The Parliament Act 1911 can be seen in the context of the British constitution : rather than creating a written constitution , parliament chose instead to legislate through the usual channels in response to the crisis . This was a pragmatic response , which avoided the further problems of codifying unwritten rules and reconstructing the entire government . It is commonly considered a statute of " constitutional importance " , which gives it informal priority in parliament and in the courts with regards to whether later legislation can change it and the process by which this may happen .