Public affairs, government and political relations
Legislative Update
Bills currently going through Parliament:
Localism Bill, 2010-2011
The Bill will devolve greater powers to councils and neighbourhoods and give local communities more control over housing and planning decisions. Key provisions will include allowing councils more discretion over business rate relief, giving residents the power to instigate local referendums on any local issue and the power to veto excessive council tax increases, and giving councils a general power of competence. The planning and regeneration provisions will abolish Regional Spatial Strategies, abolish the Infrastructure Planning Commission, and provide for the introduction of neighbourhood plans. Neighbourhood plans would be approved if they received 50% of the votes cast in a referendum and would provide for neighbourhood development orders, allowing communities to approve development without requiring normal planning consent.
Received Royal Assent
Pensions Bill
The four parts of the Bill include a range of measures related to pension provision. It accelerates the existing timetable for increasing the State Pension age to 66, and amends the legislative framework requiring employers to automatically enrol employees into a qualifying pension system and to make contributions to that scheme. It also amends legislation providing for the indexation and revaluation of occupational pensions and payments from the Pension Protection Fund. Finally, it allows contributions to be taken towards the cost of providing personal pension benefits to members of Judicial Pension Schemes.
Received Royal Assent
Building Regulations Bill
A Bill to make provision for a review of the Building Regulations 2000 with regard to the installation of automatic fire suppression systems in new residential premises.
First Reading, Commons
Public Bodies Bill
The Bill would allow Ministers, by order, to abolish, merge or transfer the functions of the public bodies listed in the appropriate schedules to the Act. The Bill has completed its passage through the House of Lords where it underwent significant amendment.
Report Stage, House of Commons
Police Reform Bill
The Bill covers five distinct policy areas: police accountability and governance; alcohol licensing; the regulation of protests around Parliament Square; misuse of drugs; and the issue of arrest warrants in respect of private prosecutions for universal jurisdiction offences.
Received Royal Assent
Charities Bill, 2010-2011
To consolidate the Charities Act 1993 and other enactments which relate to charities.
Committee Stage, First Sitting, House of Lords
Education Bill
The Bill seeks to implement the legislative proposals in the Department for Education’s schools White Paper, 'The Importance of Teaching' and measures from the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills relating to skills and the reform of higher education funding
Received Royal Assent
Energy Bill
The flagship policy in the Bill is the 'Green Deal', a scheme whereby householders, private landlords and businesses would be given finance upfront to make energy efficiency improvements, which would then be paid for by energy bill savings.
Received Royal Assent
Local Government Bill
The Bill gives effect to the Coalition Government’s commitment to put a stop to existing proposals for restructuring of councils in Norfolk, Devon and Suffolk. It would prevent implementation of any of the existing proposals for a single-tier local government structure - which in practice relate to these three counties - under the Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Act 2007.
Received Royal Assent
European Union Membership (Economic Implications)
To establish a Committee of Inquiry into the economic implications for the United Kingdom of membership of the European Union.
First Reading, Lords
European Union Bill
The Bill aims to strengthen the UK procedures for agreeing to or ratifying certain EU decisions and Treaty changes. The Bill has been drafted in the context of new EU methods of approving Treaty changes and calls for more public and/or parliamentary involvement in such decisions.
Received Royal Assent
Health and Social Care Bill, 2010-2011
The Bill proposes to create an independent NHS Board, promote patient choice, and to reduce NHS administration costs. It will establish an independent NHS Board to allocate resources and increase commissioning guidance and, crucially, increases GPs’ powers to commission services on behalf of their patients. It strengthens the role of the Care Quality Commission and cuts the number of health bodies to help meet the Government’s commitment to cut NHS administration costs by a third, including abolishing Primary Care Trusts.
Committee Stage, House of Lords
Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Bill, 2010-2011
The Bill takes certain types of cases out of the scope for legal aid funding, and takes forward the recommendations of the Jackson Review and the Government’s response to that review. It makes changes to sentencing a provision, including giving courts an express duty to consider making compensation orders where victims have suffered harm or loss. It also introduces new powers to allow curfews to be imposed for more hours in the day and creates a new offence of threatening with an offensive weapon or an article with a blade or point.
2nd Reading, House of Lords
Welfare Reform Bill 2010-2011
The Bill provides for the introduction of a ‘Universal Credit’ to replace a range of existing means-tested benefits and tax credits for people of working age. It follows the November 2010 White Paper which set out the Government’s proposals for reforming welfare to improve work incentives, simplify the benefits system and tackle administrative complexity.
Committee Stage, House of Lords
Protection of Freedoms Bill 2010-2011
This Bill brings in a wide range of measures including a new framework for police retention of fingerprints and DNA data, and requires schools to get parents’ consent before processing children’s biometric information. It also introduces a code of practice for surveillance camera systems and provides for judicial approval of certain surveillance activities by local authorities. It introduces a new regime for police stop-and-searches under the Terrorism Act and reduces the pre-charge detention period under that Act from 28 to 14 days.
Second Reading, House of Lords
Finance Bill (No.3)
The annual Finance Bill encompasses all the changes to be made to tax law for the year. Its formal description is "a Bill to grant certain duties, to alter other duties, and to amend the law relating to the National Debt and the Public Revenue, and to make further provision in connection with finance."
Received Royal Assent
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