This morning Parliament convened for an historic Queen’s Speech just 20 days after the most dramatic General Election in a generation and almost 20 years since Her Majesty set out the last Conservative legislative programme.
Before the result, most had predicted today would serve as a ‘make or break’ moment for a coalition drawn together in the aftermath of 7 May. Instead, the Queen outlined the key legislative priorities for a majority Conservative government that is set on underlining its ‘blue collar’ credentials, but with some cracks reportedly beginning to show.
Speaking ahead of Her Majesty taking the throne, the Prime Minister said jobs, homes and childcare would be the order of the day. ‘This is the Queen’s Speech for working people from a One Nation Government that will bring our country together,’ he said.
The Gracious Address, as it is more formally known, saw more than 20 of David Cameron’s manifesto commitments presented to the gathered parliamentary ranks, with the much-discussed EU Referendum Bill taking centre stage.
The Referendum Bill itself is expected to be published in full tomorrow, alongside a Scotland Bill – which seeks to implement the recommendations of the Smith Commission, and to appease Nicola Sturgeon’s bullish SNP north of the border. Reports suggest that the Prime Minister is keen for the EU Referendum Bill to progress quickly through Parliament to give him maximum flexibility on the date. Timing is everything in politics and the Prime Minister will be looking carefully at the calendar to calculate the optimal time to go to the country with any deal that he secures.
Elsewhere, the Government has resurrected a number of proposals vetoed by the Liberal Democrats in the previous Parliament – most notably, the controversial Communications Data Bill.
Noticeable by its absence was the Bill to repeal the Human Rights Act, which the Conservatives had pledged to do within 100 days of taking office. Instead there will be a consultation after senior Conservatives, the so-called ‘Runnymede Tories’, raised concerns and threatened to rebel. Although this is less than was expected at this stage, it arguably does meet the manifesto commitment to replace the Human Rights Act with a British Bill of Rights by 2020. However, Alex Salmond, speaking on The Today Programme this morning, said this proved that the SNP, as the third biggest Party in Parliament, was already proving to be a ‘big thorn’ in the side of the Government and the Prime Minister’s ‘climb down’ was a signal of the fragility of the Conservative’s majority.
Key themes
The Government’s legislative agenda for the year ahead is predominantly informed by three overarching principles:
Austerity
Having started the job in Coalition, further spending reductions are inevitable in this Parliament, with only international development and NHS spending protected in absolute terms. The Government has pledged to trim an additional 7% from departmental budgets, and crucially the ‘low-hanging fruit’ has already been picked off.
The Financial Times has suggested that the appointment of Sajid Javid as Business Secretary indicates that his Department will be forced to make particularly “stinging cuts”; and the Enterprise Bill represents an initial step towards making the ‘efficiency savings’ required over the next five years. Meanwhile, Iain Duncan-Smith’s Full Employment and Welfare Benefits Bill will include a number of cuts to welfare, though these are likely be less severe than the £12 billion initially proposed.
EU referendum
The issue is set to dominate British politics during the years ahead and the Prime Minister is acutely conscious that Europe is likely to the central focus of the first half of his second term. Whether he will choose to bring the referendum forward from 2017 to 2016 continues to be a subject of debate with Liam Fox, the former Defence Secretary, suggesting that those who are calling for the vote to be brought forward have “ulterior motives which are not entirely honourable” and that taking a “a bit longer to get it right rather than going for a minimal change just for the sake of political expediency…would be the right thing to do.”
Devolution
A growing political clamour for devolution to cities and regions has led to the development of the Cities and Local Government Devolution Bill, in addition to legislative proposals specific to Scotland and Wales. The Government harbours an ambition to forge closer links between businesses and their favoured vehicle for driving local economic growth, Local Enterprise Partnerships. James Wharton MP, appointed as Minister of State for Communities and Local Government with specific responsibility for the development of a ‘Northern Powerhouse’, will take overall responsibility for driving this through.
Childcare Bill
Department for Education
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Extending the provision of free childcare to 30 hours a week for working parents of three- and four-year-olds, doubling the current provision.
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Requiring local authorities to publish information about the provision of childcare in the local authority area.
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The Cities and Local Government Devolution Bill
Department for Communities and Local Government
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Together with existing powers under the Localism Act 2011, the Bill will enable the Government to empower towns and counties, building on the programme of Growth Deals which the Government implemented in the last Parliament.
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The provisions in the Bill would be generic (to be applied by order to specified combined authorities and their areas) and would enable:
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An elected mayor for the combined authority’s area who would exercise specified functions and chair the authority.
