Contents
AN INTRODUCTION FROM THE PRIME MINISTER 4
HIS MAJESTY’S MOST GRACIOUS SPEECH TO BOTH HOUSES OF PARLIAMENT 7
ECONOMIC STABILITY AND GROWTH 11
Budget Responsibility Bill 11
National Wealth Fund Bill 12
Pension Schemes Bill 14
Planning and Infrastructure Bill 17
Employment Rights Bill 20
English Devolution Bill 23
Passenger Railway Services (Public Ownership) Bill 26
Better Buses Bill 28
Railways Bill 30
Bank Resolution (Recapitalisation) Bill 33
Arbitration Bill 34
Product Safety and Metrology Bill 37
Digital Information and Smart Data Bill 39
High Speed Rail (Crewe to Manchester) Bill 42
Draft Audit Reform and Corporate Governance Bill 44
GREAT BRITISH ENERGY AND CLEAN ENERGY SUPERPOWER 46
Great British Energy Bill 46
The Crown Estate Bill 48
Sustainable Aviation Fuel (Revenue Support Mechanism) Bill 50
Water (Special Measures) Bill 52
SECURE BORDERS, CRACKING DOWN ON ANTI SOCIAL BEHAVIOUR AND TAKE
BACK OUR STREETS 54
Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill 54
Crime and Policing Bill 56
Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Bill 59
Victims, Courts and Public Protection Bill 61
BREAK DOWN THE BARRIERS TO OPPORTUNITY 63
Children’s Wellbeing Bill 63
Skills England Bill 66
Renters’ Rights Bill 68
Football Governance Bill 71
Draft Leasehold and Commonhold Reform Bill 74
Draft Equality (Race and Disability) Bill 77
Draft Conversion Practices Bill 79
HEALTH 81
Tobacco and Vapes Bill 81
Mental Health Bill 83
NATIONAL SECURITY AND SERVING THE COUNTRY 86
Hillsborough Law 86
Armed Forces Commissioner Bill 88
Northern Ireland Legacy Legislation 90
2
AN INTRODUCTION FROM THE PRIME MINISTER
This will be a government of service.
My government will be committed to uniting the country in our shared mission of
national renewal. We will serve every person, regardless of how they voted, to fix the
foundations of this nation for the long term. The era of politics as performance and
self-interest above service is over.
The fight for trust is the battle that defines our political era. It is only by serving the
interests of working people, and delivering real change that transforms lives, that we
can begin to restore people’s faith that politics can be a force for good.
Rebuilding our country will not happen overnight. The challenges we face require
determined, patient work and serious solutions, rather than the temptation of the
easy answer. The snake oil charm of populism may sound seductive, but it drives us
into the dead end of further division and greater disappointment.
This King’s Speech sets out a clear destination for our country.
Our plan starts, as it must, with our economy. We are introducing a Budget
Responsibility Bill to protect taxpayers’ money and people’s living standards. From
that foundation of economic stability, we will generate higher economic growth in
every community.
We will reform the planning rules to build the homes and infrastructure the country
desperately needs. We will level up workers’ rights, so every person has security,
respect and dignity at work; we will create a new industrial strategy and invest in
cleaner, cheaper British energy; and we will harness the power of artificial
intelligence as we look to strengthen safety frameworks.
Democratic decisions are best made by people with skin in the game, so my
government will push power out of Westminster and empower local leaders to deliver
for their communities. Local growth plans will make sure that every community can
seize the opportunities ahead of us and every person can benefit from higher growth.
We will improve public transport, transforming our buses and our railways to connect
our country. We will bring rail services under public ownership and put passengers at
the heart of our transport systems.
With this government, every child will have the opportunities they deserve to
succeed. We will raise standards in schools and improve children’s wellbeing, with
free breakfast clubs in every primary school.
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We will take back our streets, giving police new powers to crack down on anti social
behaviour, and bringing forward plans to halve the scourge of violence against
women and girls. To tackle the mental health crisis, we will bring the Mental Health
Act into the twenty first century.
Too many people currently live with the threat of insecurity and injustice, and so we
will make sure everyone can grow up in the secure housing they deserve. We will
introduce tough new protections for renters, end no fault evictions and raise
standards to make sure homes are safe for people to live in.
We will also honour the Armed Forces whose service to this country keeps us safe.
A new Armed Forces Commissioner will be a strong independent champion for our
service personnel and their families.
My determination is for every person in the UK to feel that this is a country where
success belongs to them. No matter where you started in life, we will respect and
value the contribution of every person. No person should feel like they have to
change who they are just to get on.
We will start the work to deliver our new race equality bill, to root out the structural
injustices that make it harder for people of colour to thrive. Work will also begin to
ban conversion practices, a promise that has lingered in the lobby of good intentions
for far too long.
People up and down the country have voted decisively for change. My Labour
government will honour the promises we have made to deliver that change.
We will work with any person, no matter who they voted for or what colour rosette
they wear, who wants our country to succeed. Service is a stronger bond than
self-interest, and so rather than driving people apart to distract from difficulties, this
government will bring people together to solve the problems we face.
This King’s Speech builds on the cross-party consensus of the previous Parliament
regarding reducing smoking and improving football governance. The security of the
British people is the fundamental priority of government, so we will honour the
promise made to the family of Martyn Hett, and all the families affected by the horrific
Manchester Arena attack, to improve security of public events and venues.
It is also necessary, however, to learn the lessons of the scandals that have shocked
our nation in recent years. It is not enough to deliver justice on outrages like the
Infected Blood scandal and the Horizon scandal - we must take on the work of
prevention to make sure this behaviour can never happen again.
We will introduce the Hillsborough Law to change the culture of defensiveness in the
public sector that has denied families the justice they deserve and contributed to
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their suffering. By improving transparency and accountability, we will make sure the
public is truly at the heart of the public sector.
My government will always put this country first. Governments can make or break
people’s lives, as well as the life of a nation, and we will wear that responsibility with
the seriousness it deserves.
This is an agenda focused entirely on delivering security, opportunity, prosperity and
justice for every person across the country.
This King’s Speech returns politics to serious government, returns government to
service, and returns service to the interests of working people.
That is the path of national renewal. We start that journey immediately.
6
HIS MAJESTY’S MOST GRACIOUS SPEECH TO BOTH HOUSES OF
PARLIAMENT
My Lords and Members of the House of Commons,
My Government will govern in service to the country.
My Government's legislative programme will be mission led and based upon the
principles of security, fairness and opportunity for all.
Stability will be the cornerstone of my Government's economic policy and every
decision will be consistent with its fiscal rules. It will legislate to ensure that all
significant tax and spending changes are subject to an independent assessment by
the Office for Budget Responsibility [Budget Responsibility Bill]. Bills will be
brought forward to strengthen audit and corporate governance, alongside pension
investment [Draft Audit Reform and Corporate Governance Bill, Pension
Schemes Bill].
Securing economic growth will be a fundamental mission. My Government will seek
a new partnership with both business and working people and help the country move
on from the recent cost of living challenges by prioritising wealth creation for all
communities. My Ministers will establish an Industrial Strategy Council. It is my
Government's objective to see rising living standards in all nations and regions in the
United Kingdom.
My Ministers will get Britain building, including through planning reform, as they seek
to accelerate the delivery of high quality infrastructure and housing [Planning and
Infrastructure Bill]. They will also pursue sustainable growth by encouraging
investment in industry, skills and new technologies.
My Government is committed to making work pay and will legislate to introduce a
new deal for working people to ban exploitative practices and enhance employment
rights [Employment Rights Bill]. It will seek to establish the appropriate legislation
to place requirements on those working to develop the most powerful artificial
intelligence models.
My Government believes that greater devolution of decision making is at the heart of
a modern dynamic economy and is a key driver of economic growth and my
Ministers will introduce an English Devolution Bill [English Devolution Bill].
Legislation will be introduced to give new powers to metro mayors and combined
authorities. This will support local growth plans that bring economic benefit to
communities.
A Bill will be introduced to allow local leaders to take control of their local bus
services [Better Buses Bill]. My Ministers will bring forward legislation to improve
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the railways by reforming rail franchising, establishing Great British Railways and
bringing train operators into public ownership [Passenger Railway Services (Public
Ownership) Bill, Rail Reform Bill].
Taken together these policies will enhance Britain's position as a leading industrial
nation and enable the country to take advantage of new opportunities that can
promote growth and wealth creation.
My Government recognises the urgency of the global climate challenge and the new
job opportunities that can come from leading the development of the technologies of
the future. It is committed to a clean energy transition which will lower energy bills for
consumers over time. A Bill will be introduced 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 [Great British
Energy Bill]. Legislation will be brought forward to help the country achieve energy
independence and unlock investment in energy infrastructure. A Bill will be
introduced to support sustainable aviation fuel production [Sustainable Aviation
Fuel (Revenue Support Mechanism) Bill]. My Government recognises the need to
improve water quality and a Bill will be introduced to strengthen the powers of the
water regulator [Water (Special Measures) Bill].
My Government will seek to strengthen the border and make streets safer. A Bill will
be introduced to modernise the asylum and immigration system, establishing a new
Border Security Command and delivering enhanced counter terror powers to tackle
organised immigration crime [Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill].
Legislation will be brought forward to strengthen community policing, give the police
greater powers to deal with anti social behaviour and strengthen support for victims
[Crime and Policing Bill, Victims, Courts and Public Protection Bill].
Measures will be introduced to improve the safety and security of public venues and
help keep the British public safe from terrorism [Terrorism (Protection of
Premises) Bill]. My Government will bring forward plans to halve violence against
women and girls.
My Ministers will seek to raise educational standards and break down barriers to
opportunity. Action will be taken to get people back in employment following the
impact of the pandemic. A Bill will be introduced to raise standards in education and
promote children’s wellbeing [Children’s Wellbeing Bill]. Measures will be brought
forward to remove the exemption from Value Added Tax for private school fees,
which will enable the funding of six and a half thousand new teachers. My
Government will establish Skills England which will have a new partnership with
employers at its heart [Skills England Bill], and my Ministers will reform the
apprenticeship levy.
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Legislation will be introduced to give greater rights and protections to people renting
their homes, including ending no fault evictions and reforming grounds for
possession [Renters’ Rights Bill]. Draft legislation will be published on leasehold
and commonhold reform [Draft Leasehold and Commonhold Reform Bill].
A Bill will be introduced to establish an independent football regulator to ensure
greater sustainability in the game and strengthen protections for fans [Football
Governance Bill].
My Government will improve the National Health Service as a service for all,
providing care on the basis of need regardless of the ability to pay. It will seek to
reduce the waiting times, focus on prevention and improve mental health provision
for young people. It will ensure mental health is given the same attention and focus
as physical health. My ministers will legislate to modernise the Mental Health Act so
it is fit for the twenty first century [Mental Health Bill]. A Bill will be introduced to
progressively increase the age at which people can buy cigarettes and impose limits
on the sale and marketing of vapes [Tobacco and Vapes Bill]. My Ministers will also
legislate to restrict advertising of junk food to children along with the sale of high
caffeine energy drinks to children. A draft Bill will be brought forward to ban
conversion practices [Draft Conversion Practices Bill].
My Government will take steps to help rebuild trust and foster respect. Legislation
will be brought forward to introduce a duty of candour for public servants
[Hillsborough Law]. A Bill will be introduced to establish a statutory Armed Forces
Commissioner to act as a strong independent champion for our gallant Armed
Forces and their families [Armed Forces Commissioner Bill].
Legislation on race equality will be published in draft to enshrine the full right to equal
pay in law [Draft Equality (Race and Disability) Bill].
My Government will strengthen its work with the devolved governments in Scotland,
Wales and Northern Ireland so that the best outcomes possible are delivered for
citizens across the United Kingdom. My Ministers will establish a new Council of the
Nations and Regions to renew opportunities for the Prime Minister, heads of
devolved governments and mayors of combined authorities to collaborate with each
other.
My Government will continue to support the political institutions and devolved
government in Northern Ireland. In consultation with all parties, measures will be
brought forward to begin the process of repealing and replacing the Northern Ireland
Troubles (Legacy and Reconciliation) Act 2023 [Northern Ireland Legacy
Legislation].
Measures to modernise the constitution will be introduced including House of Lords
reform to remove the right of hereditary peers to sit and vote in the Lords [House of
9
Lords (Hereditary Peers) Bill]. My ministers will strengthen the integrity of elections
and encourage wide participation in the democratic process.
The Government will propose a modernisation committee of the House of Commons
which will be tasked with driving up standards, improving work practices and
reforming procedures.
My Government will ensure a strong defence based on the North Atlantic Treaty
Organisation's common values of individual liberty, democracy, human rights and the
rule of law. Its commitment to NATO will remain unshakeable. It will maintain a
strong Armed Forces, including the nuclear deterrent. To ensure that the United
Kingdom's defence capabilities are matched to the changing nature of global
strategic threats, my Government will conduct a Strategic Defence Review.
My Government will continue to give its full support to Ukraine and its people and it
will endeavour to play a leading role in providing Ukraine with a clear path to NATO
membership.
My Government will seek to reset the relationship with European partners and work
to improve the United Kingdom's trade and investment relationship with the
European Union. My Ministers will seek a new security pact to strengthen
cooperation on the mutual threats faced by the United Kingdom and the European
Union.
My Government will play its part in trying to secure long term peace and security in
the Middle East. It is committed to a two state solution with a safe and secure Israel
alongside a viable and sovereign Palestinian state.
Later this week, my Government will host the European Political Community meeting
at Blenheim Palace. The Queen and I look forward to our Visit to Samoa alongside
the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in October, and our Visit to
Australia.
Members of the House of Commons
Estimates for the public services will be laid before you.
My Lords and Members of the House of Commons
Other measures will be laid before you.
I pray that the blessing of Almighty God may rest upon your counsels.
10
ECONOMIC STABILITY AND GROWTH
Budget Responsibility Bill
“Stability will be the cornerstone of my Government's economic policy and every
decision will be consistent with its fiscal rules. It will legislate to ensure that all
significant tax and spending changes are subject to an independent assessment by
the Office for Budget Responsibility”
● Economic stability is the foundation of the Government’s growth mission. This
Bill delivers on the manifesto commitment to introduce a ‘fiscal lock’, requiring
every fiscal event which makes significant and permanent changes to taxation or
spending to be subject to an independent assessment by the Office for Budget
Responsibility. This will ensure there will always be scrutiny of the Government’s
fiscal plans.
What does the Bill do?
● The Bill will introduce a ‘fiscal lock’ which will:
o ensure any Government making significant and permanent tax and
spending changes will be subject to an independent assessment by
the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR), giving them the power to
produce an assessment at a time of its choosing.
o reinforce market credibility and public trust by preventing large-scale
unfunded commitments that are not subject to an OBR fiscal assessment.
Territorial extent and application
● The Bill will extend and apply UK-wide.
Key facts
● This Bill will prevent significant uncosted measures from being announced
without sufficient scrutiny to mitigate the impact on the public finances.
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National Wealth Fund Bill
● The National Wealth Fund (NWF) will be central to this Government’s mission to
deliver growth and a greener economy. Capitalised with an additional £7.3 billion,
the NWF will make transformative investments across every part of the country -
mobilising billions of pounds worth of additional private sector investment.
● The Government has already begun work to align the UK Infrastructure Bank
and the British Business Bank under the National Wealth Fund. The National
Wealth Fund Bill will ensure this institution is at the heart of the country’s mission
to grow the economy and create wealth in every community.
What does the Bill do?
● The National Wealth Fund will play a central role in the Government’s
industrial strategy and growth and clean energy superpower missions
making transformative investments across every part of the country supporting
thousands of good jobs and making everyone better off, while generating a return
for the taxpayer. It will directly invest in the priority sectors set out in the
manifesto in every corner of the country. The NWF will work with local partners,
including mayors, to bring together a finance and investment offer that supports
the needs of local areas and catalyses growth in all corners of the country.
● To ensure investments can start immediately, the Fund will deploy funding
through the UK Infrastructure Bank, expanding its remit and providing an
additional £7.3 billion to catalyse private investment at an even greater scale. It
will aim to generate £3 of private sector investment for every £1 it invests.
● The National Wealth Fund will simplify the UK’s fragmented landscape of
support for businesses and investors, aligning critical institutions like the UK
Infrastructure Bank and British Business Bank to create a step change in our
ability to mobilise private capital in the industries of the future.
● While we have already begun the work to align these institutions, the Bill will put
the National Wealth Fund on a permanent statutory footing. Aligning these
institutions under the National Wealth Fund will create a single coherent offer for
businesses and a compelling proposition for investors, to smartly deploy public
capital to unlock investment opportunities.
12
Territorial extent and application
● The Bill will extend and apply UK-wide.
Key facts
● Business investment in the UK has been persistently low, holding back
productivity and living standards. Generating more investment is an urgent
priority for the Government’s growth and clean energy superpower missions. The
Climate Change Committee have called for an additional £50 billion of investment
a year by 2030.
● The UK Infrastructure Bank has a clear track record in crowding in private
investment and supporting investment projects. In just three years, The UK
Infrastructure Bank has invested over £3 billion, unlocking nearly £11 billion in
private investment. The National Wealth Fund seeks to capitalise on this strategic
expertise and provide an improved and more expansive offer to private investors
with a clear link to projects essential to delivering national missions and long-term
industrial strategy.
● The British Business Bank, which supports SMEs to grow by improving their
access to finance, supports £12.4 billion of finance into SMEs, and in 2023 alone
funded over 23,000 UK businesses supporting the creation of over 39,000 jobs.
● With the additional £7.3 billion of capital for the National Wealth Fund we will aim
to crowd in a further £20 billion into priority sectors. The government also has
other commitments on net zero that will help make Britain a clean energy
superpower. The Green Prosperity Plan will help make British businesses more
competitive, cut household energy bills, and create new jobs – all of which will
enhance the UK’s ability to leverage green investment.
13
Pension Schemes Bill
“Bills will be brought forward to strengthen … pension investment”
● The Pensions Schemes Bill will support over 15 million people who save in
private-sector pension schemes get better outcomes from their pension assets
and support the Government’s mission to deliver growth.
