[9] In response to the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom ruling that the 2019 prorogation was unlawful, the act contains an ouster clause which seeks to ensure the non-justiciability of the revived prerogative powers.

[10] Shortly after becoming prime minister in July 2019, Boris Johnson held three votes in the House of Commons to try to gain its approval to call a general election, but failed to achieve the two-thirds parliamentary majority required by the Fixed-term Parliaments Act.

In contrast, the former Supreme Court judges Baroness Hale and Lord Sumption, as well as a former First Parliamentary Counsel, Sir Stephen Laws, said that the prerogative could be restored by Parliament.

[17][18] Lord Sumption argued that though a "sufficiently desperate" court could likely find a way to circumvent the ouster clause, its presence in the bill should serve to discourage such attempts.

On the issue of the prerogative, the committee held that the wording of the bill was sufficient to restore the substance, if not necessarily the form, of the constitutional situation prior to the Fixed-term Parliaments Act.

[20] In its statement of principles accompanying the draft bill, the government had stated that "in future Parliament will be dissolved by the Sovereign, on the advice of the Prime Minister".

[20] The Dissolution and Calling of Parliament Bill was introduced by Michael Gove, the minister for the Cabinet Office, to the House of Commons and received its first reading on 12 May 2021.