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The mayor to undertake the functions of Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) for the area.
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Where a mayor is to have PCC functions, allow the current PCC’s term of office to be extended until the mayor is in place.
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Remove the current statutory limitation on its functions (currently these are limited to those on economic development, regeneration, and transport).
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Enable local authority governance to be streamlined as agreed by councils.
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Extremism Bill
Home Office
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Banning Orders: a new power for the Home Secretary to ban extremist groups.
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Extremism Disruption Orders: a new power for law enforcement to stop individuals engaging in extremist behaviour.
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Closure Orders: a new power for law enforcement and local authorities to close down premises used to support extremism.
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Broadcasting: strengthening Ofcom’s role so that tough measures can be taken against channels that broadcast extremist content.
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Employment checks: enabling employers to check whether an individual is an extremist and bar them from working with children.
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Education and Adoption Bill
Department for Education
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Introducing powers to allow Regional School Commissioners to draft in new leadership to support failing schools.
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Committing to the delivery of at least 500 new free schools over the course of the Parliament.
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Requiring schools found to be ‘coasting’ to adopt the academy model.
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Speeding up the process of academisation.
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Expanding the pool of potential adoptive parents, in order to speed up the adoption process.
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Energy Bill
Department for Energy and Climate Change
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Establishing the Oil and Gas Authority (OGA).
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Introducing fee Schemes for Environmental Regulation of Offshore Oil and Gas.
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Removing the need for the Secretary of State’s consent for any large onshore wind farms (over 50MW) i.e. devolving powers in England and Wales out of Whitehall by transferring the existing consenting powers, in relation to onshore wind, to local planning authorities.
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Ending new onshore wind farm subsidies will be delivered separately, and DECC will be announcing measures to deliver this soon.
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Enterprise Bill
Department for Business, Innovation and Skills
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Introducing measures to cut red tape for businesses by at least £10 billion over the course of the Parliament, building on the ‘Red Tape Challenge’ introduced at the start of the last Parliament.
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Empowering regulators such as the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and Ofgem to cut red tape in their respective sectors.
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Creating a Small Business Conciliation Service to help settle disputes between small and large businesses, especially over late payments.
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Capping the size of ‘golden parachute’ redundancy packages for public sector employees at £95,000.
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Extending and simplifying the Primary Authority scheme, which will empower local councils to advise businesses on certain, specific regulations.
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Introducing business rates appeals reform, including modifying the Valuation Tribunal powers to consider ratepayer appeals.
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Allowing for the Valuation Office Agency to share information with local government to improve the system for both local government and ratepayers.
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EU Referendum Bill
Foreign and Commonwealth Office
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Requiring a referendum over Britain’s membership of the European Union to be held by the end of 2017.
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Clarifying that the franchise for the Referendum will be based on the General Election franchise, plus members of the House of Lords and Commonwealth citizens in Gibraltar. British, Irish and Commonwealth citizens over 18 who are resident in the UK will therefore be eligible to vote as well as UK nationals resident overseas for less than 15 years.
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Full Employment and Welfare Benefits Bill
Department for Work and Pensions
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Committing to the creation of three million apprenticeships over the course of the Parliament.
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Freezing the main rates of the majority of working age benefits, tax credits and Child Benefit for two years from 2016-17.
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Lowering the benefit cap from £26,000 per year, to £23,000 per year.
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Placing a legal duty on Government to provide an annual report on progress made towards delivering the skills and training young people need to find employment, and also on the progress of the Troubled Families Programme.
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Putting in place a new Youth Allowance for 18-21 year olds with stronger work related conditionality from Day 1.
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Removing automatic entitlement to housing support for 18-21 year olds.
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Providing Jobcentre Plus adviser support in schools across England to supplement careers advice and provide routes into work experience and apprenticeships.
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High Speed Rail Bill
Department for Transport
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Giving the Government powers to compulsorily acquire or temporarily take possession of land required for the scheme, and construct and operate the railway.
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Housing Bill
Department for Communities and Local Government
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Extending the Right to Buy scheme to housing association tenants.
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Committing to the development of 200,000 new homes, available at a 20 per cent discount to first-time buyers under 40.
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Requiring local authorities to dispose of high-value vacant council houses, which would help fund the Right to Buy extension discounts and the building of more affordable homes in the area.
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Providing the necessary statutory framework to support the delivery of Starter Homes.
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Taking forward the Right to Build, requiring local planning authorities to support custom and self-builders registered in their area in identifying suitable plots of land to build or commission their own home.