● This Bill is designed to increase the amount available for pension savers and
could help an average earner, who saves over their lifetime in a defined
contribution scheme, to have over £11,000 more in their pension pots with which
to secure their retirement income.
What does the Bill do?
● A private pensions market that encourages consolidation and focuses on value
and outcomes for members will not only enable security in retirement, but also
enable pension schemes to invest in a wider range of assets, driving growth.
● The Bill’s measures include:
o preventing people from losing track of their pension pots through the
consolidation of Defined Contribution individual deferred small
pension pots. This will enable an individual’s deferred small pots to be
automatically brought together into one place to maximise income in
retirement, and deliver value for every saver. This measure will also
benefit pension schemes, which currently are required to manage a
substantial number of loss-making pots, undermining their ability to invest
in improving their offer for savers.
o ensuring all members are saving into pension schemes delivering
value through the Value for Money framework. Introducing a
standardised test that trust based defined contribution schemes will need
to meet to demonstrate they deliver value. This should result in
consolidation in the pensions market by leaving a smaller number of
well-performing, well governed schemes which will not only improve
outcomes for savers but is likely to lead to more productive investment of
funds. The Financial Conduct Authority will ensure the framework is
applied to contract schemes and therefore consistently across the whole
pension market.
o requiring pension schemes to offer retirement products so people
have a pension and not just a savings pot when they stop work by
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placing duties on trustees of occupational pension schemes to offer a
retirement income solution or range of solutions, including default
investment options, to their members. This will improve outcomes for
savers and is likely to lead to more funds being invested for longer, giving
the potential for investments in productive assets – boosting economic
growth.
o consolidating the Defined Benefit (DB) market through commercial
Superfunds. This will offer greater protection for members in closed
legacy Defined Benefit schemes from the risk of losing part of their
pension if their employer becomes insolvent.
o reaffirming the Pensions Ombudsman (TPO) as a competent court,
removing the need for pension schemes to apply to the courts to enforce
TPO decisions in relation to the recovery of overpayments.
Re-establishing the Ombudsman powers to those of a competent court will
alleviate pressures and cost for courts, schemes, and members, ensuring
recovery costs are kept to a minimum.
o amending the Special Rules for End of Life (Pension Protection Fund
and Financial Assistance Scheme (FAS)) extending the definition of
'terminal illness', allowing eligible members within the Pension Protection
Fund and the Financial Assistance Scheme to receive a lump sum
payment at an earlier stage.
Territorial extent and application
● The Bill will extend and apply to Great Britain.
Key facts
● We estimate introducing Value For Money, addressing small pots, and Guided
Retirement Products measures may lead to around 9 per cent higher pension
pots at retirement for an average earner when saving over a career.
● Automatic Enrolment has been a huge success, with 88 per cent of eligible
employees saving into a workplace pension. However, the UK still has high levels
of undersaving with around 4 in 10 working-age individuals are undersaving for
their retirement (measured by Target Replacement Rates).
● Pension schemes can, and do, play a significant role in supporting the UK
economy but there is potential for them to play a more significant role. Defined
Contribution (Trust) schemes hold around £158 billion in assets across around
1,080 providers. Defined Benefit schemes hold around £1.4 trillion in assets
across around 5,000 pension schemes. The measures in this Bill will enable
consolidation and more productive investment of funds.
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● There is ongoing wide variation of performance across pension providers, where
individuals are reliant on their employer to choose a pension scheme on their
behalf yet face the impacts of poor investment performance. This will only get
worse if not tackled.
● Over a five-year period, a defined contribution pot of £10,000 (with no further
contributions) invested into the lowest performing scheme would be worth
£10,400, whereas invested in the highest performing scheme it would be worth
£15,100 – 46 per cent higher.
● On average, 3,000 cases per annum are captured by a court ruling that the
Pensions Ombudsman is not a competent court in overpayment cases. Costs for
Pensions Ombudsman determinations to be enforced in the county courts are
estimated to be circa £2 million.
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Planning and Infrastructure Bill
“My Ministers will get Britain building, including through planning reform, as they
seek to accelerate the delivery of high quality infrastructure and housing”
● The current planning regime acts as a major brake on economic growth. The
Planning and Infrastructure Bill will play a key role in addressing this constraint,
unlocking more housing and infrastructure across the country and supporting
sustained economic growth. The planning system must be an enabler of growth
– enabling democratic engagement with how, not if, homes and infrastructure are
built.
● Reforming the planning system is key to unlocking our country’s economic
growth – enabling us to deliver both the housing and critical infrastructure that
communities need. The Bill will speed up and streamline the planning process to
build more homes of all tenures and accelerate the delivery of major
infrastructure projects in alignment with our industrial, energy, and transport
strategies.
What does the Bill do?
● The Bill will make improvements to the planning system at a local level,
modernising planning committees and increasing local planning authorities’
capacity to deliver an improved service.
● The Planning and Infrastructure Bill will accelerate housebuilding and
infrastructure delivery by:
o streamlining the delivery process for critical infrastructure including
accelerating upgrades to the national grid and boosting renewable energy,
which will benefit local communities, unlock delivery of our 2030 clean
power mission and net zero obligations, and secure domestic energy
security. We will simplify the consenting process for major infrastructure
projects and enable relevant, new and improved National Policy
Statements to come forward, establishing a review process that provides
the opportunity for them to be updated every five years, giving increased
certainty to developers and communities.
o further reforming compulsory purchase compensation rules to ensure
that compensation paid to landowners is fair but not excessive where
important social and physical infrastructure and affordable housing are
being delivered. The reforms will help unlock more sites for development,
enabling more effective land assembly, and in doing so speeding up
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housebuilding and delivering more affordable housing, supporting the
public interest.
o improving local planning decision making by modernising planning
committees.
o increasing local planning authorities’ capacity, to improve performance
and decision making, providing a more predictable service to developers
and investors.
o using development to fund nature recovery where currently both are
stalled, unlocking a win-win outcome for the economy and for nature,
because we know we can do better than the status quo. Our commitment
to the environment is unwavering, which is why the Government will work
with nature delivery organisations, stakeholders and the sector over the
summer to determine the best way forward. We will only act in legislation
where we can confirm to Parliament that the steps we are taking will
deliver positive environmental outcomes. Where we can demonstrate this,
the Bill will deliver any necessary changes.
Territorial extent and application
● The majority of the Bill is expected to extend and apply to England and Wales.
Some measures may also extend and apply to Scotland.
Key facts
● Timescales for planning decision-making are growing: only 9 per cent of Local
Planning Authorities (LPAs) are determining more than 70 per cent of non-major
applications within 8 weeks. Only 1 per cent of LPAs determine more than 60 per
cent of major applications within the statutory 13-week period. This Bill will look to
help reverse this trend, boosting capacity at a local level and speeding up
decision-making, which will in turn help to accelerate a future pipeline of housing
delivery.
● In 2022/23, the national development management service (local planning
services) cost £794 million to operate with an estimated funding shortfall of £262
million per annum. This legislation will increase local planning authorities’
capacity to deliver an improved service.
● The Nationally Significant Infrastructure Project regime established an early
reputation for delivering fair and timely consents – providing a one stop shop for
planning consent on major infrastructure projects. Decision making timelines
have slowed in recent years however, with the average Development Consent
Order taking 4.2 years, up from 2.6 across 2012/2021. Legal challenges have
also increased since 2021 (4 successful out of 15 legal challenges), prompting
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actors to increase the scope and volume of their environmental impact
assessments to tens of thousands of pages.
● The demand for major infrastructure is high, the National Infrastructure
Commission state that failure to accelerate infrastructure delivery plans in the
next 5 years, could constrain economic growth and threaten climate targets.
Meeting the UK’s infrastructure needs will require a change in Government
decisions over the next 10-15 years, alongside considerations on the
environment and community impacts.
● There has been an unprecedented increase in developers withholding
agreements to connect to the grid, with far more generation in the queue than we
will need to power the country by 2050. 85 per cent of projects have later
connection dates than requested, often into the late-2030s.
● Energy UK say that: “It’s excellent to see the new Government prioritise planning
reforms as a key enabler for economic growth and enhancing our energy
security.”
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Employment Rights Bill
“My Government is committed to making work pay and will legislate to introduce a
new deal for working people to ban exploitative practices and enhance employment
rights”
● This Government’s Plan to Make Work Pay will create a new partnership
between business, trade unions and working people and is fundamental to our
growth mission. The Employment Rights Bill, to be introduced within the first one
hundred days, is a significant step towards delivering this ambition and
represents the biggest upgrade to workers’ rights in a generation.
● In addition to this Bill, we will deliver a genuine living wage that accounts for the
cost of living and we will remove the discriminatory age bands to ensure every
adult worker benefits. These changes will improve the lives of working people
across the country.
● We will work in close partnership with trade unions and business to deliver our
New Deal and invite their views on how best we can put our plans into practice.
What does the Bill do?
● The Government is committed to delivering its New Deal for Working People in
full. The Bill will deliver on policies as set out in the Plan to Make Work Pay that
require primary legislation to implement. The Plan includes commitments to the
following:
o banning exploitative zero-hour contracts, ensuring workers have a right
to a contract that reflects the number of hours they regularly work and that
all workers get reasonable notice of any changes in shift with proportionate
compensation for any shifts cancelled or curtailed. This will end ‘one sided’
flexibility, ensuring all jobs provide a baseline level of security and
predictability.
o ending the scourges of ‘Fire and Rehire’ and ‘Fire and Replace’ by
reforming the law to provide effective remedies and replacing the previous
Government’s inadequate statutory code.
o making parental leave, sick pay and protection from unfair dismissal
available from day 1 on the job for all workers. We will continue to
ensure employers can operate probationary periods to assess new hires.
o strengthening Statutory Sick Pay by removing the lower earnings limit to
make it available to all workers as well as the waiting period.
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o making flexible working the default from day-one for all workers , with
employers required to accommodate this as far as is reasonable, to reflect
the modern workplace.
o strengthening protections for new mothers by making it unlawful to
dismiss a woman who has had a baby for six months after her return to
work, except in specific circumstances.
o establishing a new Single Enforcement Body, also known as a Fair
Work Agency, to strengthen enforcement of workplace rights.
o establishing a Fair Pay Agreement in the adult social care sector and,
following review, assess how and to what extent such agreements could
benefit other sectors.
o reinstating the School Support Staff Negotiating Body, to establish
national terms and conditions, career progression routes, and fair pay
rates.
o updating trade union legislation so it is fit for a modern economy,
removing unnecessary restrictions on trade union activity – including the
previous Government’s approach to minimum service levels – and
ensuring industrial relations are based around good faith negotiation and
bargaining.
o simplifying the process of statutory recognition and introduce a
regulated route to ensure workers and union members have a reasonable
right to access a union within workplaces.
Territorial extent and application
● The Bill will extend and apply to Great Britain.
Key facts
● The UK typically ranks highly in international indicators of labour market flexibility
and there are around 4 million more people in work than in 2010. However, there
has also been an increase in the number of people in less secure forms of work,
including the number of zero hours contracts rising to over 1 million over the last
decade. The Bill will provide additional security and predictability for these
workers.
● Extending protections to workers from day one will encourage more workers to
switch jobs, which is associated with higher wages and productivity growth. Wage
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rises are around usually three-times higher for those who move jobs compared to
those who do not.
● High employment and low unemployment have not coincided with increasing
productivity, or wages. UK productivity growth since the global financial crisis has
been slow, and lower than the G7 average.
● The UK typically ranks highly in international indicators of labour market flexibility
and there are around 4 million more people in work than in 2010. However, there
has also been an increase in the number of people in less secure forms of work,
including the number of zero hours contracts rising to over 1 million over the last
decade. The Bill will provide additional security and predictability for these
workers.
● Real wage growth has been flat, with real average weekly earnings only just
returning to 2008 levels. Much of our recent economic growth has come from
growth in the size of the labour market itself (e.g. through increased migration),
while GDP per capita has flatlined.
● The Bill will help to ensure industrial relations are based around good faith
negotiation and bargaining with the Government committed to implementing a
genuine living wage for workers.
● The number of workers inactive due to long-term sickness is at a historic high
(around 2.8 million). Statutory Sick Pay is complex, outdated and fails to
adequately support those who need it. Currently 1.5m people earn below the
lower earnings limit (£123 per week) and people do not currently receive any
payment for the first three days of a sickness absence, disproportionately
affecting the lowest paid workers working part time, or in low paid multiple jobs.
● The national gender pay gap still stands at 14.3 per cent. There are effective
actions employers could be taking but in 2018/19 only an estimated 52 per cent
of employers published an action plan. One in ten women who worked during the
menopause have left a job due to their symptoms. In addition, a quarter of
reported sexual harassment in England and Wales takes place at work.
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English Devolution Bill
“My Government believes that greater devolution of decision making is at the heart
of a modern dynamic economy and is a key driver of economic growth and my
Ministers will introduce an English Devolution Bill.”
● Devolved areas now account for almost half of England’s population and more
than half of its economic output. However, the inconsistent, deal based and
patchwork approach has left too many levers for growth in the hands of central
government, and too many institutions with different powers and governance
arrangements.
● England is one of the most centralised economies in the world and has some of
the highest levels of geographic inequality. These two things are linked.
Westminster does not have the local knowledge, capacity and flexibility needed
to take advantage of every opportunity available in every place.
● Recognising the vital role local leaders play in our national mission to drive
economic growth, the English Devolution Bill will deliver the Government’s
manifesto commitment to transfer power out of Westminster and into our local
communities, allowing them to take back control.
● It will also enable our towns and cities to thrive by strengthening mayoral powers,
giving local leaders the tools to kickstart their economies, as well as empowering
communities to transform their neighbourhoods, high streets and important
community assets.
What does the Bill do?
● The English Devolution Bill will establish a new framework for English devolution,
moving power out of Westminster and back to those who know their areas best. It
will give local leaders the tools they need to drive growth by:
o putting a more ambitious standardised devolution framework into
legislation to give local leaders greater powers over the levers of local
growth. This will include enhanced powers over strategic planning, local
transport networks, skills, and employment support, enabling them to
create jobs and improve living standards. We will also introduce new
powers and duties for local leaders to produce Local Growth Plans.
o making devolution the default setting, meaning places will be granted
powers without the need to negotiate agreements where they meet the
governance conditions. Local leaders will be able to formally request
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additional powers according to the framework and the Government will be
required to consider the request and either devolve them or publicly
explain their reasons for not doing so.
o making it easier to provide devolved powers quickly to more areas
through establishing a simpler process for creating new Combined and
Combined County Authorities, to ensure that every part of England can
rapidly benefit from devolution. The Bill will establish a legislative
foundation upon which to widen and deepen devolution, with a weighting
towards creating advanced mayoral settlements where there is the
capacity and ambition to do so.
o improving and unblocking local decision making through more
effective governance arrangements, ensuring mayors and Combined
Authorities can get on and deliver for their areas.
o empowering local communities with a strong new ‘right to buy’ for
valued community assets, such as empty shops, pubs and community
spaces. This will help to revamp high streets and end the blight of empty
premises.
Territorial extent and application
● The majority of the measures in the Bill will extend to England and Wales and
apply to England.
Key facts
● The UK is highly centralised compared to other OECD countries such as France
or Germany, with decisions taken, and many funding decisions made, centrally in
Westminster.
● The OECD has reported that “if the autonomy of UK cities was to increase to the
same level as Helsinki, productivity would increase across all cities by an
average of 12 per cent”.
● OECD-wide literature suggests decentralisation can be conducive to stronger and
more balanced interregional growth. However, benefits only happen where
governmental quality and capacity are high, and governance is not fragmented.
And making devolution successful depends on handing the right policy levers to
local government, at the right level.
● James Stevens, director for cities at the Home Builders Federation said that
“Giving all eleven metro mayoral combined authority areas spatial plan making
powers would be a very important step in addressing the housing crisis, enabling
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them to address the problem of very large unmet housing needs that are
accumulating in some cities like Birmingham and Bristol.”
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Passenger Railway Services (Public Ownership) Bill
“My Ministers will bring forward legislation to improve the railways by reforming rail
franchising, … and bringing train operators into public ownership”
● This Bill will allow the Government to deliver its manifesto commitment to bring
rail services back into public ownership, to improve passenger journeys and
deliver on the mission to drive growth. This is an early step towards achieving
the Government’s bold vision for the railways.
● Our railways are essential in ensuring reliable, affordable and accessible
transport, which works for passengers and efficiently moves goods around the
country. The sector and its supply chains support more than 240,000 jobs and
generate wide economic benefits by connecting people and places. Unlocking
the full potential of the railways is essential to growing the economy and lowering
emissions from transport.
What does the Bill do?
● This Bill is an early step towards delivering our broader programme of reform,
including through our Railways Bill. It will amend existing railways legislation so
that appointing a public-sector operator is the default position rather than merely
a last resort. We are introducing this piece of legislation swiftly to ensure we are
able to act decisively and bring the first contracts back into public ownership as
soon as possible once it is in place.
● Transferring operations to the public sector will save the taxpayer millions of
pounds that are currently paid out in fees to private-sector operators each year.
Train operations will transfer to a public-sector operator as existing contracts
expire or operators fail to meet their commitments, avoiding the need to pay
compensation to the current operators.
● We are reforming the railways so that they serve the interests of all users and the
taxpayer, rather than focusing on maximising financial returns to private-sector
operators. Rail reform will end years of fragmentation and waste, and deliver
more effectively for the customer.
Territorial extent and application
● The Bill will extend and apply to Great Britain.
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Key facts
● Public ownership of our railways is about the practical need to deliver better
services where they have failed. The previous Government had to bring failed
franchises into public ownership – most recently TransPennine Express – just like
infrastructure was brought into public ownership and control in 2001 after the
collapse of the privatised Railtrack. At present, four of the fourteen DfT rail
contracts are operated in the public sector: London North Eastern Railway,
Northern, Southeastern and TransPennine Express.
● TransPennine Trains (TPT) Limited was brought into the operator of last resort in
May 2023. In the latest quarter, TPT were the most improved operator in terms of
cancellation scores compared to the same period a year earlier. LNER also
recently achieved a surplus and returned the money to the government, which
displays its clear commitment to delivering for the taxpayer.
