Queen's Speech

The Queen’s Speech 2010
The first Queen’s Speech of the new coalition government today set out the government’s programme for the year ahead. The speech promised the following:

• Office for Budget Responsibility bill: This will establish a new body to take responsibility for producing budget forecasts – currently party of the chancellor’s role. The three person Budget Responsibility Committee will be chaired by Sir Alan Budd. The OBR was a Conservative Policy, advocated by the Tories since 2008.

• National insurance contributions bill: The government confirmed its objective of raising income tax allowances to £10,000 – a policy to be funded by a rise in national insurance. Nick Clegg made this proposal an important part of the Liberal Democrats’ election campaign.

• Welfare reform bill: Welfare reform is an important Tory objective – and a key goal of the new Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith. This bill is aimed at simplifying the welfare and benefits system and improving work incentives so that people currently on benefits will see a gain when entering work.

• Pensions and savings bill: This bill will increase the state pension age to 66 and restore the pensions/earnings link with effect from 2012.

• Financial reform bill: Legislation will restore some regulatory powers to the Bank of England, removing them from the control of the Financial Services Authority.

• Equitable Life bill: This bill promises compensation to savers who lost money when Equitable Life came close to collapse.

• High-speed rail bill: This will enable the construction of a high-speed rail network.

• High speed broadband connections: The government will invest in high-speed broadband connections.

• Airport economic regulation bill: This is aimed at ensuring competition in the airport market, potentially breaking up the BAA monopoly. The bill also made explicit that the government ruled out new runways in the South East. The Conservatives and Liberal Democrats oppose a third runway at Heathrow.

• Annual limits on non-EU immigration: This will impose annual limits on non-EU economic migration. This was an important pledge by David Cameron which he repeated during the General Election campaign.

• Postal services bill: The part-privatisation of the Royal Mail, as drawn up by Lord Mandelson, will be introduced. The proportion to be sold will be set out at a later date.

• Energy bill: Aimed at promoting energy efficiency measures in the home, a "green deal" charging system will be introduced, with incentives to suppliers and households to save energy.

• Party political funding: The government will seek to impose a limit on the size of individual donations to political parties.

• Academies bill: More schools will be permitted to become academies, giving them more freedom from Whitehall. The requirement to consult local authorities before opening an academy will be removed.

• Health bill: The details of this legislation will be revealed “in the next few weeks”. The bill aims to replace the "top-down approach" in the NHS with "the devolution of power and responsibility to doctors and patients".

• Social care bill: A commission will look into a “sustainable structure of funding for long-term care”.

• Police reform and social responsibility bill: This bill will make the police more accountable through "directly elected individuals". Harriet Harman singled out this bill as “politicising the police” in the Queen’s Speech debate this afternoon. The bill will also create a new dedicated border police force, ensure health and safety laws do not stand in the way of "common sense policing" and overhaul the Licensing Act.

• Public bodies (reform) bill: As set out in yesterday’s statement by the Treasury, the government will reduce the number of quangos, with the aim of saving £1bn a year.

• Decentralisation and localism bill: This legislation aims to devolve some of the powers of government, and give individuals the power to instigate referendums on local matters and to veto excessive council tax increases. Home Information Packs will be abolished.

• Local government bill: This will stop the creation of unitary councils in Exeter and Norwich – widely seen as a means of helping Labour do better in local government in these parts of England.

• Parliamentary reform bill: New Legislation will introduce fixed-term parliaments - with the next General Election on 7th May 2015 - give voters the right to recall MPs found guilty of serious wrong-doing and set up a referendum on the alternative vote. These measures were welcomed by Harriet Harman. However, she and many Labour MPs attacked the proposal to establish a 55% threshold for no confidence votes to succeed in Parliament. The bill will also reduce the number of parliamentary constituencies and increase their size.

• House of Lords reform: The House of Lords will be partially or fully elected according to proportional representation.

• Freedom (great repeal) bill: This will aim to restore freedoms and civil liberties and repeal unnecessary laws. It will regulate the use of CCTV and restrict the scope of the DNA database, destroying some of it.

• Identity documents bill: This will abolish the identity card system and destroy the national identity register. Both the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats opposed identity cards going into the General Election. There will be no refund for those who have bought cards already.

• Scotland bill: This will implement the final report of the Calman commission, giving more devolution to Scotland.

• European Union bill: Legislation will be introduced to ensure that there is a referendum on any future plan to transfer power from Parliament to the European Union. This was a pledge David Cameron made in opposition, after the Lisbon Treaty passed.

• Armed forces bill: This will continue in force the legislation giving the armed forces a legal basis, as well as improving provisions for service personnel.

• Terrorist asset-freezing bill. This will extend beyond 2010 the government’s powers to seize assets from terrorists.

• Draft parliamentary privilege bill: This will aim to clarify the law relating to parliamentary privilege.