Queen’s Speech: Full list of bills
The Government set out 45 bills and five draft bills in the Queen’s speech.
Bills
Animal Welfare Bill
This bill would improve standards of animal welfare and increase penalties for abuse. It seeks to consolidate English and Welsh laws on the issues.
Armed Forces Bill
This bill would introduce a single system of Service law with a unified court martial system and modernised grievance procedures.
Charities Bill
This bill would reform the Charity Commission and update the definition of charitable cause to emphasise the criteria of public benefit
Child Care Bill
To improve the provision of child care, placing a new duty on local authorities to provide affordable, flexible high quality child care places for all families with children up to the age of 14.
Child Contact and Inter-Country Adoption Bill
This would give the courts flexible powers to regulate contact arrangements and ensure agreements are enforced.
Civil Aviation Bill
This bill would implement the main proposals in the ‘Futrue of Air Transport’ White Paper, providing airports powers to levy charges which reflect local emissions from aircraft. Other proposals include plans to allow the Civil Aviation Authority to recoup the costs of its Aviation Health Unit and to clarify measures available to airports in dealing with aircraft noise.
Common Land Bill
To modernise existing legislation so that commons can be managed sustainably by commoners and landowners.
Commissioner for Older People (Wales) Bill
This would establish a Commissioner for Older People in Wales.
Company Law Reform Bill
This bill would minimise the regulatory burden on companies, make it easier to set up a company and enhance shareholder engagement and a long-term investment culture.
Compensation Bill
This bill would tackle the “compensation culture”, discouraging false perceptions that compensation is available for any untoward incident.
Constitutional Reform Bill
This bill would continue government reforms of the House of Lords, including the removal of the remaining hereditary peers, placing limits on the time bills spend in the second chamber.
Consumer Credit Bill
This bill would enhance consumer rights and seek to redress and improve the regulation of the consumer credit business.
Corporate Manslaughter Bill
This bill would introduce an offence of corporate manslaughter, targeting the ‘gross failings’ by the senior management of an organisation which have had fatal consequences.
Criminal Defence Bill
This bill would cut the costs of criminal legal aid, reinytroducing a financial eligibility test and transferring the authority to grant the right to publicly funded representation from the courts to the Legal Services Commission.
Crossrail Bill
This bill would enable the construction, maintenance and operation of Crossrail, a new east-west railway linking Maidenhead and Heathrow with Shenfield and Abby Wood through new tunnels under central London.
Education Bill
This bill would introduce further reforms to the education system by setting out a new framework for autonomy for schools through three-year budget cycles and greater incentives for success. Parents would be given a bigger role in their child’s education and new powers would be granted to Ofsted and local authorities to tackle school failure and underperformance.
Electoral Administration Bill
This bill would seek to encourage greater voter participation in elections, while introducing further measures to combat fraud and increase security.
Equality Bill
This bill would establish the Commission for Equality and Human Rights from existing agencies and introduce a gender duty on public authorities.
EU Accession Bill
This bill would ratify the treaty of accession of Romania and Bulgaria to the European Union.
EU Referendum Bill
This would allow the Government to hold a national referendum on whether to adopt the new EU constitution.
Fraud Bill
This bill would improve the definition of fraud and simplify the prosecution process for fraud offences.
Government of Wales Bill
This bill would reform the National Assembly of Wales, removing the corporate status of the Assembly and creating a separate legislature and executive.
Health Improvement and Protection Bill
This bill would restrict smoking in all public places and workplaces and the bar areas of licensed premises, introduce a legal duty of care on hospital managers to keep hospitals clean and establish a simple food labelling system.
Housing Benefit Bill
This bill would help those on low incomes afford decent housing, extend tenant choice and reduce fraud and barriers to work.
Immigration and Asylum Bill
This bill would facilitate a global roll-out of fingerprinting visa applicants and allow full use of biometrically-enabled travel documents. It would also introduce civil penalties for employers of illegal workers and limit the right of appeal for students, workers and family visits.
Incapacity Benefit Bill
This bill would reform incapacity benefit, providing greater support and encouragement for claimants to return to work.
Incitement to Religious Hatred Bill
This bill would restore the parts of the Serious Organised Crime and Police Bill from last session relating to the incitement to hatred on the basis of religion. It expands the current offence of incitement to racial hatred in the Public Order Act 1986.
Identity Cards Bill
This bill would introduce a compulsory, secure national identity cards scheme.
Judicial Pensions Bill
This bill would maintain the current value of judges’ pensions within their overall remuneration package.
Management of Offenders Bill
This bill would merge the prison and probation services to create the National Offender Management Service, support effective community punishment and ensure that new technological advances are better used to protect the public.
Mental Health Bill
This bill would establish a new legal framework for compulsory treatment of those with mental disorder who pose a risk to themselves or others.
Merchant Shipping Bill
This bill would make an additional £440 million available for compensation in the event of a major oil spill from a tanker.
National Lotteries Bill
This bill would create a new lottery distributor and merge two of the three grant-making bodies, the New Opportunities Fund and the Community Fund. It seeks to give the public more of a say in how lottery money is spent.
Natural Environment and Rural Communities Bill
This bill would establish the Commission for Rural Communities to act as an adviser, advocate and watchdog for rural communities.
NHS Redress Bill
This bill would support patients who wish to redress should they experience problems with their healthcare. The NHS Redress Scheme would provide quick responses to cases of clinical negligence, provide compensation where appropriate.
Olympics Bill
This bill would pave the way for the preparation to be made should London’s 2012 Olympic bid be successful. It would set up an Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) to manage the Government’s interest in the Olympic project.
Parental Rights Bill
This bill would offer greater support working families by extending the statutory period of maternity pay from 26 weeks to 39 weeks. It also extends the Maternity Allowance and Statutory Adoption Pay.
Protecting Vulnerable Groups Bill
This bill would establish a barring and vetting scheme, and other measures to provide better protection for children and vulnerable adults.
Regulatory Reform Bill
This bill would remove constraints on the use and widen the scope of Regulatory Reform Orders, introduce a new ‘law reform order’ power and rationalise private sector regulators.
Regulation of Financia