● 54 per cent of people surveyed in a May 2024 Ipsos poll supported the policy of
bringing passenger rail services into public ownership.
● Public ownership is key to delivering this Government’s Plan for Rail, which could
lead to significant savings. This includes management fees we will no longer
need to pay to private sector operators.
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Better Buses Bill
“A Bill will be introduced to allow local leaders to take control of their local bus
services.”
● The Better Buses Bill delivers the Government’s manifesto commitment to reform
the bus system by delivering new powers for local leaders to franchise local bus
services and lifting the restriction on the creation of new publicly owned bus
operators.
● This legislation will help bring an end to the postcode lottery of bus services and
will give local communities throughout England the power to take back control of
their bus services. It will give local leaders the tools they need to deliver better
bus networks, at pace, reflecting the needs of the local communities that rely on
them.
What does the Bill do?
● A modern transport network is vital to kickstarting economic growth. Buses are
the lifeblood of our communities, connecting us to opportunities, providing access
to services, improving air quality and tackling climate change. However, it is
widely accepted that the current system is not working for passengers.
● The Better Buses Bill will deliver improved services up and down the country, and
support local leaders to create the transport networks that are right for their
communities.
● The Bill will put power over services back in the hands of the communities that
depend on them, and will provide the powers necessary to deliver the
Government’s 5-point plan to build better bus networks across England:
o allowing every community to take back control of their buses by
removing barriers that currently limit bus franchising powers only to metro
mayors.
o accelerating the bus franchising process by supporting local leaders to
deliver better buses, faster.
o supporting public ownership by removing the ban on publicly owned
bus companies and building on the success of award-winning public bus
services still in operation.
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o stepping in to safeguard local bus networks by providing more
accountability over bus operators and ensuring standards are raised
wherever you live across the country.
o empowering local transport authorities and reforming funding by
giving local leaders more control and flexibility over bus funding and
allowing them to plan ahead to deliver their local transport priorities.
Territorial extent and application
● The Bill is expected to extend to England and Wales, and apply to England.
Key facts
● Buses are the most commonly used mode of public transport in Britain and are
disproportionately used by those on lower incomes. Buses connect people to jobs
and customers to businesses, and provide access to education and essential
services. According to the 2022 National Travel Survey, 25 per cent of bus
journeys in England outside London were to get to school, and 22 per cent were
to get to work.
● Good local bus services are an essential part of prosperous and sustainable
communities. A University of Leeds study estimates that bus commuters add
around £64 billion annually to the economy. They are vital for the 35-40 per cent
of households in places like Hull and Newcastle that do not have access to a car
or van, according to the 2021 Census.
● Services in England outside London have been on a downward trend for decades
with Department for Transport statistics showing 2 billion fewer annual bus
journeys in 2023 than in 1985, almost 300 million fewer miles driven by buses in
2023 than in 2010 and 6,000 fewer buses on the road between 2010 and 2023.
● Greater Manchester and London bus services, where bus franchising is in place,
generally out-perform the rest of the country. Early reporting from Greater
Manchester's Bee Network has shown increases in reliability (74 per cent
between January and March 2024 compared to 62 per cent from the same period
prior to franchising) and patronage (5 per cent increases between comparative
periods from before and after franchised services were introduced).
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Railways Bill
“My Ministers will bring forward legislation to improve the railways by … establishing
Great British Railways”
● This Government’s bold vision for the railways will see the delivery of legislation
to create a unified and simplified rail system that relentlessly focuses on
improving services for passengers, delivering better value for money for
taxpayers and, ending years of fragmentation and waste.
● Our railways are essential in ensuring reliable, affordable and accessible
transport, which works for passengers and supports our economy. The rail sector
and its supply chains support more than 240,000 jobs and generate wide
economic benefits by connecting people and places.
● Unlocking the full potential of the railways is essential to growing the economy
and lowering emissions from transport. The Government's plan will deliver those
benefits, with the railways playing a central role in our growth mission and the
country's national renewal.
What does the Bill do?
● The Government will put our rail system back on track to deliver for passengers
and support our growth mission, with clear strategic direction and proper
integration and coordination. We will ensure our railways deliver against six key
objectives: reliable, affordable, efficient, quality, accessible and safe travel. This
legislation will deliver the changes we need in the following ways:
o public ownership: The initial Passenger Railway Services (Public
Ownership) Bill will put passengers back at the heart of rail services by
enabling us to bring contracts into public ownership as they come to an
end or if operators fail to meet their commitments. This Bill will make
further legislative changes to comprehensively reform our rail sector –
bringing track and train back together and planning services on a
whole-system basis, to better deliver for passengers and freight
customers, and to unlock growth.
o greater leadership: Bringing together the management of the network
and the delivery of passenger services into a single public body, Great
British Railways (GBR). This new body will act as a “directing mind”, with a
relentless focus on delivering for passengers and freight customers.
30
o delivery for passengers: We will put passengers back at the heart of the
railways and introduce new measures to protect their interests. This will
include paving the way for a powerful new passenger watchdog, the
Passenger Standards Authority, to independently monitor standards and
champion improvement in service performance against a range of
measures.
o simpler tickets: GBR will reform the ticketing system, to make it simpler
for passengers, drive innovation across the network, replace the current
ticket types and maximise passenger growth GBR will also ensure that
ticketing innovations like automatic compensation, digital pay-as-you-go
and digital season ticketing are rolled out across the whole network.
o support for freight operators: There will be a statutory duty on GBR to
promote the use of rail freight, alongside an overall growth target set by
the Secretary of State. The Government will include safeguards to ensure
that freight operators continue to receive fair access to the network.
o role of open access: Open access has a proven track record in driving
competition and better passenger outcomes, and wherever there is a case
that open access operators can add value and capacity to the network, as
assessed by the Office for Road and Rail, they will be able to.
● While primary legislation is required to initiate the change to public ownership and
establish GBR, this Government will begin delivering improvements for
passengers and freight users straight away. This includes setting up a “shadow
GBR” to unite key industry bodies in collaboration ahead of the formal
establishment of GBR and establishing a new approach to industrial relations.
Territorial extent and application
● The Bill will extend and apply GB-wide.
Key facts
● In 2023/24 in Great Britain, around 30 per cent of trains were late – 67.6 per cent
of recorded station stops in Great Britain were arrived at within a minute of the
scheduled arrival time. In the same year, around 4 per cent of trains were
cancelled – the cancellations score for the latest year (1 April 2023 to 31 March
2024) was 3.8 per cent, an increase of 0.3 percentage points from March 2020
(pre-covid).
● The current system is characterised by competing and often conflicting
incentives: operators are incentivised to focus on their own revenue and costs,
while Network Rail focuses on infrastructure upgrades and maintenance, with
31
little incentive to ensure that these upgrades reflect passenger demand and
areas for growth. This leads to huge inefficiency for both passengers and freight.
A 2020 report found that Network Rail and Train Operating Companies employ
almost 400 full time staff to establish who is responsible for delays.
● Passenger numbers have not recovered to pre-Covid levels, leading to the
railway facing a significant revenue shortfall. The latest official statistics published
by the Office of Rail and Road (covering January – March 2024) show that rail
revenues were around 80 per cent of pre-pandemic levels once inflation is taken
into account. There is a pressing need to bring more passengers back to the
railway and increase passenger revenues to grow the economy and deliver best
value for money for the taxpayer.
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Bank Resolution (Recapitalisation) Bill
● The Bank Resolution (Recapitalisation) Bill will enhance the UK’s resolution
regime, providing the Bank of England with a more flexible toolkit to respond to
the failure of small banks.
● It ensures that, where failing banking institutions require intervention, certain
costs of managing their failure do not fall to taxpayers. It strengthens protections
for public funds and promotes financial stability, whilst supporting economic
growth and competitiveness by avoiding new upfront costs on the banking sector
What does the Bill do?
● The Bill introduces a new mechanism to allow the Bank of England to use funds
provided by the banking sector to cover certain costs associated with resolving a
failing banking institution and achieving its sale in whole or in part.
● The Bill is designed in particular to respond more effectively to small bank failures
where resolution is judged to be in the public interest by:
o expanding the statutory function of the Financial Services
Compensation Scheme (FSCS) – the body responsible for paying out
depositors in a bank insolvency. The Bill will require the FSCS to provide
funds to the Bank of England upon request, to be used where necessary
to support the resolution of a failing bank.
o allowing the FSCS to recover the funds provided by charging levies
on the banking sector, similar to the current arrangements for funding
depositor pay-outs in insolvency. However, following consultation the
Government has decided that credit unions will not be in scope of this levy.
o giving the Bank of England an express ability to require a bank in
resolution to issue new shares, facilitating the use of FSCS funds to
meet a failing bank’s recapitalisation costs.
● Taken together, these measures give the Bank of England a more flexible toolkit
to respond to small bank failures in a way that promotes financial and economic
stability and strengthens protections for public funds, whilst avoiding new upfront
costs on the banking sector or additional costs for taxpayers.
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Territorial extent and application
● The Bill will extend and apply UK-wide.
Key facts
● The UK has a robust resolution regime for banking institutions which was
developed in the wake of the Global Financial Crisis. This regime was used in
March 2023 when the Bank of England used its powers under this regime to
transfer Silicon Valley Bank UK to HSBC.
● Whilst a good outcome was achieved in this case, it exposed the potential
challenges of managing the failure of a smaller bank where intervention is judged
to be in the public interest, rather than placing the bank into insolvency. In
particular, risks to taxpayers could occur where a failing small bank requires
intervention and there is no credible buyer. The Bill aims to address these risks.
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Arbitration Bill
● The Arbitration Bill will support more efficient dispute resolution, attract
international legal business, and promote UK economic growth.
● It does so by enacting recent Law Commission recommendations to reform
arbitration law and bolster our world-leading domestic and international
arbitration sector.
What does the Bill do?
● This Bill will implement the recommendations made in a 2022 Law Commission
review of Arbitration Law, with the key reforms being:
o clarifying the law applicable to arbitration agreements that do not
arise from investor-state agreements, providing that the law applicable
will be those of the legal location chosen for arbitration unless parties
expressly agree otherwise. This will ensure that, where arbitration is
seated in England and Wales, or Northern Ireland, it will be fully supported
by our arbitration law which is among the most supportive of arbitration
globally.
o codifying a duty on arbitrators to disclose circumstances that might
give rise to justifiable doubts about their impartiality, in line with
international best practice.
o strengthening arbitrator immunity against liability for resignations
and applications for removal, supporting arbitrators to make robust and
impartial decisions without fear of being sued by a disappointed party.
o empowering arbitrators to make awards on a summary basis on
issues that have no real prospect of success, avoiding nuisance claims
and making arbitrations more efficient.
o empowering courts to make orders in support of emergency
arbitrators so they have the same routes to enforce their orders as other
arbitrators.
o revising the framework for challenges where the challenge alleges that
the arbitral tribunal lacked jurisdiction.
Territorial extent and application
35
● The Bill will extend and apply to England and Wales and Northern Ireland.
Key facts
● Arbitration is a form of dispute resolution. If two or more parties have a dispute
which they cannot resolve themselves, they might appoint a third person as an
arbitrator to resolve the dispute for them by issuing an award or they might
appoint a panel of arbitrators to act as an arbitral tribunal. Arbitration allows
people and businesses to resolve legal issues on their own terms, often with
more flexibility and privacy than protracted court trials. Many contracts require
arbitration to resolve disputes.
● According to the Law Commission of England and Wales there are at least 5,000
domestic and international arbitrations each year in England and Wales, worth
£2.5 billion to the British economy in arbitration and legal fees alone. This Bill will
give businesses the confidence to know that any arbitration carried out in
England and Wales and Northern Ireland will be handled effectively and
consistently.
● The Arbitration Act 1996 must be modernised to continue attracting international
legal business. Other jurisdictions have updated their legislation more recently:
Singapore in 2023, Hong Kong in 2022, and Sweden and Dubai in 2018. In 2021,
Singapore ranked equal first to London as the globally preferred choice for
international arbitration.
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Product Safety and Metrology Bill
● This Bill will preserve the UK’s status as a global leader in product regulation,
supporting businesses and protecting consumers. It will ensure the UK is better
placed to address modern day safety issues, harness opportunities that deliver
economic growth, and ensure a level playing field between the high street and
online marketplaces.
● The majority of the UK’s product safety and metrology framework is derived from
EU law developed over the past four decades. As technology and regulation
continues to develop, we need new powers to address current or future threats
and hazards, and ensure a continued supply of safe goods on our market and so
this Bill will enable us to make the sovereign choice to mirror or diverge from
updated EU rules, so that we can maintain high product safety while supporting
businesses and economic growth.
What does the Bill do?
● This Bill will support growth, provide regulatory stability and deliver more
protection for consumers by:
o responding to new product risks and opportunities to enable the UK to
keep pace with technological advances, such as AI, and address
challenges, such as the fire risk associated with e-bikes and lithium-ion
batteries. Without these powers, we will not be able to effectively regulate
these high-risk products and protect consumers and workers.
o identifying new and emerging business models in the supply chain,
ensuring the responsibilities of those involved in the supply of products,
such as online marketplaces, are clear, enabling Government to better
protect consumers, so they can have confidence in the products they buy
and whom they buy them from. Without these powers it will remain far too
easy for unscrupulous overseas suppliers to place unsafe goods on the
UK market through online marketplaces.
o ensuring that the law can be updated to recognise new or updated EU
product regulations, including the CE marking, where appropriate to
prevent additional costs for businesses and provide regulatory stability.
This legislation will also ensure the UK can end recognition of EU product
regulations, where it is in the best interests of UK businesses and
consumers.
o enabling improvements to compliance and enforcement reflecting the
challenges of modern, digital borders. This Bill will enable the Government
37
and its regulators to tackle non-compliance, target interventions by
allowing greater sharing of data between regulators and market
surveillance authorities, and future-proof the nature and capacity of
the Regulator, ensuring it can provide national leadership on product
safety and metrology issues.
o updating the legal metrology framework, which governs the accuracy of
weights and measures for purchased goods. This plays a role in product
legislation, giving consumers and business confidence in what they are
buying. This will allow for technological progress, including in support of
net zero aims and infrastructure, for example enabling innovation whilst
ensuring energy meters continue to be accurate in their readings.
● As most product safety legislation falls within scope of the Windsor Framework,
EU changes to product regulation only apply in Northern Ireland, resulting in
divergence within the UK internal market as EU laws are updated. This Bill gives
the Government specific powers to make changes to GB legislation to manage
divergence and take a UK-wide approach, where it is in our interests to do so.
Territorial extent and application
● The Bill will extend and apply UK-wide.
Key facts
● Products in scope of the Bill are used by every person in the country, covering
nearly all manufactured products. We estimate that there are at least 220,000 UK
businesses currently affected by product safety legislation, with an estimated
market turnover of just under £280 billion. The regulations cover a broad range of
products from consumer products like toys, fireworks, cosmetics and machinery,
as well as metrology, which is essential for safe operation of critical national
infrastructure.
● Current law recognises existing EU product regulations (including the CE
marking) for a range of products in GB. However, the EU is undertaking a range
of updates and reforms to their regulations (for instance to improve safety or
respond to technological developments) over the next few years, which the UK
does not have sufficient powers to respond to.
● There is an urgent need to legislate to respond to emerging threats to consumer
safety, for example to address issues such as incidents from ingesting button
batteries, and e-bike fires where there was a 78 per cent increase in e-bike fires
in 2023 compared to 2022 in London according to the London Fire Brigade.
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Digital Information and Smart Data Bill
● The Government wants to ensure we harness the power of data for economic
growth, to support a modern digital government, and to improve people’s lives.
● The Bill will enable new innovative uses of data to be safely developed and
deployed and will improve people’s lives by making public services work better
by reforming data sharing and standards; help scientists and researchers make
more life enhancing discoveries by improving our data laws; and ensure your
data is well protected by giving the regulator (the ICO) new, stronger powers and
a more modern structure. These measures start delivering on the Government’s
commitment to better serve the British public through science and technology.
What does the Bill do?
● The Bill will harness the power of data for economic growth. We are giving a
statutory footing to three innovative uses of data that people can choose to
participate in and which will accelerate innovation, investment and productivity
across the UK. This includes:
o establishing Digital Verification Services, which make people’s
everyday lives easier through innovative and secure technology. These
measures support the creation and adoption of secure and trusted digital
identity products and services from certified providers to help with things
like moving house, pre-employment checks, and buying age restricted
goods and services.
o developing a National Underground Asset Register, a new digital map
that is revolutionising the way we install, maintain, operate and repair the
pipes and cables buried beneath our feet. It gives planners and excavators
standardised, secure, instant access to the data they need, when they
need it, to carry out their work effectively and safely.
o setting up Smart Data schemes, which are the secure sharing of a
customer’s data upon their request, with authorised third-party providers.
● The Bill will improve people’s lives and life chances. The Bill will enable
more and better digital public services. By making changes to the Digital
Economy Act we will help the Government share data about businesses that use
public services. We will move to an electronic system for the registration of births
and deaths. And we will apply information standards to IT suppliers in the health
and social care system.
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● The Bill will help our scientists make better use of data for world-class
research by reflecting the realities of modern interdisciplinary science research in
our data laws. Scientists will be able to ask for broad consent for areas of
scientific research, and allow legitimate researchers doing scientific research in
commercial settings to make equal use of our data regime.
● The Bill will ensure your data is well protected. We are modernising and
strengthening the ICO. It will be transformed into a more modern regulatory
structure, with a CEO, board and chair. And it will have new, stronger powers.
This will be accompanied by targeted reforms to some data laws that will
maintain high standards of protection but where there is currently a lack of clarity
impeding the safe development and deployment of some new technologies. We
will also promote standards for digital identities around privacy, security and
inclusion.
● The Bill also establishes a Data Preservation Process that coroners (and
procurators fiscal in Scotland) can initiate when they decide it is necessary and
appropriate to support their investigations into a child’s death. This will help
coroners get access to online information they need when investigating a child’s
death.
Territorial extent and application
● The Bill will extend and apply UK-wide.
