News

What is the King’s Speech?

The King’s Speech is part of the opening of Parliament ceremony.  It marks the start of the 2024/25 parliamentary year.  Following their recent general election victory, it allows the new Labour Government to outline their priorities, policies and proposed legislation for the year ahead.  The speech is written by the Government and delivered by the King in a neutral tone to avoid any appearance of political support.

What happens next?

After the speech, a new parliamentary session starts in which the Prime Minister ‘sells’ the speech to the House of Commons.  The contents of the speech are then debated over a number of days by both the House of Commons and the House of Lords.

These debates end with a vote, which is normally seen as symbolic as it is extremely rare for a Government to lose the vote.  Work then starts on shaping the new bills and legislation.

What was announced?

King Charles stated that his Government’s legislative programme would be led on the principles of security, fairness and opportunity for all.

Stability and consistency will be at the cornerstone of every decision made and securing economic growth will be key to helping both businesses and individuals who are still suffering because of the cost-of-living crisis.

The following are the main announcements:

Better Buses Bill
A bill to allow local leaders to take control of their local bus services.

Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill
A bill to establish a new Border Security Command and deliver enhanced counter terror powers to tackle organised immigration crime.

Children’s Wellbeing Bill
A bill to raise standards in education and promote children’s wellbeing, including measures to remove the exemption from VAT for private school fees, which will enable the funding of 6,500 new teachers.

Employment Rights Bill
This will legislate to introduce a new deal for working people to ban exploitative practices and enhance employment rights.

Measures will include: banning ‘exploitative’ zero-hour contracts, ending ‘fire and rehire’ and ‘fire and replace’, making parental leave, sick pay and protection from unfair dismissal available from day one on the job, strengthening Statutory Sick Pay, making flexible working the default, improving rights for new mothers and a new fair pay agreement for adult social care.

English Devolution Bill
Legislation to give new powers to metro mayors and combined authorities to support local growth plans that bring economic benefit to communities.

Football Governance Bill
A bill to establish an independent football regulator to ensure greater sustainability in the game and strengthen protections for fans.

Great British Energy Bill
A bill to set up Great British Energy, a publicly owned clean power company headquartered in Scotland, which will help accelerate investment in renewable energy such as offshore wind.

House of Lords (Hereditary Peers) Bill
This will include measures to modernise the constitution, including House of Lords reform to remove the right of hereditary peers to sit and vote in the Lords.  The Government will also propose a modernisation committee of the House of Commons which will be tasked with driving up standards, improving work practices and reforming procedures.

Mental Health Bill
Legislation to ensure mental health is given the same attention and focus as physical health, including modernising the Mental Health Act.

Passenger Railway Services (Public Ownership) Bill
A bill to deliver on Labour’s manifesto commitment to bring rail services back into public ownership.

Planning and Infrastructure Bill
This will ‘get Britain building’ through planning reform, to accelerate the delivery of high-quality infrastructure and housing.

Rail Reform Bill
Legislation to improve the railways by establishing Great British Rail – a unified and simplified governance structure for the operation of Britain’s railways.

Renters’ Rights Bill
Legislation to give greater rights and protection to people renting their homes, including ending no fault evictions.

Skills England Bill
Legislation to establish Skills England, which will have a new partnership with employers at its heart, and reform the apprenticeship levy.

Tobacco and Vapes Bill
A bill to progressively increase the age at which people can buy cigarettes and impose limits on the sale and marketing of vapes.  Ministers will also legislate to restrict advertising of junk food to children along with the sale of high caffeine energy drinks to children.

Water (Special Measures) Bill
A bill to strengthen the powers of the water regulator to ensure water bosses face personal criminal liability for lawbreaking and ban the payment of bonuses if environmental standards are not met.

Please contact us if you have any questions at 01228 711888 or 01387 270340 or email mail@david-allen.co.uk.