Act of Settlement does not affect succession Not much constitutional law can have been taught at Newcastle Polytechnic if Vera Baird, MP, the English solicitor-general, thinks the royal succession is determined by the English Act of Settlement of 1701 (The Herald, April 21). The royal succession is determined by the Treaty and Acts of Union of 1706-1707 and, accordingly, is not subject to unilateral action by the UK parliament.

Further, the word "Catholic" is not mentioned in either the treaty or the acts, which is just as well as the Church of Scotland declares itself to be a "Catholic Church" - a declaration confirmed as lawful in the 1921 Church of Scotland Act.

It is also misleading to refer to the Queen as head of the Church of England and of the Anglican Communion across the world. Further, for example, the royal prerogation in respect of the appointment of prelates in the Church of England is exercised on the "advice" of the Prime Minister, who is (as currently) often not an Anglican. An appropriate reform would be to transfer responsibility for such "advice" to the internal structures of the Church of England.

Similarly, advice on the exercise of the Queen's obligations to the Church of Scotland (in terms of her Scottish Accession Oath) should be transferred to its internal structures. This would have stopped, for example, the enactment of nationality legislation discriminating against missionary families and the extension of the National Lottery (which nation's lottery?) to Scotland.

Dr Alexander S Waugh, Kincardineshire.

THE Herald of April 21 quoted an unnamed Downing Street source to the effect that repeal of the Act of Succession was complicated by the Queen being head of the Anglican church, not just in Britain but throughout the world. This is false. The title "head of the church" was last used by Mary Tudor in the sixteenth century, since when it has been replaced by the less offensive "supreme governor". Over the past century that has ceased to have much significance, as the Church of England has become increasingly self-governing, and there is no link between the monarchy and Anglican churches outside England. There may well be legal difficulties about repealing the Act of Succession, as Professor David Walker has recently indicated, but they are not related to the Anglican church.

Dr Gavin White, St Andrews.