Key facts
● Digital Verification Services will help people and businesses to make the most of
identity-checking technologies with confidence and peace of mind. Digital
verification services will save people time and money by providing convenient
and reliable options to prove things about themselves as they go about their
everyday lives. They will also enable smoother, cheaper and more secure online
transactions. Digital verification services will lessen the everyday burdens on
businesses by reducing costs, time and data leakage. The economic benefits of
secure digital identities being in widespread use around the UK were estimated to
be around £600 million per year.
● Smart Data is the secure sharing of customer data, upon the customer’s
(business or consumer) request, with authorised third-party providers (ATPs) who
can enhance the customer data with broader, contextual ‘business’ data. These
ATPs provide the customer with innovative services to improve decision making
and engagement in a market. Open Banking is the only active example of a
regime that is comparable to a 'Smart Data scheme' – but needs a legislative
framework to put it on a permanent footing, from which it can grow and expand.
This empowers customers to make more informed choices and provides
businesses with a toolkit to innovate. By empowering consumers to share their
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data with sectors we also hope to encourage the economic growth we’ve seen
from Open Banking, across the economy. This is crucial in markets where
customer engagement is low, or where businesses hold more information and
data than the customer.
● The National Underground Asset Register (NUAR) is a new digital map that is
revolutionising the way we install, maintain, operate and repair the pipes and
cables buried beneath our feet. NUAR gives planners and excavators
standardised, secure, instant access to the data they need, when they need it, to
carry out their work efficiently, effectively and safely.
● The UK data economy (our data market plus the value data adds to other sectors
of the economy) now represents an estimated 6.9 per cent of GDP (as of 2022).
We can harness the power of data to create enormous value for our economy
and broader society. The UK’s data economy is also crucial to boosting trade. In
2021, data-enabled UK service exports accounted for 85 per cent of total service
exports, and were estimated to be worth £259 billion. The value of data-enabled
exports from the UK to the EU alone is estimated at £91 billion.
● Data is critical for UK businesses. 77 percent of UK businesses handle some
form of digital data, increasing to 99 percent for businesses employing more than
10 people.
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High Speed Rail (Crewe to Manchester) Bill
● The High Speed Rail (Crewe – Manchester) Bill, will drive economic growth and
productivity by providing powers to construct and operate rail infrastructure that
is key to improving inter-regional and northern rail connectivity.
● We are repurposing the Bill to transform rail connectivity and services across the
north of England.
What does the Bill do?
● We are not reversing the decision to cancel the second Phase of HS2.
Instead, we are repurposing the High Speed Rail (Crewe – Manchester) Bill to
provide powers to construct and operate rail projects which improve east to west
connectivity across the north of England.
● Using this Bill to enable delivery of key infrastructure ensures that we can deliver
on our manifesto commitment to improve rail connectivity in the north of
England at pace. The Bill includes powers for important rail infrastructure in
Manchester and the surrounding area, including new stations at Manchester
Piccadilly and Manchester Airport.
● Local leaders in the north of England have been vocal in calling for this Bill
to support ambitions to address the productivity gap in the north of England by
transforming rail connectivity between the region’s economic centres through
transformative infrastructure investment.
● Carrying this Bill over demonstrates commitment to making progress on rail
connectivity whilst we work with local leaders on an improved overall strategy.
Territorial extent and application
● The Bill will extend and apply GB-wide.
Key facts
● Northern cities are a key opportunity but lack scale to compete globally, with
economies more isolated than expected based on geography. These cities’ total
population is similar to Greater London (9.3 million vs 8.9 million), but their
combined economy c.50 per cent smaller. Joining our northern cities together is
critical to growth.
● Rail is the most effective, environmentally friendly way to improve transport
capacity between city centres, and journey times between them. The northern rail
network is largely two-track with less electrification, lower frequencies, and slower
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speeds than in the south-east, compounded by poor reliability and high levels of
crowding.
● Rail is the most effective, environmentally friendly way to improve transport
capacity between city centres, and journey times between them. Improved rail
connectivity in the north could dramatically improve passengers’ travel
experience by providing faster and more frequent services between the north of
England’s key cities.
● This improved rail connectivity would have a region wide impact, directly serving
the biggest cities in the north of England and improving journey times into the
centre of major towns and cities where most jobs are located. It means increased
accessibility to jobs for workers across the north of England and more skilled
labour available for employers. It will also provide passengers greater flexibility
and choice around how they want to travel and support a greater shift to public
transport.
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Draft Audit Reform and Corporate Governance Bill
“Bills will be brought forward to strengthen audit and corporate governance…”
● Investors and the public need access to truthful reporting from our most
important businesses on their finances and related issues. This is critical for
enabling trust in major companies and to underpin growth.
● With this draft bill, a revamped regulator will uphold standards and independent
scrutiny of companies’ accounts, as well as accountability for company directors.
Requiring better transparency from large companies will help avoid company
failures and protect jobs, which is central to delivering a secure economy.
● The Bill will also support long-term investment in UK companies, reduce the
harm that financial reporting errors can do to businesses and communities up
and down the country, and help ensure quality audit for all businesses that need
it.
What does the draft Bill do?
● Robust and rigorous scrutiny of large companies by auditors and greater
transparency around their finances is essential to ensuring that investors,
employees and consumers have an accurate picture of the health of the
company, which in turn delivers a more secure economy.
● The draft bill will replace the Financial Reporting Council with a new regulator –
the Audit, Reporting and Governance Authority – with the powers it needs to
tackle bad financial reporting and to build that trust.
● This statutory regulator will form a platform for other important changes:
o a wider remit, through extending Public Interest Entity (PIE) status to the
largest private companies and thus making sure the audits of those
important businesses are high quality and giving early warning of financial
problems.
o removing unnecessary rules on smaller Public Interest Entities,
making life easier for important smaller businesses by cutting
requirements that are disproportionate.
o powers to investigate and sanction company directors for serious
failures in relation to their financial reporting and audit responsibilities, so
there are consequences for putting forward dodgy accounts.
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o a regime to oversee the audit market, protect against conflicts of interest
at audit firms, and build resilience so quality audit is available to all
companies that need it.
Territorial extent and application
● The draft Bill is expected to extend and apply UK-wide.
Key facts
● Tackling problems with audit and reporting will help minimise the impacts of
corporate failures. When companies fail, it affects jobs and lives across the UK –
like the 11,000 jobs lost when BHS collapsed or Carillion’s 30,000 unpaid
subcontractors, £1 billion of debt and at least a £500 million pension deficit. More
reliable audit information will inform lending and investment decisions, ensuring
that the best credit risks are supported, not the worst.
● Currently, directors of a company making incorrect financial statements can only
be held accountable by the regulator if they are members of an accountancy
body. It is important that all directors in the UK’s most significant companies face
consequences if they neglect their duties in respect of financial reporting, so the
bill will allow for this.
● The Chartered Institute of Internal Auditors has said that “This long-awaited
legislation is vital to restoring trust in audit and corporate governance. The need
for audit reform is now urgent. In recent years we have seen a series of
high-profile corporate collapses linked to audit and governance weaknesses. This
includes the collapse of Carillion in January 2018, which cost thousands of
people their jobs, caused delays for school and hospital building projects and
cost taxpayers tens of millions of pounds. More than five years on we are deeply
concerned about the pace of reform.”
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GREAT BRITISH ENERGY AND CLEAN ENERGY SUPERPOWER
Great British Energy Bill
“A Bill will be introduced 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.”
● The Bill establishes Great British Energy – a new, publicly-owned energy
production company which will own, manage and operate clean power projects
up and down the country.
● Great British Energy will be owned by and for British people, helping to make our
country energy independent and so ensure British taxpayers, bill payers and
communities reap the benefits of clean, secure, home-grown energy and lower
bills for families. In this way, Great British Energy will help us take back control of
the country’s energy, achieve energy independence, create new jobs, save
money for households and tackle climate change.
What does the Bill do?
● The Bill establishes Great British Energy which will:
o develop, own and operate assets, investing in partnership with the
private sector. It will have a capitalisation of £8.3 billion of new money
over the Parliament. Through these investments, Great British Energy
will take a stake for the British people in projects and supply chains
which accelerate technologies of the future, reaping benefits at home in
cheap clean power and securing Britain at the front of the global race
for technology which has major global export potential.
o facilitate, encourage and participate in the production, distribution,
storage and supply of clean energy, the reduction of greenhouse gas
emissions from energy produced from fossil fuels as well as measures
for furthering the transition to clean energy and improving energy
efficiency.
● The Bill gives the Secretary of State the ability to provide Great British Energy
with the financial backing needed for it to meet its aims and ambitions. The
Secretary of State will be required to prepare a strategic priorities statement for
Great British Energy, to ensure it focuses its efforts on Government priorities.
● The Bill builds on the immediate work by the Energy Secretary to deliver the
Government’s mission to achieve clean energy by 2030, including scrapping the
ban on onshore windfarms and appointing Chris Stark - the former chair of the
Climate Change Committee - to lead the Mission Control for 2030.
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Territorial extent and application
● The Bill will extend and apply UK-wide. We will work closely with the Northern
Ireland Executive on the scope of Great British Energy’s functions and
opportunities for Northern Ireland.
Key facts
● Already a global leader in renewable energy, Scotland will be the home of our
clean energy mission, with Great British Energy headquartered there.
● Significant private sector investment is required to deliver a decarbonised power
system, which public sector investment and institutions can stimulate through
partnership.
● It is highly unlikely that this scale and pace of investment could be delivered by
the private sector alone within the current institutional and policy landscape.
While the exact generation capacity make-up of a decarbonised power system
could take a variety of forms, it is likely to require at least a doubling of current
onshore wind capacity, and a three to fourfold increase in current offshore wind
and solar capacity. Leveraging the capabilities that only the public sector has, a
public energy company, in combination with additional electricity market reforms,
could help mitigate existing market failures, and therefore increase the speed and
reduce the cost of deploying renewable generation capacity.
● Decarbonising the power system will increase energy security by reducing the
UK’s dependence on imported oil and gas, which will in turn reduce the exposure
of consumer bills to volatile international prices. Currently the cost of electricity
tracks the cost of gas because gas generation sets the marginal wholesale price.
Decarbonising the power system would break this link and in turn the exposure of
UK electricity prices to global gas prices.
● From January 2022 to January 2023, the Ofgem energy price cap more than
tripled (from £1,277 to £4,279) as a result of the spike in gas prices following
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, with bills in summer 2024 still over £400 higher than
before the crisis in 2021. This required government intervention in the form of the
Energy Price Guarantee, at significant cost to the taxpayer, to limit the substantial
impact of this price increase on consumer bills.
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The Crown Estate Bill
● This Bill will modernise The Crown Estate by removing outdated restrictions on
its activities, widening its investment powers and giving it the powers to borrow in
order to invest at a faster pace.
● These measures - which conform to our fiscal rules - will unlock significant
investment in public infrastructure for the benefit of the nation. That includes vital
marine investment needed to accelerate and quadruple offshore wind capacity
by 2030 as part of the Government’s clean power mission.
● Together these reforms will ensure the successful future of The Crown Estate
business, help meet our Clean Energy Superpower mission and deliver
long-term financial returns to the UK taxpayer.
What does the Bill do?
● The Crown Estate plays a critical role in maintaining and improving public
infrastructure of England, Wales and Northern Ireland and generates a financial
return for the Government worth over £3 billion in the last decade. This money
helps fund vital public services.
● One of The Crown Estate’s most important roles is as the owner and steward of
the seabed of England and Wales. In this role, The Crown Estate develops,
prepares and leases out plots of seabed to offshore wind and other developers
(for example, those looking to build carbon capture infrastructure). The pace at
which it does this determines how quickly we can meet our Clean Energy
Superpower mission.
● The Crown Estate Bill will modernise The Crown Estate so that it can manage our
public assets more effectively, by:
o granting The Crown Estate the power to borrow. Currently The Crown
Estate cannot use its large cash reserves to invest because it needs these
to hold these against the prospect of future financial losses. Enabling it to
borrow from the Exchequer will free up these reserves to be invested in
new projects. This is particularly critical for accelerating the pace of our
offshore wind deployment.
o widening The Crown Estate’s existing investment powers, to enable
investment in activities which complement its strategy and support wider
government policy objectives, such as digital technologies to support
offshore energy development and port infrastructure.
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o changing the source of funding for expenses and salaries of the
Commissioners from votes to the return made by The Crown Estate. This
will provide legislative simplification, saving parliamentary time by
removing the need for these to be done through the Parliamentary Supply
Estimates Process.
o increasing the maximum number of Commissioners on The Crown
Estate Board from 8 to 12 - bringing The Crown Estate in line with modern
corporate governance best practice.
Territorial extent and application
● The Bill will extend and apply to England and Wales and Northern Ireland.
Key facts
● The Crown Estate is a multi-billion-pound business which returns its profits to the
Government to help fund public services. It is an independent business, tasked
with managing a portfolio of land and property owned by the Sovereign.
● The Crown Estate operates on a wholly commercial basis and has a statutory
duty to maintain and enhance the value of its portfolio. Since 1760, the profits of
The Crown Estate have been surrendered to the Exchequer by the Monarch. In
return, The King receives a fixed payment in the form of the Sovereign Grant.
Over the last decade, The Crown Estate has contributed over £3 billion to the
Exchequer.
● The Crown Estate’s portfolio is diverse covering a range of rural, marine, London
and regional holdings. As owner of the seabed, it plays a critical role in the
delivery of offshore energy.
● Granting the Crown Estate borrowing powers will allow it to bring forward 20-30
gigawatt of new offshore wind seabed leases by 2030, boosting offshore wind
capacity off England and Wales’s 6,500 miles of coastline.
● The modernisation of The Crown Estate’s property portfolio, as well as urban
regeneration, will help to further the Government’s housebuilding priority.
49
Sustainable Aviation Fuel (Revenue Support Mechanism) Bill
“A Bill will be introduced to support sustainable aviation fuel production.”
● This Bill will support sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) production in the UK by
providing revenue certainty to encourage investment in the construction of SAF
plants across the UK. Sustainable aviation fuel is one of the key ways to
decarbonise air travel. This will help drive our missions to kickstart economic
growth and make Britain a clean energy superpower, delivering the
Government’s manifesto commitment to secure the UK aviation industry's
long-term future, including through promoting sustainable aviation fuels.
● Sustainable aviation fuel production is estimated to add over £1.8 billion to the
economy will support over 10,000 jobs across the country while supporting
decarbonisation.
What does the Bill do?
● The Government is committed to decarbonising the aviation sector and reducing
greenhouse gas emissions. Increasing the use of SAF, which significantly
reduces emissions of greenhouse gases, is a key means by which to support this
goal. It is a key measure to decarbonise the aviation sector and reduce
greenhouse gas emissions.
● The Bill introduces a revenue certainty mechanism for SAF producers who are
looking to invest in new plants in the UK. This builds on the SAF mandate, which
will create demand for SAF by setting targets on fuel suppliers to use a proportion
of SAF.
● This new sector will create jobs and growth opportunities in the UK, help secure a
supply of SAF for UK airlines, and enhance energy security.
Territorial extent and application
● The Bill will extend and apply UK-wide.
Key facts
● Without action, the aviation industry’s contribution to greenhouse gas emissions
is projected to continue to grow in the coming decades. As a drop-in fuel, which
can be used in existing aircraft, sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) is one of the most
effective ways to start to decarbonise flights. The associated greenhouse gas
50
emissions from using SAF are 70 per cent less than fossil jet fuel on a life cycle
basis, and planes can already use up to 50 per cent SAF under current rules.
● The Government will mandate the supply of SAF in the UK by obliging suppliers
to have at least 10 per cent SAF in their fuel mix supplied to airlines. Whilst the
mandate can be met with imported SAF, with many other countries also looking to
mandate, or incentivise SAF in other ways, demand is likely to be high and it
would be prudent for there to be a supply of UK-produced SAF.
● A range of production pathways for SAF are under development globally, with
only a small number in commercial deployment at the moment. Making the leap
from the lab to commercial scale has proven difficult, as small demonstration
facilities are capital-intensive and often unprofitable at the scale involved.
Commercial plants can then typically cost £600 million to £1 billion or more to
reach economical scales of production and it takes years for revenues to off-set
the initial investment. Where plants are first-of-a-kind, the capital requirements
are often seen as too large for venture capital or too risky for most private equity
and fund investors.
● There are several reasons why revenue certainty remains a key barrier to
projects reaching Financial Investment Decision for some forms of SAF. Firstly,
there is no clear UK or global market price for advanced SAF, as it is not yet
being produced in large scale anywhere. A nascent and variable price means
predicting the price that SAF will trade at in the UK over the short and medium to
long term (the next 10 to 20 years) is uncertain.
● There are a number of SAF projects being developed across the UK. Bringing in
a revenue certainty mechanism will help to reduce risk, giving investors the
confidence they need to invest in UK SAF plants. It will increase the likelihood
SAF plants will be built in the UK, thereby securing a supply of SAF for the UK
aviation sector.
51
Water (Special Measures) Bill
“My Government recognises the need to improve water quality and a Bill will be
introduced to strengthen the powers of the water regulator.”
● The Water (Special Measures) Bill delivers on our manifesto commitment to put
water companies under tough special measures by strengthening regulation and
begin the work of cleaning up our rivers, lakes and seas.
● As an immediate step, this Government will strengthen regulation to reverse the
tide on the unacceptable destruction of our waterways, ensuring water
companies deliver for customers and the environment and attract private-sector
investment to upgrade our crumbling infrastructure.
● Change will take time. The Government will outline further legislation to
fundamentally transform our water industry and restore our rivers, lakes and seas
to good health.
What does the Bill do?
● Water companies are failing to deliver for their customers and the environment,
and the public have, rightly, had enough. The Government will introduce a new
Bill to put water companies under tough special measures to strengthen
regulation as a first step to clean up our rivers, lakes and seas. The Water
(Special Measures) Bill will:
o strengthen regulation to ensure water bosses face personal criminal
liability for lawbreaking.
o give the water regulator new powers to ban the payment of bonuses
if environmental standards are not met.
o boost accountability for water executives through a new ‘code of
conduct’ for water companies, so customers can summon board members
and hold executives to account.
o introduce new powers to bring automatic and severe fines.
o require water companies to install real-time monitors at every sewage
outlet with data independently scrutinised by the water regulators.
