughing) for the monarch, but there is no Privy Seal any more.
The Lord President of the Council is simply the person who presides over meetings of the Privy Council. The Privy Council retains some vestigial power, but it can be overriden by Parliament and it’s entirely under the control of the Cabinet, anyway. It approves stuff the Prime Minister in Cabinet has already decided will happen.
A lot of the old sinecures back in the day didn’t have much formal power to begin with anyway, but were still hotly desired because they gave the officeholder closer access to the monarch.
The Crown Steward and Bailiff of the Chiltern Hundreds/Manor of Northstead were once centuries ago legal positions with real power but successive law changes have placed all their powers and responsibilities in the hands of more modern institutions - they simply haven’t abolished the older offices.
The Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, however, does retain some responsibilities for the Duchy, but these are slight and the Duchy runs largely autonomously. Every now and then the Chancellor may be expected to submit a report or answer a Question in Parliament, and everyone would then ignore it again.
Some sinecure positions can be given powers if the government of the day deems it necessary. Attlee was Lord President and so is Clegg IIRC. A position given to reflect the holders status in the coalition government.
Strictly speaking, I don’t think these additional powers are given to the position, but to the person who happens to hold the position. The next incumbent will not necessarily hold the same powers.
Furthermore it’s rare, in modern times, for the Lord President not to have at least one other office (Nick Clegg is Deputy Prime Minister; his predecessor, Peter Mandelson, was Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills) and of course the duties of these offices are not duties of the Lord President.
The office does have duties; principally the duty of presiding at meetings of the Privy Council (which does meet, typically once a month, and does have business to dispatch).
Well, the Cabinet is also a Committee of the Privy Council, and it’s even more powerful than the Judicial Committee.
But the Lord President has no function in relation to either.
The PC has other, less well-known Comittees - the Universities Committee, the Scottish Universities Committee, the Political Honours Scrutiny Committee, and others. They all have their functions. But the Lord President, as such, has no role in relation to them.
The Hundreds and the Manor are unpaid; as for the Cabinet ones like the Lord Privy Seal, I can’t say for certain but I venture on yes, they get a standard ministerial salary.
I was more specifically thinking of the Council as a legislative/advisory body but you’re quite right, the JCPC is quite powerful.