What happens when a monarch falls ill? The plan for royal health issues explained

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Quotations: "It's relatively loose. All the legislation says is just that the King has decided, or the monarch has decided to delegate their functions," said Craig Prescott, a constitutional expert and lecturer in law at Royal Holloway, University of London, in an interview.

"There's no sort of threshold of illness or anything. So it is in practice, I think it's the King's decision for counsellors of state … It can all be very flexible."

Counsellors of state were routinely appointed when Charles's mother, Queen Elizabeth, was out of the country on overseas visits.

"Sometimes they acted, sometimes they didn't. It sort of just depended what happened, what needed their attention," Prescott said.

Counsellors of state were also appointed last year when Charles visited Romania on holiday — but not when he was in Kenya on an official visit.

They were also appointed for the state opening of the British Parliament in the spring of 2022, when mobility and health concerns were limiting the public duties carried out by Elizabeth.

Period	5 Feb 2024
Held at	CBC, Canada