● These measures will strengthen the enforcement regime and make clear that the
Government will not tolerate poor performance across the water sector. The
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Government will outline further legislation to fundamentally transform and reset
our water industry and restore our rivers, lakes and seas to good health.
Territorial extent and application
● The majority of the measures in the Bill will extend and apply to England and
Wales.
Key facts
● In 2022/23, £9.7 million was paid out in bonuses to water and sewage company
executives in England and Wales despite the poor performance in the sector, with
nearly £4.2 million in fines issued as a result of prosecutions. Water company
bosses should not be rewarded when the water environment is being illegally
polluted with untreated sewage.
● It is clear, after years of failure, that we need stronger regulation. Between 2015
and 2021 the number of enforcement actions brought against companies by the
Environment Agency (EA) reduced by 48 per cent; only 5 prosecutions have
been brought against individuals within companies, 2 of which have been
successfully appealed.
● There is a lack of public trust in the water industry. Only one-third of customers
expressed trust in water companies’ ability to ‘prevent sewage from entering
rivers and seas’ and only a quarter think ‘companies act in the interest of people
and the environment’.
● Monitoring of storm overflows in England has increased to 100 per cent.
However, there are still 7,000 permitted emergency overflows (i.e. non-storm
overflows which can be used in extreme circumstances) in England that are not
monitored.
● Recent assessments of the condition of our rivers, lakes and other surface waters
show that over four in five are not in good ecological condition, or on a trajectory
towards it.
● The total dividends paid to shareholders by water companies in England between
April 2010 and April 2023 amounts to just under £21.2 billion.
● There were 464,056 storm overflow spills recorded in 2023, a record number and
an increase of 54 per cent compared to the 301,091 spills in 2022.
53
SECURE BORDERS, CRACKING DOWN ON ANTI SOCIAL BEHAVIOUR AND
TAKE BACK OUR STREETS
Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill
“My Government will seek to strengthen the border and make streets safer. A Bill will
be introduced to modernise the asylum and immigration system, establishing a new
Border Security Command and delivering enhanced counter terror powers to tackle
organised immigration crime”
● Strong and effective border security is vital to protect our national security. Small
boat crossings are undermining our border security and costing lives. Existing
policies have failed to deter crossings or prosecute the people smugglers
responsible, and our current asylum system is broken.
● The Bill will support our priority of secure and stronger borders and a properly
controlled and managed asylum system by launching a Border Security
Command to bring criminal people smugglers to justice, tackling criminal gangs
who exploit migrants and fuel the small boats crisis, and clearing the asylum
backlog to end hotel use and increase returns.
What does the Bill do?
● The Bill will enable stronger borders and a properly controlled and managed
asylum system by:
o giving the new Border Security Command and wider law enforcement
the tools and powers they need to crack down on criminal gangs by
building on the success of robust powers to counter terrorism and
including stronger powers for law enforcement officers to investigate
involvement in organised immigration crime for example in stopping and
searching at the border.
o providing a strong deterrent and penalty for criminals involved in
organised immigration crime (OIC), ensuring there are stronger
penalties in place against a range of OIC and border criminality, including
preparatory offences such as enabling the advertising the services of a
migrant smuggling group and precursor offences such as relating to the
supply of materials needed to facilitate organised crime gangs.
o fixing the broken asylum system, making it more efficient and effective
to ensure the rules are properly enforced by ending hotel use through
clearing the asylum backlog, ensuring fast-track returns for individuals
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coming from safe countries and ending the failed and incredibly costly
Migration and Economic Development Partnership to redirect money into
the Border Security Command.
Territorial extent and application
● The Bill will extend and apply UK-wide
Key facts
● The Migration and Economic Development Partnership (MEDP) with Rwanda has
failed to deter boat crossings. After two-and-a-half years, no enforced relocations
to Rwanda have taken place, and crossings in the first half of the year reached
record highs.
● Rwanda has to date received £290 million under the MEDP, with only four
volunteers transferred. Withdrawing from the MEDP now will save over £100
million in future payments to Rwanda, alongside tens of millions of pounds of
additional payments for a small number of individuals to be relocated.
● Under the previous government’s Illegal Migration Act, the vast majority of those
claiming asylum after arriving via small boat since March 2023 have been stuck
in a backlog, eligible for accommodation with no realistic prospect of removal
even for those from safe countries. This has led to a new backlog of claims.
● In the last financial year, total asylum support costs exceeded £5 billion, resulting
in a Reserve Claim of £4 billion above forecast spend, driven by the use of
asylum hotels which cost the taxpayer almost £8 million per day.
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Crime and Policing Bill
“Legislation will be brought forward to strengthen community policing, give the police
greater powers to deal with anti social behaviour”
● This Bill will deliver on our mission to take back our streets by halving serious
violence and increase confidence in policing and the Criminal Justice System. It
will give the police the powers they need to crack down on crime and anti social
behaviour, whilst introducing new reforms to ensure that our law enforcement
agencies perform to the highest standards expected by the public and focus on
front-line policing.
● The Bill will set out early measures to help deliver on the Government’s mission
to halve serious violence over a decade, with strong action to tackle knife crime
and violence against women and girls.
What does the Bill do?
● The Bill will include measures to:
o rebuild neighbourhood policing. Bring forward arrangements to get
neighbourhood police and Police Community Support Officers back on the
beat in local communities.
o deliver higher policing standards. Expand the powers of HM
Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services to intervene in
failing police forces, introduce higher mandatory national vetting standards
across policing, and establish new mandatory arrangements to deliver
efficiency savings through nationwide standards for procurement, shared
services and specialist functions.
o crackdown on anti social behaviour. Introduce new Respect Orders to
tackle persistent adult offenders, fast-track Public Spaces Protection
Orders to make it quicker and easier to clamp down on rapid escalations in
street drinking, and new powers to tackle the dangerous and anti social
use of off-road bikes. Create a duty for local partners to co-operate to
tackle anti social behaviour, with an anti social behaviour lead in every
local authority area.
o tackle retail crime. Create a new specific offence of assaulting a
shopworker and introduce stronger measures to tackle low level
shoplifting.
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○ tackle knife crime. Get dangerous knives and other weapons off our
streets by banning ninja swords and other lethal blades, and introducing
strict sanctions on senior executives of online companies who fail to
operate within the law. Prevent young people being drawn into crime and
criminal gangs by strengthening the law to tackle those who exploit children
for criminal purposes, and create arrangements for local Young Futures
prevention partnerships to bring together services to support at-risk
teenagers.
○ provide a stronger, specialist response to violence against women
and girls. Ensure the police have the capability to respond robustly to
domestic abuse, rape and other sexual offences, and strengthen the law to
improve the police response to spiking.
● Through this Bill and other measures, we will be rebuilding neighbourhood
policing. Bring forward arrangements to get neighbourhood police and Police
Community Support Officers back on the beat in local communities.
Territorial extent and application
● The Bill will extend and apply to England and Wales.
Key facts
● Serious violent crime, particularly knife crime, remains far too high. Knife crime
has risen by 7 per cent in the latest year ending December 2023, where there
were over 49,000 recorded offences involving a knife or sharp instrument in
England and Wales. Additionally, the most serious incidents – knife-enabled
homicides – have risen in the past decade (from 195 in 2012/13 to 244 in
2022/23), with young men most likely to be both the perpetrators and victims of
such crimes.
● Thousands of children are potentially vulnerable to child criminal exploitation. In
England, in year 2022/23 there were 14,420 Children in Need assessments
which identified children at risk of, or a victim of, criminal exploitation; while
11,100 assessments recorded that a child was part of a street or organised crime
gang.
● Retail crime is also increasing. Police-recorded crime figures indicate that there
were 430,104 shoplifting offences for year ending December 2023, an increase of
37 per cent over the previous 12-month period. Retail sector surveys put the
figure up to forty times higher, with the British Retail Consortium Crime Report
2024 estimating it rose to 16.7 million (45,750 a day) up from eight million (in the
12 months to August 2023).
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● Anti social behaviour continues to blight communities. The police recorded one
million incidents of anti social behaviour in the year ending December 2023.
Estimates from the Crime Survey for England and Wales for the year ending
December 2023 showed that 35 per cent of people had experienced or witnessed
some type of anti social behaviour.
● Violence against women and girls (VAWG) is high-harm and high-volume. The
volume of VAWG offences reported to the police has increased in recent years
and there remains a substantial gap between prevalence and police recorded
crime. For example, it is estimated that only 1 in 6 victims of rape report to the
police. In the year ending December 2023, police (excluding Devon and Cornwall
Police) recorded 191,052 sexual offences, of which 68,387 were rape offences
and 12,900 were exposure and voyeurism offences.
● The criminal justice response to VAWG offences is poor and domestic abuse has
seen a general decline in charges and prosecutions since 2015. Domestic abuse
flagged offence charges are down 45 per cent and prosecutions have decreased
by 41 per cent for the year ending March 2023 compared to year ending March
2015. In addition, the charge rates for sexual offences remain low at 9 per cent in
2023 compared to 19 per cent in 2015 and the proportion of stalking cases
charged has fallen from 21 per cent in 2016 to 7 per cent in 2023.
● Criminals are going unpunished. Since March 2015, the percentage of crime
recorded that lead to someone being charged has dropped from 15.5 per cent to
6.2 per cent, meaning that in 2023 over two million crime investigations were
closed with no suspect identified.
● Confidence in policing is falling. The proportion of people who consider that the
police are doing a good or excellent job has been on a downward trend since
2017, falling from 62 per cent to 51 per cent in 2023.
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Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Bill
“Measures will be introduced to improve the safety and security of public venues and
help keep the British public safe from terrorism”
● The first duty of any government is to keep the country safe. Introducing this Bill
will deliver the Government’s manifesto commitment to bring in Martyn’s Law,
and strengthen the security of public events and venues.
● The Government is deeply grateful to Figen Murray, mother of Martyn Hett, who
was one of the 22 victims of the horrific Manchester Arena attack. Her
campaigning has been crucial in driving this Bill and raising awareness about
security measures at public venues.
What does the Bill do?
● The Bill requires those responsible for certain premises and events to take steps
to mitigate the impact of a terrorist attack and reduce harm in the event of a
terrorist attack occurring. The measures required vary according to the capacity
of the premises or event.
○ smaller premises in the ‘standard tier’ will be required to notify the
regulator of their premises and put in place reasonably practicable
procedural measures to keep the public safe. Some measures could be as
simple as educating staff on locking doors and evacuation procedures.
○ the requirements for organisations at these smaller premises will be
focused on simple, low-cost activities surrounding policies and
procedures.
○ those responsible for larger ‘enhanced tier’ premises and certain
public events will be required to put in place counter terrorism
measures that could be expected to reduce, so far as reasonably
practicable, both the risk from an attack occurring at the premises or event
as well as the risk of physical harm being caused if an attack was to occur.
Territorial extent and application
● The Bill will extend and apply UK-wide.
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Key facts
● Since 2017, counter-terrorism police assess that there have been 15 domestic
terror attacks in the UK (not including Northern Ireland-related terrorism), and
agencies and law enforcement have disrupted 39 late-stage plots.
● Independent research conducted in 2019 by Agfora showed that, without legal
requirements, counter terrorism security efforts are often deprioritised behind
other legally required activities (e.g. fire safety). This results in inconsistent
consideration and application of security processes and measures.
● The 2021 consultation received a total of 2,755 responses from a wide range of
participants from across the UK and a variety of sectors. 70 per cent of
respondents agreed that those responsible for publicly accessible locations
should take appropriate and proportionate measures to protect the public from
attacks and should prepare their staff to respond appropriately in the event of a
terrorist attack.
● Figen Murray Campaigner for Martyn’s Law and mother of Martyn Hett has said
that “Martyn’s Law will end the ridiculous situation where venues have legal
obligations for how many toilets they have but no obligation to keep their
customers protected. Of course Martyn’s Law won’t stop all terror attacks, but it
will make crowded places better protected and prepared and make the terrorists’
job that bit harder.”
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Victims, Courts and Public Protection Bill
“Legislation will be brought forward to … strengthen support for victims”
● This Government was elected on a promise to deliver a justice system that puts
the needs of victims first.
● This Bill will deliver on that commitment and mission to take back our streets by
strengthening public protections, reducing delays in the criminal courts and
ensuring that victims get the support they deserve.
What does the Bill do?
● This Bill will make good on our commitment to deliver a justice system that gives
victims the justice system they deserve and ensure victims of crime and anti
social behaviour get the support they deserve.
● The Bill will include measures that:
○ ensure victims of crime and antisocial behaviour get the support they
deserve.
○ strengthen powers for the Victims’ Commissioner to ensure that they
are empowered to hold the system to account for the needs of victims not
being met.
○ require offenders to attend their sentencing hearings so that victims
and bereaved family members of deceased victims see criminals face the
consequences of their actions.
○ protect the public from sex offenders, restricting parental responsibility
for child sex offenders and implementing restrictions on sex offenders
changing their names.
○ reduce delays in the courts system by allowing Associate Prosecutors to
work on appropriate cases.
● In addition to the Bill, we will deliver on our manifesto commitment to fast-track
rape cases, with specialist courts at every Crown Court.
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Territorial extent and application
● The territorial extent and application is to be confirmed, but the Bill is expected to
extend and apply to England and Wales.
Key facts
● The Crime Survey for England and Wales to year ending December 2023 found
that 34.7 per cent of adults (over 16) either experienced or witnessed anti social
Behaviour in their local area. The police recorded 1 million anti social behaviour
incidents in 2023.
● 21.2 per cent of adults in England and Wales to year ending December 2023,
disagree that police and local council are dealing with the anti social behaviour
and crime issues that matter in the local area (Crime Survey for England and
Wales data).
● The original End-to-End Rape Review found that lengthy delays for victims ahead
of their trial date can be damaging to their mental health and wellbeing.
● Professor Katrin Hohl, Independent Adviser to the Rape Review, developed the
largest ever survey of rape and sexual violence victims. This survey found that
the leading reasons for victims withdrawing their cases were citing the negative
impacts of the case on their mental health and stating they did not feel supported
enough through the process.
● The Victims Commissioner, Baroness Newlove said that “as Victims’
Commissioner, one of my priorities is ensuring victims of anti social behaviour
feel heard, respected and supported when they come forward.”
● Farah Naz, bereaved relative of Zara Aleena said on new court powers to order
offenders to attend sentencing hearings: “the sentencing would have been
McSweeney’s opportunity to be ‘human’ and to ‘face his actions’, and that his
absence had been ‘a slap in the face’”.
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BREAK DOWN THE BARRIERS TO OPPORTUNITY
Children’s Wellbeing Bill
“A Bill will be introduced to raise standards in education and promote children’s
wellbeing”
● The Children’s Wellbeing Bill will put children and their wellbeing at the centre of
the education and children’s social care systems, and make changes so they are
safe, healthy, happy and treated fairly.
● The Bill will remove barriers to opportunity and raise school standards to ensure
the school system is fair for every child, no matter their background and deliver
our manifesto commitments on children’s social care to ensure that all children
can thrive in safe, loving homes.
What does the Bill do?
● The Children’s Wellbeing Bill will ensure our education and social care systems
transform life chances for millions of children and young people in England.
● The Bill will remove barriers to opportunity for children and their families by:
○ keeping children safe, happy and rooted in their communities and
schools by strengthening multi-agency child protection and safeguarding
arrangements.
○ requiring free breakfast clubs in every primary school to ensure that
every child, no matter their circumstances, is well prepared for the school
day and can achieve their full potential.
○ introducing legislation to limit the number of branded items of
uniform and PE kits that a school can require to bring down costs for
parents and remove barriers from children accessing sport and other
school activities.
● The Bill will improve the education system and make it more consistent and safer
for every child by:
○ creating a duty on local authorities to have and maintain Children Not
in School registers, and provide support to home-educating parents.
These measures will ensure fewer children slip under the radar when they
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are not in school and more children reach their full potential through
suitable education.
○ making changes to the legislation about regulating and inspecting
independent schools, including by providing Ofsted stronger powers to
investigate the offence of operating an unregistered independent school.
These measures will help keep children safe and ensure they are receiving
a suitable education.
○ making changes to enable serious teacher misconduct to be
investigated, regardless of when the misconduct occurred, the setting the
teacher is employed in, and how the misconduct is uncovered. This will
protect and safeguard more children.
○ requiring all schools to cooperate with the local authority on school
admissions, SEND inclusion, and place planning, by giving local
authorities greater powers to help them deliver their functions on school
admissions and ensure admissions decisions account for the needs for
communities.
○ ensuring greater consistency between academies and maintained
schools by requiring all schools to teach the national curriculum,
giving every child a broad and rounded education. This measure will be
commenced after the review of curriculum and assessment is concluded
and is reflected in Programmes of Study. The review will set the
foundations to equip every child with the essential knowledge and skills for
the future.
○ recognising the status of the teaching profession and the difference
that teaching makes to a child’s education by ensuring any new teacher
entering the classroom has, or is working towards, Qualified Teacher Status
(QTS). This will be accompanied by recognising the essential role of
support staff in schools by giving them a national voice in the setting of their
pay and conditions.
○ bringing multi-academy trusts into the inspection system, to make the
system fairer and more transparent, and enable direct intervention when
schools and trusts are not performing to the highest standards.
Territorial extent and application
● The territorial extent and application is to be confirmed but the Bill is expected to
extend to England and Wales and apply to England.
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Key facts
● There are nearly 9.1 million pupils in the school system, with over 8 million pupils
across more than 20,000 state-funded schools in England, 170,000 pupils
in special and alternative provision and 600,000 pupils in private schools, as of
January 2024. We must ensure that schools and local authorities work together
to give children and families the school places they need in their communities.
● 1 in 4 children are in absolute poverty as of 2023. We know too many children’s
life chances are being scarred by rising poverty and too many arrive at school not
ready to learn. Breakfast clubs will help tackle poverty by helping children get
ready for the school day and support families with the cost of living.
● Multi-academy trusts run over 45 per cent of state schools. The current
inspection arrangements focus on individual schools, with no powers for the
inspectorate to evaluate the effectiveness and impact of the trust in achieving
good outcomes for young people across a trust’s schools. There is considerable
variation in trust level performance.
