# Septennial Act 1715

The Septennial Act 1715 (1 Geo. 1. St. 2. c. 38), sometimes called the Septennial Act 1716, was an Act of the Parliament of Great Britain. It was passed in May 1716. It increased the maximum length of a parliament (and hence the maximum period between general elections) from three years to seven. This seven-year ceiling remained in law from 1716 until 1911. The previous limit of three years had been set by the Triennial Act 1694, enacted by the Parliament of England.
The act's ostensible aim was to reduce the expense caused by frequent elections. It did not require Parliament to last for a full term, but merely set a maximum length on its life. Most parliaments in the remainder of the eighteenth century did indeed last for six or seven years, with only two lasting for a shorter time. In the nineteenth century, the average length of a term of the Parliament of the United Kingdom was four years. One of the demands of the mid-nineteenth century Chartists—the only one that had not been achieved by the twentieth century—was for annually elected parliaments.
The Septennial Act 1715 was amended on 18 August 1911 by section 7 of the Parliament Act 1911 to reduce the maximum term of a parliament to five years.
The Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011 repealed the Septennial Act 1715 in its entirety and requires by law that elections be held at least once every five years. It has since been reenacted, with minor differences, as section 4 of the Dissolution and Calling of Parliament Act 2022.

## Provisions

The text of the act was very short. As originally in force, it stated:
The act overturned certain provisions of the Triennial Act 1694.

## Aim and effects

The ostensible aim of the Septennial Act 1715 was, by reducing the frequency of elections, to reduce the cost during a given period of holding them. However, it may have had the effect of keeping the Whig party, which had won the 1715 general election, in power for a longer time. The Whigs won the following general election in 1722.

## Status as law vs constitution

James Madison used the Septennial Act 1715 as an illustrative example of the difference between the traditional British system and the revolutionary new American constitution. In Federalist No. 53 Madison drew a distinction between "a Constitution established by the people and unalterable by the government, and a law established by the government and alterable by the government." The Act was also criticized by Thomas Paine and Henry St John, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke. In Dissertation upon Parties, Bolingbroke wrote that the "constitution is the rule by which our princes ought to govern at all times".

## Prolongation of Parliament during the First World War and Second World War

During the First World War, a series of Acts was passed to prolong the life of the parliament elected in December 1910 until the end of the war in 1918. A series of annual Acts was also passed during the Second World War to prolong the parliament elected at the 1935 general election until the war in Europe had ended in mid-1945.

### First World War

| Short title | Citation | Date of assent | Maximum duration |
| Parliament and Registration Act 1916 | Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom 1916 c. 100 | 27 January 1916 | 5 years and 8 months |
| Parliament and Local Elections Act 1916 | 6 & 7 Geo. 5. c. 44 | 23 August 1916 | 6 years and 3 months |
| Parliament and Local Elections Act 1917 | 7 & 8 Geo. 5. c. 13 | 26 April 1917 | 6 years and 10 months |
| Parliament and Local Elections (No. 2) Act 1917 | 7 & 8 Geo. 5. c. 50 | 29 November 1917 | 7 years and 6 months |
| Parliament and Local Elections Act 1918 | 8 & 9 Geo. 5. c. 22 | 30 July 1918 | 8 years |

### Second World War

| Short title Long title | Citation | Date of assent | Maximum duration |
| Prolongation of Parliament Act 1940 An Act to extend the duration of the present Parliament. | 3 & 4 Geo. 6. c. 53 | 6 November 1940 | 6 years – to 18 November 1941 |
| Prolongation of Parliament Act 1941 An Act to extend the duration of the present Parliament. | 4 & 5 Geo. 6. c. 48 | 11 November 1941 | 7 years – to 18 November 1942 |
| Prolongation of Parliament Act 1942 An Act to extend the duration of the present Parliament and to provide for the extension of the duration of the House of Commons of Northern Ireland. | 5 & 6 Geo. 6. c. 37 | 22 October 1942 | 8 years – to 18 November 1943 |
| Prolongation of Parliament Act 1943 An Act to extend the duration of the present Parliament and to provide for the extension of the duration of the House of Commons of Northern Ireland. | 6 & 7 Geo. 6. c. 46 | 11 November 1943 | 9 years – to 18 November 1944 |
| Prolongation of Parliament Act 1944 An Act to extend the duration of the present Parliament and to provide for the extension of the duration of the House of Commons of Northern Ireland. | 7 & 8 Geo. 6. c. 45 | 17 November 1944 | 10 years – to 18 November 1945 |
* 1 2 Maximum duration of the existing parliament as extended by the act