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Introducing a statutory register for brownfield land, to help achieve the target of getting Local Development Orders in place on 90% of suitable brownfield sites by 2020.
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Simplifying and speeding up the neighbourhood planning system, to support communities that seek to meet local housing and other development needs through neighbourhood planning.
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Giving effect to other changes to housing and planning legislation that would support housing growth.
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Immigration Bill
Home Office
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Empowering police to seize the wages of any illegal migrants employed unlawfully in the UK, by closing a loophole in the Proceeds of Crime Act.
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Requiring banks to check accounts against databases of people known to be in the UK illegally.
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Extending the ‘deport first, appeal later’ rule to all immigrations appeals and judicial reviews.
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Establishing a new Labour Market Enforcement Agency to crack down on the most extreme cases of exploitation.
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Making it illegal for employment agencies to recruit solely from abroad without advertising those jobs in Britain and in English.
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Consulting on funding apprenticeship schemes for British and EU workers by implementing a new visa levy on businesses that use foreign labour.
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Requiring all foreign offenders released on bail to be tagged.
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Investigatory Powers Bill
Home Office
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Giving security services the power to monitor people’s emails, internet browsing, phone calls and text messages.
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Requiring internet service providers to maintain a record of social media activity, voice calls and internet gaming for 12 months.
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National Insurance Contributions Bill/Finance Bill
Treasury
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Setting a ceiling for the rates of Income Tax and VAT, and the individual, employee and employer National Insurance rates, so that these rates cannot be raised above their current levels.
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Personal Tax Allowance Bill
Treasury
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Ensuring that future increases to the income tax personal allowance reflect changes to the national minimum wage, so that individuals working 30 hours a week on the national minimum wage do not pay income tax.
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Policing and Criminal Justice Bill
Home Office
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Allocating £15 million of new funding to provide ‘health-based alternatives’ to police cells, for those detained under the Mental Health Act.
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Banning the allocation of police cells as ‘places of safety’ for those under the age of 18 who are detained for mental health reasons.
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Reducing the maximum period of detention for the purposes of a medical assessment from 72 hours.
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Creating a presumption that suspects will be released without bail unless it is necessary.
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Limiting pre-charge bail to 28 days, with an extension of up to three months, authorised by a senior police officer.
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Ensuring 17 year olds who are detained in police custody are treated as children for all purposes under PACE.
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Scotland Bill
Scotland Office
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Enabling the Scottish Parliament to set the thresholds and rates of income tax on earnings in Scotland and keep all the money raised in Scotland.
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Providing the Scottish Parliament with the first ten percentage points of standard rate VAT revenue raised in Scotland (and 2.5% reduced rate).
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Devolving responsibility for Air Passenger Duty and the Aggregates Levy to the Scottish Parliament.
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Agreeing additional borrowing powers between the UK and Scottish Governments as part of a new fiscal framework for Scotland.
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Providing the Scottish Parliament with around £2.5 billion worth of new welfare powers.
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Allowing the Scottish Government to vary the frequency of Universal Credit payments in Scotland.
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Giving the Scottish Parliament the power to set the rules over a range of benefits which affect carers, disabled people and the elderly and to control programmes which help people find work.
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Negotiating a new fiscal framework for Scotland alongside the Bill.
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Trade Unions Bill
Department for Business, Innovation and Skills
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Restricting the ability of trade unions to take strike action by requiring 50 per cent of balloted members to vote in favour of strike action.
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Wales Bill
Wales Office
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Creating a new reserved powers model for Welsh devolution including a list of policies that are reserved to the UK Parliament.
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Devolving powers to Welsh Ministers over consenting for energy developments in Wales up to 350 Megawatts for both onshore and offshore projects.
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Devolving powers to the Assembly over ports, taxi regulation, the registration of bus services, speed limits, and sewerage services in Wales.
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Devolving licensing for onshore oil and gas exploration to Wales, enabling the Welsh Government and the National Assembly to decide whether exploration for shale oil and gas takes place in Wales.
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Transferring power to the National Assembly over Assembly and local government elections in Wales, enabling the Assembly to decide whether 16 and 17 years olds should vote in those elections.
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Placing the permanence of the National Assembly and the Welsh Government on a statutory footing and enshrining the legislative consent process in law.
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Devolving to the National Assembly control over its own affairs including what it should be called, its size and the electoral system used to elect its Members.
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Implementing those non-fiscal Smith Commission proposals that are appropriate to be taken forward for Wales.
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