● With 92,000 children recorded as being in home education as of October 2023,
more children than ever are not in school (a 14 per cent increase since October
2022). Currently, no mandatory system of registration exists for these children.
These registers are needed for local authorities to better identify these children
so that they do not fall through the gaps, particularly when moving between
different types of education or across local authority boundaries. The UK is a
clear outlier in comparison to Europe, Canada, Australia and New Zealand in
relation to the lack of oversight of electively home educated children.
● Under section 96 of the Education and Skills Act 2008, it is an offence to conduct
an unregistered school in England. There is no reliable data on the number of
unregistered and, therefore, unlawful independent schools. Unregistered
independent schools are not subject to inspection and therefore provide no
assurance that children attending are safe and receiving a quality education.
Since 2016, Ofsted has carried out 854 in-person inspections of suspected
unregistered schools. Work undertaken by the Department for Education, since
2016, has revealed weaknesses in the powers available to Ofsted to inspect this
potentially criminal activity.
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Skills England Bill
“My Government will establish Skills England which will have a new partnership with
employers at its heart, and my Ministers will reform the apprenticeship levy”
● The aim of Skills England will be to bring together businesses, providers, unions,
Mayoral Combined Authorities (MCAs) and national government to ensure we
have the highly trained workforce that England needs.
● The Skills England Bill delivers on our manifesto commitment to simplify and
improve the skills system, ensuring the supply of skills needed for the economy
and breaking down barriers to opportunity.
● It will pave the way for the establishment of Skills England by transferring
functions from the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education (IfATE).
What does the Bill do?
● The Bill will transfer functions from IfATE to Skills England, which will sit at the
heart of a system that provides learners with the skills required to thrive in life,
businesses with the trained workforce they need to succeed, and local areas
with access to the right skills to spur economic growth. Skills provision ranges
from the essential skills people need to participate in the labour market, to the
highly technical skills required to drive productivity and economic growth.
● Skills England will support economic growth by greater coherence to the
assessment of skills needs and training landscape; ensuring training programmes
are well designed and delivered to meet these needs; and that regional and
national skills systems are providing the skilled workforce needed to enable
businesses to thrive and to contribute to the Industrial Strategy at the heart of our
growth mission.
● Skills England will convene employers, unions, education and training providers,
and experts with national government to:
○ develop a single picture of national and local skills needs. Skills
England will work with industry, the Migration Advisory Committee, unions
and the Industrial Strategy Council to build and maintain a comprehensive
assessment of current and future skills needs. This will also inform the
Department for Education’s policy priorities.
○ identify the training for which the Growth and Skills Levy will be
accessible - this includes consulting on (and maintaining a list of)
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levy-eligible training to ensure value for money, and that the mix of
government-funded training available to learners and employers aligns with
skills needs.
○ ensure that the national and regional skills systems are meeting skills
needs and are aligned, including using local and regional vacancy data as
part of a robust evidence base. Skills England will convene MCAs and
other key stakeholders to identify system issues and provide advice to
Government, leading to a more coherent system.
● To deliver this role, it is expected that Skills England will need to take on several
of the functions the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education.
Territorial extent and application
● The Bill will extend to England and Wales and apply in England.
Key facts
● The volume of skills shortage vacancies in England more than doubled between
2017 and 2022, from 226,500 to 531,200. Skills England will build the evidence
base needed to address these gaps and will be responsible for sharing this
insight with actors at a national and regional level, supporting the development of
provision that addresses this need.
● 1.7 million 16-18 year olds and 3.8 million 19+ year olds are served by the
English skills system every year. Skills England will be tasked with
recommending which training will be eligible for the Growth and Skills levy, giving
businesses more flexibility, supporting the take-up of provision that the economy
needs and providing learners with access to opportunities that will improve their
lives.
● MCAs and the Greater London Authority will be responsible for 62 per cent of the
Adult Skills Fund budget in academic year 2024/25 and further devolution is
planned.
● Across all industries, the number of work visas granted has increased by 78 per
cent from March 2022 to March 2024. This growth is mainly driven by a 206 per
cent increase in visas granted for health and social care, with other sectors also
seeing significant growth. By creating a formal link between migration data and
skills policy we will ensure that training in England accounts for the overall needs
of the labour market.
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Renters’ Rights Bill
“Legislation will be introduced to give greater rights and protections to people renting
their homes, including ending no fault evictions and reforming grounds for
possession”
● More than 11 million people in England live day in, day out with the knowledge
that they could be uprooted from their home with little notice and minimal
justification, and a significant minority of them are forced to live in substandard
properties for fear that a complaint would lead to an instant retaliatory eviction.
The Government is determined to address the insecurity and injustice that far too
many renters experience by fundamentally reforming the private rented sector
and improving the quality of housing in it.
● We value the contribution made by responsible landlords who provide quality
homes to their tenants and believe they must enjoy robust grounds for
possession where there is good reason to take their property back. However, the
Government is determined to level decisively the playing field between landlord
and tenant by providing renters with greater security, rights and protections and
cracking down on the minority of unscrupulous landlords who exploit, mistreat or
discriminate against tenants with bad practices such as unfair rent increases
intended to force tenants out, and pitting renters against each other in bidding
wars.
● The Renters’ Rights Bill delivers our manifesto commitment to transform the
experience of private renting, including by ending Section 21 ‘no fault’ evictions –
we will take action where the previous Government has failed. The Bill will
giveing renters much greater security and stability so they can stay in their
homes for longer, build lives in their communities, and avoid the risk of
homelessness.
What does the Bill do?
● The private rented sector must work for all those who depend upon it for a secure
home. A functioning sector can provide flexibility for those who want it, and a
secure stepping stone for aspiring homeowners.
● Too many renters are being exploited by a minority of unscrupulous landlords,
unable to challenge bad practices because they could be evicted at any moment.
This is bad for economic growth and productivity, poor for health, and a drain on
aspiration.
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● The Renters’ Rights Bill will overhaul the private rented sector, with this
Government determined to take action where the previous Government failed,
transforming rights for the 11 million private tenants in England by:
o abolishing Section 21 ‘no fault evictions’, removing the threat of
arbitrary evictions and increasing tenant security and stability. New clear
and expanded possession grounds will be introduced so landlords can
reclaim their properties when they need to.
o strengthening tenants’ rights and protections, for example we will
empower tenants to challenge rent increases designed to force them out
by the backdoor and introduce new laws to end the practice of rental
bidding wars by landlords and letting agents.
o giving tenants the right to request a pet, which landlords must consider
and cannot unreasonably refuse. Landlords will be able to request
insurance to cover potential damage from pets if needed.
o applying a Decent Homes Standard to the private rented sector to
ensure homes are safe, secure and hazard free – tackling the blight of
poor-quality homes.
o applying ‘Awaab’s Law’ to the sector, setting clear legal expectations
about the timeframes within which landlords in the private rented sector
must make homes safe where they contain serious hazards.
o creating a digital private rented sector database to bring together key
information for landlords, tenants, and councils. Tenants will be able to
access information to inform choices when entering new tenancies.
Landlords will be able to quickly understand their obligations and
demonstrate compliance, providing certainty for tenants and landlords
alike. Councils will be able to use the database to target enforcement
where it is needed most.
o supporting quicker, cheaper resolution when there are disputes –
preventing them escalating to costly court proceedings – with a new
ombudsman service for the private rented sector that will provide fair,
impartial and binding resolution, to both landlords and tenants and
reducing the need to go to court.
o making it illegal for landlords to discriminate against tenants in
receipt of benefits or with children when choosing to let their
property – so no family is discriminated against and denied a home when
they need it.
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o strengthening local councils’ enforcement powers. New investigatory
powers will make it easier for councils to identify and fine unscrupulous
landlords and drive bad actors out of the sector.
Territorial extent and application
● The majority of the Bill will extend to England and Wales and apply to England.
Key facts
● This Bill will reform the private rented sector, strengthening the protections for 11
million private tenants. This includes the 1.4 million households with dependent
children and 444,000 households with over-65s privately renting.
● Government data released in 2024 found that no fault evictions resulted in a
record 25,910 households being threatened with homelessness in 2023. In
addition, 2,682 households in England were removed from their homes by bailiffs
because of no fault evictions between January and March – up 19 per cent in a
year and the highest number in six years.
● The last two years has seen unprecedented levels of growth in rental prices.
Whilst the annual growth rate in rents have usually been around 2 per cent, in
March 2024 yearly increase in the average rent of the stock of tenancies reached
9 per cent.
● In 2021, private rented sector tenants spent 38 per cent of their income on rent
(excl. housing support), whilst homeowners spent only 21 per cent on mortgage
costs and social renters 27 per cent on rent.
● 21 per cent of private rented sector homes (approximately one million properties)
are non-decent and 12 per cent (approximately 580,000 properties) contain a
category one hazard such as severe damp or mould.
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Football Governance Bill
“A Bill will be introduced to establish an independent football regulator to ensure
greater sustainability in the game and strengthen protections for fans”
● The Football Governance Bill delivers our manifesto commitment to introduce an
Independent Football Regulator. The new regulator will protect football clubs
across England, ensuring their financial sustainability and giving fans a greater
say in the way their clubs are run. It will also ensure that clubs can’t be syphoned
off from the English football pyramid to set up their own closed league while
providing the certainty and sustainability required to drive future investment and
growth, so that English Football remains a global success story.
● The Bill will provide greater protections for club heritage and ensure responsible
owners for these community assets. Most importantly, the Government is
strengthening these proposals to ensure that fans have a greater voice in their
own clubs. It will not change the fundamentals of the game we love - but will
ensure a more sustainable future, with fans at its heart, for generations to come.
What does the Bill do?
● Despite the phenomenal global success of English football in recent years, the
game has fundamental governance problems that have led to excessive and
reckless risk-taking at too many clubs. Ineffective regulation poses very real
dangers to our national game, threatening the stability of the football pyramid and
impacting fans across the country. That is why the Government is introducing
legislation to ensure that English football is sustainable and benefits its fans and
communities by:
o establishing a new independent regulator to address financial
sustainability and ensure fans’ voices are heard. The regulator would
operate a licensing system, where regulated clubs would require a licence
to operate as professional football clubs. The new regulator would be
tasked with ensuring that individual clubs are financially sound; the overall
English football system is more financially resilient; and safeguarding the
heritage of individual clubs.
o introducing financial regulation to improve the financial resilience of
clubs across the football pyramid. Clubs will be required to demonstrate
sound basic financial practices; have appropriate financial resources to
enable the club to meet cash flows, including in the event of a financial
shock; and protect the core assets and value of the club - such as the
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stadium. This will reduce the risk of clubs facing financial failure, which at
its most extreme can lead to clubs ceasing to exist.
o creating a new, strengthened owners’ and directors’ test to make
sure a club’s custodians are suitable and protect fans from
irresponsible owners. This follows too many cases of clubs being put at
risk of administration or liquidation due to mismanagement by their owners
and directors. Some of these acquired clubs without having adequate
finances or were involved in criminality. Some directors made crucial
financial decisions without holding suitable professional qualifications.
o setting a minimum standard of fan engagement and requiring clubs
to get fan approval to changes to the badge and home shirt colours,
as well as placing the strong existing FA protections for club names
on a statutory footing. This comes after fans at clubs like Cardiff City and
Hull City had to battle to bring back, or keep, their club’s colours and
badge and name.
o requiring clubs to seek the regulator’s approval for a stadium sale or
relocation. The stadium a club plays in not only has significant value to
fans but can also be a club’s most valuable asset, and the recent
administration at Derby County highlighted the issues caused by the
decision to sell the club’s stadium.
o preventing clubs from joining closed-shop, breakaway or unlicensed
leagues, such as the European Super League. The legislation would set
out a number of duties that clubs would need to comply with in order to
obtain and keep their licence, including not playing in competitions
prohibited by the regulator, where they are not based on merit, open
competition or if they harm the heritage of English football.
o ensuring fair financial distributions between leagues. When authorities
cannot agree appropriate financial flows, and the sustainability of football
is at risk, giving the regulator the backstop power to ensure a fair financial
flow.
o establishing a ‘Football Club Corporate Governance Code’. Clubs
would be required to report annually on corporate governance, setting out
how they apply the principles of the Code and why this is suitable for their
circumstances. The code would be developed in consultation with industry
and encourage clubs to be better run.
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Territorial extent and application
● The Bill will extend and apply to England and Wales.
Key facts
● The Premier League is a global success, attracting more viewers and higher
revenues than any of its international rivals. In the 2022/23 season the Premier
League’s aggregate revenue was £6.1 billion - compared to Spain's La Liga (£3.1
billion) and Italy’s Serie A (around £2.5 billion). However, this cannot disguise the
underlying fragility of the English football pyramid. Fundamental problems of
perverse incentives, poor governance, and defective industry self-regulation
mean there is a high and growing risk of financial failure among clubs.
● Clubs are consistently loss making and rely on external funding. The prevailing
business model exhibits a significant reliance on owner funding to sustain
consistent loss-making. In 2022/23, pre-tax losses across the Premier League
and Championship were around £1 billion, typically fuelled by high spending on
transfers and wages. Ten Championship clubs reported wage-to-revenue ratios
above 100 in 2022/23. The result has been a steady rise in borrowing. Even with
growth of 3,500 per cent in revenue, Premier League clubs have lost almost £4
billion in the last 30 years.
● Levels of borrowing and debt are increasing. Across the Premier League and
Championship combined, net debt was £4.7 billion in 2022/23. This shows that
many clubs across the pyramid are financially vulnerable. The unique importance
of football clubs to their fans and local communities means the social costs of
financial failures would be significant. The introduction of an independent football
regulator will help to promote and secure the financial sustainability of clubs and
reduce the likelihood of financial collapse.
● Economic and social costs of club failures (even administrations) would be
substantial. It would be felt by a range of parties including fans and local
communities, and the cultural heritage of English football risks being irreversibly
damaged. In addition to social impacts, such as the closure of community
initiatives and erosion of local pride, the loss of football clubs can lead to
long-term economic damage, ‘scarring’ local communities, as seen with the
collapse of Bury F.C. The impacts of club financial failures are likely to fall
disproportionately on lower income areas. Approximately 63 per cent (73 out of
116) clubs in English football's top five tiers are in regions where the average
disposable household income is below the UK average.
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Draft Leasehold and Commonhold Reform Bill
“Draft legislation will be published on leasehold and commonhold reform”
● The Government will act quickly to provide homeowners with greater rights,
powers and protections over their homes by implementing the provisions of the
Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024.
● The Government will further reform the leasehold system, enacting remaining
Law Commission recommendations relating to leasehold enfranchisement and
the Right to Manage, tackling unregulated and unaffordable ground rents, and
removing the disproportionate and draconian threat of forfeiture as a means of
ensuring compliance with a lease agreement.
● The Government will take steps to bring the feudal leasehold system to an end,
reinvigorating commonhold through a comprehensive new legal framework and
banning the sale of new leasehold flats so commonhold becomes the default
tenure.
What does the draft Bill do?
● The Government will take steps to bring the feudal system of leasehold to an end
and reinvigorate commonhold by:
○ enacting remaining Law Commission recommendations to bolster
leaseholders’ fundamental rights to extend their lease and buy their
freehold (enfranchisement), and take over the freeholders building
management functions (Right to Manage).
○ reinvigorating commonhold by modernising the legal framework. We will
also restrict the sale of new leasehold flats. The Government will consult on
the best way to achieve this, so that generations to come will benefit from
absolute homeownership.
○ tackling existing ground rents by regulating ground rents for existing
leaseholders so they no longer face unregulated and unaffordable costs.
○ bringing the injustice of ‘fleecehold’ private estates and unfair costs
to an end – the Government will consult on the best way to achieve this
and implement new protections for homeowners on private estates in the
Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024.
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○ ending the injustice of forfeiture so that leaseholders are protected
against losing savings they have in their home for potentially small unpaid
debts.
● In addition, the Government will implement the Leasehold and Freehold Reform
Act 2024 so that leaseholders can benefit from more rights, power and
protections over their homes.
Territorial extent and application
● The Bill will extend and apply to England and Wales.
Key facts
● There are around 5 million leasehold dwellings in England and Wales,
concentrated in our major cities and towns. England has 1.3 million leasehold
houses, although fewer than 500 are now built a year. The remaining 3.4 million
existing leasehold homes in England are flats.
● The Law Commission reports of 2020 highlight the inherent unfairness of the
leasehold tenure, and the costs, complexity, uncertainty and inconsistencies of
enfranchisement. They said the Right to Manage was not the simple process
envisaged, with problems including the provision of information and uncertainty
over the extent of the right.
● Commonhold has failed to take off as an alternative to leasehold since its
introduction in 2002. Today there are fewer than 20 commonhold blocks in
England and Wales. The commonhold legal framework is out of sync with modern
development methods, and the current rules around conversion from leasehold to
commonhold are unworkable.
● We estimate that 86 per cent of leaseholders pay a ground rent, averaging
almost £300 per year in England. Ground rent contracts that rapidly escalate can
become unaffordable over time for leaseholders. In a recent survey undertaken
by Propertymark, a leading membership body for property agents, 78 per cent of
their members reported that a leasehold property with an escalating ground rent
will struggle to sell, even if priced correctly.
● Leasehold law unfairly rewards the landlord with a windfall when they take
possession of a property through forfeiture. Many more leaseholders are,
however, threatened with forfeiture and the loss of their home for low outstanding
sums (as little as £350, or less if outstanding for more than three years), which
can cause significant distress. Landlords need an effective way to recover debts
but the fact this can happen over what might be a small breach underlines its
draconian nature.
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● There are also as many as 1.75 million homes on private estates, and over
recent years we have seen a growth in the number of new homes built on these
estates. Costs vary considerably, depending on a number of factors, but the
Competition and Market Authority estimates average cost at around £350 per
annum.
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Draft Equality (Race and Disability) Bill
“Legislation on race equality will be published in draft to enshrine the full right to
equal pay in law”
● The draft Bill delivers our manifesto commitments to enshrine in law the full right
to equal pay for ethnic minorities and disabled people and to introduce
mandatory ethnicity and disability pay reporting. This will seek to create a more
equal society and support a growing economy.
