Commentary on provisions of Act Section 4: Automatic dissolution of Parliament after five years
Section 4 provides that Parliament will automatically dissolve five years after it has first met. By making express provision for a maximum parliamentary term of five years, this is broadly a return to the position prior to the 2011 Act under the Septennial Act 1715 (as amended by the Parliament Act 1911). However, for the purposes of simplicity the start of the five-year term will now be the date on which Parliament actually first meets rather than the date on which the Parliament was summoned to meet, as it was under the 1715 Act. In practice those dates were usually the same. 2