 Full meetings of the Privy Council are held only when the reigning sovereign announces his or her own engagement ( which last happened on 23 November 1839 , in the reign of Queen Victoria ) ; or when there is a demise of the Crown , either by the death or abdication of the monarch . A full meeting of the Privy Council was also held on 6 February 1811 , when George , Prince of Wales was sworn in as Prince Regent by Act of Parliament . The current statutes regulating the establishment of a regency in the case of minority or incapacity of the sovereign also require any regents to swear their oaths before the Privy Council . 