What does the draft Bill do?
● The draft Bill will tackle inequality for ethnic minority and disabled people by:
○ enshrining in law the full right to equal pay for ethnic minorities and
disabled people, making it much easier for them to bring unequal pay
claims. Claimants currently face significant barriers when bringing pay
discrimination claims on the grounds of ethnicity or disability. Enshrining in
law the full right to equal pay for ethnic minorities as well as disabled
people will make it easier for them to bring forward equal pay claims where
they have been underpaid.
○ introducing mandatory ethnicity and disability pay reporting for larger
employers (those with 250+ employees) to help close the ethnicity and
disability pay gaps. Surfacing pay gaps will enable companies to
constructively consider why they exist and how to tackle them.
Territorial extent and application
● The draft Bill is likely to extend and apply to Great Britain, mirroring measures in
the Equality Act 2010 relating to equal pay and gender pay reporting.
Key facts
● Most ethnic minority groups earn less than the White British group. Between
2012 and 2022, for example, Black, African, Caribbean or Black British
employees consistently earned less than their White counterparts.
● Although there has been growth in employment rates for disabled people in
recent years, disabled people have, on average, lower incomes than
non-disabled people. According to the Office for National Statistics, there was a
gap of 13.8 per cent in 2021 and 14.1 per cent in 2019 between median pay for
disabled employees and non-disabled employees.
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● Building on the success of the gender pay gap reporting, mandatory ethnicity and
disability pay reporting for large employers will expose pay disparity, encouraging
employers to take action and coupled with additional equal pay protections allow
those who are being underpaid, with greater legal certainty to make a claim.
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Draft Conversion Practices Bill
“A draft Bill will be brought forward to ban conversion practices.”
● Conversion practices are abuse. They are acts that aim to change someone’s
sexual orientation or gender identity, mostly in relation to LGBT+ people. Such
practices have no place in society and must be stopped.
● Through the Conversion Practices Bill, this Government will deliver our manifesto
commitment to bring forward a full, trans-inclusive ban on conversion practices.
What does the draft Bill do?
● The draft Conversion Practices Bill will propose new offences to target acts of
conversion practices that are not captured by existing legislation. The
Government wants to ensure that the criminal law offers protection from these
abusive practices, while also preserving the freedom for people, and those
supporting them, to explore their sexual orientation and gender identity. This will
mean those providing medical care and support are in no way impacted by this
Bill.
● We are clear that any ban must not cover legitimate psychological support,
treatment, or non-directive counselling. It must also respect the important role
that teachers, religious leaders, parents and carers can have in supporting those
exploring their sexual orientation or gender identity.
● This is a government of change, which will give respect and dignity to everyone.
That is why the ban will be fully trans-inclusive. We are committed to listening to
all viewpoints and concerns with respect.
● This Government is getting on with delivering a conversion practices ban. There
is genuine cross party and cross society consensus to see these practices
banned. But to ensure we have a ban that works and achieves that for the long
term, we need to work closely with everyone and bring everyone with us as we
do so - because no one thinks the status quo is acceptable.
Territorial extent and application
● The Bill will extend and apply to England and Wales.
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Key facts
● Conversion practices are often hidden, covert and associated with shame, which
results in a reluctance of victims to come forward and therefore makes it difficult
to ascertain the true extent of the problem. However, there is consistent and
current evidence of prevalence which suggests this takes place today and is not
a historical issue.
● Research carried out by Galop in 2022 found that:
o Nearly 1 in 5 (18 per cent) LGBT+ people in the UK have been subjected
to someone trying to change, ‘cure’ or suppress their sexual orientation or
gender identity.
o Trans (43 per cent) people are significantly more likely to be subjected to
conversion practices.
● In 2017 the then Government conducted the National LGBT Survey. The Survey
received around 108,000 valid responses from across the UK. Of these, 2 per
cent of respondents reported having “undergone conversion or reparative therapy
in an attempt to ‘cure’ them of being LGBT”, and a further 5 per cent reported
having been offered it. Transgender respondents were much more likely to report
having undergone or been offered conversion therapy than non-transgender
respondents (13 per cent vs 7 per cent) - there is a real policy need to ensure
that any incoming ban is trans-inclusive.
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HEALTH
Tobacco and Vapes Bill
“A Bill will be introduced to progressively increase the age at which people can buy
cigarettes and impose limits on the sale and marketing of vapes”
● The Tobacco and Vapes Bill will deliver on our mission to improve healthy life
expectancy and reduce the number of lives lost to the biggest killers, including
cancer and cardiovascular diseases.
● The Bill will deliver on the Government’s manifesto commitment to introduce a
progressive smoking ban. This will make sure the next generation can never
legally be sold cigarettes, paving the way for a smoke-free UK.
● The Bill will also stop vapes and other consumer nicotine products (such as
nicotine pouches) from being deliberately branded and advertised to appeal to
children. Together these measures will help stop the next generation from
becoming hooked on nicotine.
What does the Bill do?
● Sitting alongside wider support across the health service to support smokers to
quit, the Tobacco and Vapes Bill will be a landmark step in creating a smoke-free
UK. It will:
o introduce a progressive smoking ban to gradually end the sale of
tobacco products across the country (including herbal smoking
products and cigarette papers). Children born on or after 1 January 2009
will never be able to legally be sold cigarettes, preventing the next
generation from becoming hooked on nicotine. The majority of smokers
start in their youth (4 in 5 start before the age of 20) and are then addicted
for life.
o stop vapes and other consumer nicotine products (such as nicotine
pouches) from being deliberately branded and advertised to appeal
to children meaning they are only available as a tool to help smokers quit.
The Bill will provide Ministers with powers to regulate the flavours,
packaging, and display of vapes and other nicotine products. These steps
will help stop the next generation from becoming hooked on nicotine.
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o strengthen enforcement activity, allowing Trading Standards to take
swifter action to enforce the law and closing loopholes. It will prevent
underage sales of tobacco and vapes by providing enforcement authorities
in England and Wales with the power to issue Fixed Penalty Notices for
the underage sale of tobacco and vaping products.
Territorial extent and application
● The Bill will extend UK-wide, although the application of the measures will vary
across the UK.
Key facts
● Smoking is the number one preventable cause of death, disability and ill health. It
causes 80,000 deaths a year in the UK, 1-in-4 of all cancer deaths and kills up to
two-thirds of its users. Smoking also substantially increases the risk of many
major health conditions throughout people’s lives, such as strokes, diabetes,
heart disease, stillbirth, dementia and asthma. Smoking increases the chance of
stillbirth by 50 per cent.
● Almost every minute someone is admitted to hospital because of smoking. Up to
75,000 GP appointments can be attributed to smoking each month – over 100
appointments every hour. Smokers’ need for health care at a younger age
creates costs, with smoking costing the NHS around £1.9 billion each year.
● Smoking drives socioeconomic and geographic inequalities in health outcomes.
230,000 households live in smoking-induced poverty. Children of smokers are 3
times as likely to start to smoke perpetuating the cycle of disadvantage.
● Smoking prevalence is higher in more deprived areas. In 2022 prevalence was
16.4 per cent in the most deprived decile, compared to 10.3 per cent in the least
deprived decile. Smokers spend an average of £2,486 per smoker per year. 93
per cent of money spent on tobacco goes straight out of the local economy, a
drain on the communities already at greatest disadvantage.
● Professor Chris Whitty, Chief Medical Officer for England said: “A smokefree
country would prevent disease, disability and premature deaths long into the
future. Smoking causes harm across the life course from stillbirths, asthma in
children, cancers, strokes, heart attacks and dementia. Most smokers wish they
had never started. Second hand smoke causes harm including to vulnerable
people. The Bill to create to a smokefree country in the King’s Speech would be a
major step forward in public health.”
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Mental Health Bill
“My ministers will legislate to modernise the Mental Health Act so it is fit for the
twenty first century”
● The Mental Health Bill will deliver our manifesto commitment to modernise the
Mental Health Act 1983 which is woefully out of date. The Bill will make it fit for
the 21st century so that patients have greater choice, autonomy, rights and
support, and make sure all patients are treated with dignity and respect
throughout their treatment.
● This Bill, along with our wider plans to tackle the mental health crisis, will help
deliver the Government’s mission to see people living healthier for longer,
including reversing the rising trend in the rate of lives lost to suicide.
What does the Bill do?
● The Mental Health Bill takes forward the vast majority of Professor Sir Simon
Wessley’s 2017 recommendations for legislative reform and includes a wide
range of changes to shift the balance of power from the system to the patient,
putting service users at the centre of decisions about their own care.
● The Mental Health Bill will amend the Mental Health Act 1983 to give people
detained greater choice and autonomy, enhanced rights and support, and ensure
everyone is treated with dignity and respect throughout treatment by:
o ensuring that detention and treatment under the Mental Health Act
takes place only when necessary, by revising the detention criteria to
ensure that people can only be detained if they pose a risk of serious harm
either to themselves or to others, and where there is a reasonable
prospect that treatment would have a therapeutic benefit. It will also revise
and shorten the period that a patient may be kept in detention for
treatment and provide faster, more frequent reviews and appeals of both
detentions and treatment.
o further limiting the extent to which people with a learning disability
and/or autistic people can be detained and treated under the Mental
Health Act and supporting such individuals to live fulfilling lives in their
community. It will do this by introducing duties on commissioners to
improve understanding of the risk of crisis amongst people with a learning
disability and/or autistic people in their local area and also ensure an
adequate supply of community services to prevent inappropriate
detentions.
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o strengthening the voice of patients by adding statutory weight to
patients’ rights to be involved with planning for their care, and to make
choices and refusals regarding the treatment they receive.
o strengthening and improving the statutory roles which protect and
support those who are detained by introducing a new statutory role – the
nominated person – who is chosen by the patient, to replace the nearest
relative and extend access to Independent Mental Health Advocates to
informal patients and introduce an opt-out system for formal patients.
o removing police stations and prisons as places of safety under the
Mental Health Act to ensure people experiencing a mental health crisis or
with severe mental health needs are supported in the most appropriate
setting.
o supporting offenders with severe mental health problems to access
the care they need as quickly and early as possible, and improve the
management of those patients subject to a restriction order (for the
purposes of public protection) .
● These reforms will take a number of years to implement, as we will need to
recruit and train more clinical and judicial staff. We plan to introduce these
reforms in phases as resources allow, and we will not commence new powers
unless we have sufficient staff in place that means it is safe to do so.
Territorial extent and application
● The Bill will extend and apply to England and Wales.
Key facts
● The Mental Health Act 1983 has not been fully updated for over 40 years. It was
last amended in 2007. In 2017 there was an Independent Review of the Mental
Health Act, chaired by Professor Sir Simon Wessely, commissioned to consider
the reasons for the rising number of detentions under the Mental Health Act, and
disproportionate detentions of people from black and minority ethnic groups, as
well as processes in the Mental Health Act that are out of step with a modern
mental health care system.
● Rates of detention under the Mental Health Act have nearly doubled since 1983,
and between 2007 and 2016 the number of detentions rose by over 40 per
cent. In 2022/23 there were around 51,000 new recorded detentions under the
Mental Health Act in England. This is an estimated 7.7 per cent fall in detentions
from 2021/22, continuing a 5.7 per cent decrease estimated for the previous year.
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● A total of 1,746 restricted patients were admitted to hospital for treatment under
the Mental Health Act in 2023 in England and Wales, a 5 per cent increase from
2022. As of 31 December 2023, there were 7,833 restricted patients, of which
4,648 were detained in hospital and 3,185 conditionally discharged. Restricted
patients are offenders subject to special controls by the Secretary of State for
Justice, for example after a court sentence or transfer from prison.
● In 2022/23, 997 detentions were recorded for children and young people aged 17
and under - over two-thirds (680) of these were aged 16 or 17. In the same
period, black people were three and a half times more likely than white people to
be detained under the Mental Health Act, and over eight times more likely to be
placed on a Community Treatment Order.
● Care Quality Commission research has found that the environment of mental
health hospitals was often not therapeutic, and that the noisy and chaotic nature
of the wards could add to people’s distress, particularly for autistic people.
● The number of learning disability and autistic inpatients detained under the
Mental Health Act has fallen from 2,500 in March 2015 to 1,855 in May 2024.
However, a larger proportion of learning disability and autistic inpatients are now
detained under the Mental Health Act – 92 per cent in May 2024 compared to 86
per cent in March 2015.
● Leading mental health charity Mind supports reform of the Mental Health Act
saying: “The Mental Health Act is outdated. It’s not fit for purpose. Mind has been
pushing for reform to the Act for many years. And we can’t wait any longer.”
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NATIONAL SECURITY AND SERVING THE COUNTRY
Hillsborough Law
“My Government will take steps to help rebuild trust and foster respect. Legislation
will be brought forward to introduce a duty of candour for public servants”
● This Bill delivers our manifesto commitment to implement a ‘Hillsborough Law’
which will place a legal duty of candour on public servants and authorities.
● It will address the unacceptable defensive culture prevalent across too much of
the public sector - highlighted by recent reports such as Bishop James Jones’s
report into the experiences of the Hillsborough families and the recent Infected
Blood Inquiry report. It is part out our wider efforts to create a politics of public
service.
What does the Bill do?
● The Bill will be the catalyst for a changed culture in the public sector by:
o improving transparency and accountability where failure in the
provision and delivery of public services is the subject of public
investigation and scrutiny.
o reducing the culture of defensiveness in the public sector.
o helping ensure that the lack of candour uncovered in recent reports
is not repeated, such as in the case of the Hillsborough and Infected
Blood Inquiries.
● Alongside the legislation, we will take action to improve assistance for bereaved
persons and core participants at inquests and public inquiries, to ensure families
are able to fully participate. This includes delivering the Government’s manifesto
commitment to provide legal aid for victims of disasters or state-related death.
Territorial extent and application
● The territorial extent and application is to be determined.
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Key facts
● Recent reports have highlighted the defensive culture and lack of candour in
parts of the public sector and the current codes and rules in place across the
public sector vary in their nature, legal basis and ability to enforce the right
behaviours when things have gone wrong.
● Bishop James Jones in his report on the experiences of the Hillsborough families
wrote: “The experience of the Hillsborough families of ‘the patronising disposition
of unaccountable power’ calls for a substantial change in the culture of public
bodies.”
● Sir Brian Langstaff in the recently released Infected Blood Inquiry report wrote: “It
is plain that the objective of those who support a statutory duty is the same as
those in government who do not – that there needs to be a change of culture to
one which values personal candour and rejects defensiveness.”
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Armed Forces Commissioner Bill
“A Bill will be introduced to establish a statutory Armed Forces Commissioner to act
as a strong independent champion for our gallant Armed Forces and their families”
● The men and women of our Armed Forces serve our country with dedication and
risk their lives for this country, and they are at the heart of our security.
● We will strengthen our support for our Armed Forces communities with a new
Armed Forces Commissioner to act as a strong independent champion for our
service personnel and their families.
What does the Bill do?
● Over the last decade, we have seen morale amongst our armed forces personnel
hit record lows and a crisis in recruitment and retention. We need to renew the
contract with those who dedicate their lives to serve, and their families, and
ensure their needs are represented by a strong, independent voice. That’s why, in
legislation, we are establishing an Armed Forces Commissioner.
● The Bill will create the Commissioner and give them the necessary powers to
champion our Armed Forces and improve service life. The Commissioner will:
o be a new, direct and independent contact point for serving personnel
and their families, outside their chain of command, to raise issues which
impact service life.
o strengthen parliamentary oversight of issues facing our Armed Forces
personnel, and report directly on an annual basis to ensure proper
accountability.
o be fully empowered to investigate and highlight issues, with access to
information and MoD sites as appropriate. This could include inspecting
accommodation, work-life balance, faulty kit, childcare arrangements and
other issues impacting service and family life.
Territorial extent and application
● The Bill will extend and apply UK-wide.
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Key facts
● Morale of our Armed Forces has hit record lows, and we are facing a recruitment
and retention crisis. The Armed Forces Continuous Attitude Survey has shown a
fall in morale in our Armed Forces over the last decade. It has also indicated
systemic challenges in terms of retaining our personnel.
● The remit of the existing Service Complaints Ombudsman is too narrow. The
Ombudsman can only look into individual complaints, following completion of the
Service Complaints process. Their remit is reactive and does not allow proactive
investigations into issues facing our Armed Forces.
● Feedback from the German Armed Forces Commissioner, which has provided
inspiration for this Bill, demonstrates strong support from German personnel for
this role.
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Northern Ireland Legacy Legislation
“In consultation with all parties, measures will be brought forward to begin the
process of repealing and replacing the Northern Ireland Troubles (Legacy and
Reconciliation) Act 2023”
● The Legacy Act denies justice to the families and victims of the Troubles. As our
manifesto made clear, the Government is committed to addressing the legacy of
the past in a way that can obtain the support of victims and survivors, and
comply with our human rights obligations.
● This means repealing and replacing the Legacy Act - in particular, those sections
which have been most vehemently opposed by victims and survivors and found
deficient by the court, such as the conditional immunity provisions.
What does the legislation do?
● We will work with all parties and communities in Northern Ireland to put in place a
framework to deal with the legacy of the past.
● We cannot repeal the Act in its entirety without anything to replace it. The
Northern Ireland High Court has found the Independent Commission for
Reconciliation and Information Recovery to be independent and capable of
conducting human rights compliant investigations, but the Government will
explore options to strengthen its independence.
● We will repeal the conditional immunity scheme, which has been found by the
Northern Ireland High Court to be incompatible with the UK's obligations under
the ECHR. Following consultation with all parties, we will reverse the policy
prohibiting victims and families from bringing civil claims. And we will set out
steps to allow the Troubles-era inquests that were prematurely halted to resume.
● This will be the first step towards delivering the Government's manifesto
commitment to repeal and replace the Northern Ireland Troubles (Legacy and
Reconciliation) Act 2023. Further legislation will follow after consultation with the
Northern Ireland political parties, the Irish Government and all communities in
Northern Ireland.
Territorial extent and application
● The territorial extent of the Northern Ireland Troubles (Legacy and Reconciliation)
Act 2023 is UK-wide and mostly applies in Northern Ireland.
