Page "Act of Settlement 1701" Paragraph 22

Challenges have been made against the Act of Settlement, especially its provisions regarding Roman Catholics and preference for males.

However, legislating for alterations to the Act is a complex process, since the act is a common denominator in the shared succession of all the Commonwealth realms and the Statute of Westminster 1931 acknowledges by established convention that any changes to the rules of succession may be made only with the agreement of all of the states involved, with concurrent amendments to be made by each state's parliament or parliaments.

Further, as the current monarch is a woman and both her eldest child and, in turn, his eldest child, are Anglican males, any change to the succession laws would have no immediate implications.

Consequently, there was little public concern with the issues and debate had been confined largely to academic circles until, in November 2010, the announcement that Prince William was to marry.

This raised the question of what would happen if he were to produce first a daughter and then a son.