Key facts
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● Over 3,500 people were killed during the Troubles. Republicans were responsible
for approximately 60 per cent of the deaths, loyalists for 30 per cent and security
forces for 10 per cent.
● Many victims and families remain without answers about what happened to them
or their loved ones during the Troubles.
● The Northern Ireland High Court recently found the conditional immunity
provisions of the Act to be incompatible with human rights. Several other
provisions were also found to be incompatible.
● The Government has committed to returning to the principles of the Stormont
House Agreement, which found relative consensus among the Northern Ireland
parties and victims and survivors.
● The Irish Taoiseach, Simon Harris has said that he “welcome[s] the commitments
that the incoming British government has given in relation to replacing the Legacy
Act.”
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House of Lords (Hereditary Peers) Bill
“Measures to modernise the constitution will be introduced including House of Lords
reform to remove the right of hereditary peers to sit and vote in the Lords”
● The continued presence of hereditary peers in the House of Lords is outdated
and indefensible.
● The House of Lords (Hereditary Peers) Bill is a short and narrowly focussed bill
that delivers the Government’s manifesto commitment to bring about
modernisation by removing the right of the remaining hereditary peers to sit and
vote in the House of Lords. This will be the first step in wider reform to the
second chamber.
What does the Bill do?
● The Bill will mean that hereditary peers will no longer be able to sit and vote in
the House of Lords:
o in the 21st century, there should not be almost 100 places reserved
for individuals who were born into certain families, nor should there be
seats effectively reserved only for men.
o reform is now long overdue and essential. There has been no progress
on this issue since the House of Lords Act 1999. The 1999 Act was only
intended to create interim arrangements to retain some hereditary peers
for a short period by exception. 25 years later, they form part of the status
quo more by accident than by design.
● While the composition of the rest of the House can evolve as appointments are
made and Members retire, the party balance of hereditary peers remains static,
providing an advantage to one party regardless of the wider context.
● This Bill takes us a step closer to a House of Lords that is fit for the 21st Century.
Territorial extent and application
● The Bill will extend and apply UK-wide.
Key facts
● The original intention of the House of Lords Act 1999 was to remove all
hereditary peers from the House. The Act provides an exception so that 90
hereditary peers and the Earl Marshal and Lord Great Chamberlain could remain.
This was agreed as a compromise that would only last for a short period before
more substantial reforms were made to the House of Lords. Consensus could not
92
be reached on those wider reforms and so these hereditary peers have remained
in the House by accident rather than by design.
● No other modern comparable democracies allow individuals to sit and vote in
their legislature by right of birth. Holding membership of a seat within a
Parliament on a hereditary basis is incredibly rare. There are no equivalents in
comparable Western democracies (e.g. USA, Canada, France, Germany,
Australia, Ireland or New Zealand).
● The gender balance of hereditary peers is currently 100 per cent male (as most
peerages can only be passed down the male line). By contrast, the gender
balance of the rest of the House is 64 per cent (429) male and 36 per cent (242)
female.
● The political composition of the hereditary peers is static, irrespective of wider
political trends or the party of government. Of the hereditary peers, 42 seats are
ring fenced for Conservative hereditary peers, 28 for Crossbenchers, three for the
Liberal Democrats and two for Labour (while 15 are elected by the whole House).
● Individuals in the UK who hold hereditary peerages are over-represented in
Parliament. The 805 individuals in the UK who hold hereditary peerages (and are
eligible to be ‘elected’ to one of the 90 hereditary seats) represent 0.001 percent
of the population, yet the hereditary peers take up 11.15 per cent of the 825 seats
currently in the House of Lords. In other words, hereditary peers have over
10,000 times more representation in the House of Lords than any other given
person in the UK.
● Discussions as to whether hereditary peers should be included in the House of
Lords have been a regular feature of the political debate for over a century. The
preamble to the Parliament Act 1911 questioned whether the UK’s second
chamber should be composed on a hereditary basis. It was not until the Life
Peerages Act 1958 that the current mechanism for appointing peers to the House
for life only was established, thereby removing the need to create hereditary
peerages for every new appointment to the Lords.
● Hereditary peers are not subject to any propriety checks. By contrast, all life
peers are subject to a vetting procedure from the House of Lords Appointment
Committee, which the government considers before they are appointed. There is
no adequate rationale for this inconsistent treatment of different Members.
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Cyber Security and Resilience Bill
● Our digital economy is increasingly being attacked by cyber criminals and state
actors, affecting essential public services and infrastructure. In the last 18
months, our hospitals, universities, local authorities, democratic institutions and
government departments have been targeted in cyber attacks.
● Our essential services are vulnerable to hostile actors and recent cyber attacks
affecting the NHS and Ministry of Defence show the impacts can be severe. We
need to take swift action to address vulnerabilities and protect our digital
economy to deliver growth. The Bill will strengthen the UK’s cyber defences,
ensure that critical infrastructure and the digital services that companies rely on
are secure.
What does the Bill do?
● The Bill will strengthen our defences and ensure that more essential digital
services than ever before are protected, for example by expanding the remit of
the existing regulation, putting regulators on a stronger footing, and increasing
reporting requirements to build a better picture in government of cyber threats.
● The existing UK regulations reflect law inherited from the EU and are the UK’s
only cross-sector cyber security legislation. They have now been superseded in
the EU and require urgent update in the UK to ensure that our infrastructure and
economy is not comparably more vulnerable.
● The Bill will make crucial updates to the legacy regulatory framework by:
o expanding the remit of the regulation to protect more digital services
and supply chains. These are an increasingly attractive threat vector for
attackers. This Bill will fill an immediate gap in our defences and prevent
similar attacks experienced by critical public services in the UK, such as
the recent ransomware attack impacting London hospitals.
o putting regulators on a strong footing to ensure essential cyber
safety measures are being implemented. This would include potential
cost recovery mechanisms to provide resources to regulators and
providing powers to proactively investigate potential vulnerabilities.
o mandating increased incident reporting to give government better
data on cyber attacks, including where a company has been held to
ransom – this will improve our understanding of the threats and alert us to
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potential attacks by expanding the type and nature of incidents that
regulated entities must report.
Territorial extent and application
● The Bill will extend and apply UK-wide.
Key facts
● The current cyber security regulations play an essential role in safeguarding the
UK’s critical national infrastructure by placing security duties on industry involved
in the delivery of essential services. The regulations cover five sectors (transport,
energy, drinking water, health and digital infrastructure) and some digital services
(including online marketplaces, online search engines, and cloud computing
services). Twelve regulators (competent authorities) are responsible for
implementing the regulations.
● Hostile cyber actors are increasingly targeting our critical sectors and supply
chains. Recent serious high-profile attacks impacting London hospitals, and the
Ministry of Defence as well as ransom attacks on the British Library and Royal
Mail, have highlighted that our services and institutions are vulnerable to attack.
● The impacts of a cyber attack on these sectors pose severe risks to UK citizens,
core services, and the economy at large. For example, as a result of the
ransomware attack affecting the NHS in England in June, 3,396 outpatient
appointments and 1,255 elective procedures were postponed across King’s
College Hospital, and Guy’s and St Thomas’ Hospital. The total cost of cyber
attacks to the UK was estimated at £27 billion per annum in 2011, this figure is
likely to have increased.
● National Cyber Security Centre assess that the increased threat from hostile
states and state-sponsored actors continues to ramp up. At a recent speech at
CyberUK, National Cyber Security Centre CEO Felicity Oswald warned that
providers of essential services in the UK cannot afford to ignore these threats.
● Two Post-Implementation Reviews found the original regulations are having a
positive impact, but that progress has not been fast enough. In 2022, the review
found that they ‘are a vital framework in raising wider UK resilience against
network and information systems security threats’, but updates are required to
keep pace with growing threats. Just over half of operators of essential services
have updated or strengthened existing policies and processes since the inception
of the Regulations in 2018.
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Commonwealth Parliamentary Association and International Committee of the
Red Cross (Status) Bill
● This Bill will enable the Government to treat the Commonwealth Parliamentary
Association (CPA) and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in a
manner comparable to that of an international organisation of which the United
Kingdom, or His Majesty’s Government in the United Kingdom, is a member.
● This will enable both bodies to continue to operate fully in the United Kingdom,
ensuring the CPA can continue to promote parliamentary democracy and
governance across the Commonwealth, and that the ICRC can continue to
deliver its humanitarian mandate to protect the lives and dignity of victims of
armed conflict and provide them with assistance.
What does the Bill do?
● While both the CPA and the ICRC operate in the UK and internationally, neither
are formally recognised as international organisations. This creates risks to their
ongoing operation in the UK. The Bill will therefore:
o change the status of the CPA and ICRC. enabling both organisations to
be treated in a manner comparable to an international organisation of
which the United Kingdom, or His Majesty’s Government in the United
Kingdom, is a member. Such treatment includes the conferral of the legal
capacities of a body corporate; the provision of privileges and immunities
commensurate with its functional needs in respect of the organisations and
limited staff; and the application of relevant statutory provisions relating to
international organisations.
o enable specific privileges and immunities to be conferred on the CPA
and ICRC. These will be limited to the privileges and immunities
determined on the basis of functional need for each organisation. The
actual suite of privileges and immunities to be accorded, including relevant
exceptions and limitations, will be specified in an Order in Council
following the passage of this Bill.
o ensure that confidential information provided by the ICRC can remain
confidential. The Bill will allow for certain confidential information that is
held by the UK Government and that was obtained from the ICRC to be
exempt from legal disclosure requirements. This exemption applies to any
disclosure requirement imposed by an order of a court or tribunal in
proceedings (except criminal proceedings) or a statutory provision or other
rule of law. This reflects the ICRC’s standard working method of
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confidentiality designed to protect its staff and operations in active conflict
zones. This will enable ICRC to engage in bilateral dialogue with the UK
knowing the information shared will be treated confidentially and supports
the Committee’s ability to have confidential dialogue with conflict parties,
maintain its humanitarian access and protect the security of its staff.
Territorial extent and application
● The Bill will extend and apply UK-wide.
Key facts
● Neither the CPA or ICRC is an inter-governmental organisation (one of which the
UK Government or another government is a member). Instead, they have their
own unique constitutional arrangements reflecting their specific international
mandates.
● The CPA is an unincorporated association established by parliamentarians and is
composed of branches within national and sub-national legislatures across the
Commonwealth. It is currently headquartered in the Parliamentary estate and
draws its staff from across the Commonwealth, working closely with its over 180
CPA branches in nine geographic regions.
● The ICRC is an impartial, neutral and independent organisation with a
humanitarian mandate to protect the lives and dignity of victims of armed conflict
and to provide them with assistance. Through the Geneva Conventions, the
ICRC has unique legitimacy to engage all parties to conflicts and has
unparalleled access to vulnerable groups in conflict situations. The ICRC is
frequently the only agency operating at scale in many conflicts.
● Changing the status of the ICRC will allow it to operate in the way that it is
already able to in over 110 states, including all permanent members of the United
Nations Security Council other than the UK.
● The UK has a long-standing programme partnership with the CPA. The
Government currently provides funding to the CPA and its regional branch,
CPA-UK, to support a number of projects in Africa and the Indo-Pacific. For
2024/25 the Government is providing £196,000 to CPA and £235,000 to CPA-UK.
● Over three years to March 2025, the Government will provide £144 million in un
earmarked core funding to the ICRC, £48 million a year. In 2023 total UK support
was £132 million including bilateral funding, keeping the UK among the largest
donors to the ICRC.
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Lords Spiritual (Women) Act 2015 (Extension) Bill
● Since 2015, legislation has ensured that female bishops enter the House of
Lords sooner than they otherwise would.
● The Lords Spiritual (Women) Act 2015 (Extension) Bill extends this provision for
a further period to support efforts to increase the number of female bishops in
the House of Lords.
What does the Bill do?
● The Archbishop of Canterbury, the Archbishop of York, and the Bishops of
London, Durham and Winchester are automatically given seats in the House of
Lords as Lords Spiritual. This Bill will ensure that, whenever a vacancy arises
among the 21 other bishops in the House of Lords, the position will continue to be
filled by a female diocesan bishop if one is available.
● These arrangements have been in place since May 2015 as a result of the Lords
Spiritual (Women) Act 2015. Prior to this, diocesan bishops filled the 21 seats in
order of their length of service as a diocesan bishop.
● Six female bishops have been appointed to the House of Lords under the
provisions of the 2015 Act, five of whom currently sit in the House. This is
welcome progress but more time is required to ensure significant female
representation among the Lords Spiritual.
● However, the 2015 Act expires in May 2025, so it is right to extend it for a further
period to support this goal in agreement with the Church of England.
● Without this legislation, the position would return to the status quo ante whereby
bishops become members of the House of Lords according to their time in office;
this would result in it taking longer for more female bishops to enter the House of
Lords.
Territorial extent and application
● The Bill will extend and apply UK-wide.
Key facts
● The 2015 Act was passed shortly after the Church of England changed its own
legislation to enable women to be appointed as bishops in 2014. The first female
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bishop (the Bishop of Gloucester, Rachel Treweek) was appointed in June 2015
and quickly entered the House of Lords as a result of the Act in September.
● At present, there is one female bishop who will be eligible to enter the Lords on
retirement of an existing bishop, and this will happen before the 2015 Act
provisions expire in May 2025. There is a further retirement in February 2025 (the
Bishop of St Edmundsbury and Ipswich), which again would be covered by the
2015 Act if a woman bishop was appointed to an eligible diocese before that
retirement.
● Looking ahead, there are currently four vacancies amongst the eligible diocesan
bishoprics and there is a possibility of female bishops being appointed to those
posts. There are a further nine Lords Spiritual who will reach the retirement age
in the next five years.
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Holocaust Memorial Bill
● We must do everything we can to ensure that the Holocaust is never forgotten
and to fight antisemitism and all forms of hatred and prejudice in our society.
● Our Holocaust Memorial Bill will support the building of a national Holocaust
Memorial and Learning Centre in the heart of our democracy, next to the Houses
of Parliament. It will be a focal point for national remembrance of the Holocaust,
dedicated to the six million Jewish men, women and children and all other victims
of the Nazis and their collaborators.
What does the Bill do?
● The Holocaust Memorial Bill enables the Government to deliver on the
longstanding commitment to build the planned Holocaust Memorial and Learning
Centre. Located next to the Houses of Parliament, the Memorial will serve as a
powerful reminder to the whole nation of the Holocaust and its victims.
● The Holocaust Memorial Bill:
o authorises expenditure on the construction, maintenance and
operation of the Holocaust Memorial and Learning Centre
o disapplies the relevant sections of the London County Council
(Improvements) Act 1900, ensuring that this legislation is no longer an
obstacle preventing the building of a memorial in Victoria Tower Gardens.
● This Memorial will rightly sit at the heart of our democracy, next to Parliament,
and will act as an inspiration to the whole country for generations to come.
Territorial extent and application
● The Bill will extend to England and Wales and apply to England.
Key facts
● Victoria Tower Gardens will remain open to the public, with only a small area
taken for the Holocaust Memorial. The design is sensitive to the heritage and
existing uses of Victoria Tower Gardens. The Memorial and Learning Centre,
much of which will be underground, will take up approximately 7.5 per cent of the
park, while making enhancements to the remainder of the gardens that will help
all visitors, including better pathways and improved access to existing memorials.
The 1900 Act only applies to Victoria Tower Gardens, no other park.
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● The Imperial War Museum (IWM) supports the Government's plans for the
Memorial. The Chair of the IWM Board sits on the UK Holocaust Memorial
Foundation which is advising the Government on delivery.
● Incidents of antisemitism, recorded by the Community Security Trust, rise in
correlation to any escalations of violence in Israel and the Palestinian Territories.
The Metropolitan Police recorded an over 1,000 per cent rise in antisemitic
incidents following Hamas’s attack on Israel last year, compared to the previous
year.
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CONTACT DETAILS
Bill
Lead Department
Contact details
Budget Responsibility Bill
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National Wealth Fund Bill
His Majesty’s Treasury
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Pension Schemes Bill
Department for Work and
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Planning and
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Communities and Local
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030 3444 1209
Employment Rights Bill
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and Trade
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Passenger Railway
Services (Public
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Better Buses Bill
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Bank Resolution
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Product Safety and
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Department for Business
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0207 215 2000
Digital Information and
Smart Data Bill
Department for Science,
Innovation and Technology
020 7215 3000
High Speed Rail (Crewe to
Manchester) Bill
Department for Transport
0300 7777 878
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Bill
Lead Department
Contact details
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Corporate Governance Bill
Department for Business
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0207 215 2000
Great British Energy Bill
Department for Energy
Security and Net Zero
020 7215 1000
The Crown Estate Bill
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Sustainable Aviation Fuel
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Border Security, Asylum
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Children’s Wellbeing Bill
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020 7783 8300
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Renters’ Rights Bill
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Communities and Local
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030 3444 1209
Football Governance Bill
Department for Culture,
Media and Sport
020 8080 3054
Draft Leasehold and
Commonhold Reform Bill
Ministry of Housing,
Communities and Local
Government
030 3444 1209
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Bill
Lead Department
Contact details
Draft Equality (Race and
Disability) Bill
Government Equalities
Office
0207 276 3999
Draft Conversion Practices
Bill
Government Equalities
Office
0207 276 3999
Tobacco and Vapes Bill
Department for Health and
Social Care
020 7972 3272
Mental Health Bill
Department for Health and
Social Care
020 7972 3272
Hillsborough Law
Cabinet Office
07504077690
Armed Forces
Commissioner Bill
Ministry of Defence
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Northern Ireland Legacy
Legislation
Northern Ireland Office
07866 996763
House of Lords
(Hereditary Peers) Bill
Cabinet Office
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Cyber Security and
Resilience Bill
Department for Science,
Innovation and Technology
020 7215 3000
Commonwealth
Parliamentary Association
and International
Committee of the Red
Cross (Status) Bill
Foreign, Commonwealth
and Development Office
020 7008 3100
Lords Spiritual (Women)
Act 2015 (Extension) Bill
Cabinet Office
07504077690
Holocaust Memorial Bill
Ministry of Housing,
Communities and Local
Government
030 3444 1209
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