The first King’s Speech of Keir Starmer’s tenure as PM, which features the largest number of bills for 20 years, and only the 7th of a similar size since WWII, contains the following proposed legislation:
Employment Rights Bill (Department for Business and Trade)
Ahead of the election, Labour committed to implementing its ‘New Deal for Working People’ through legislation within the first 100 days of entering Government. The core aim is to ‘make work pay’ which Labour will achieve through a “new partnership” between business, trade unions and working people. The passage of this bill is an immediate priority for the new Government and includes the following proposals:
- A ban on companies imposing zero-hour contracts.
- Outlaw ‘fire and rehire’ and ‘fire and replace’ tactics.
- Enhance provision of parental leave.
- Strengthening Statutory Sick pay from day one of employment.
- Protection from unfair dismissal for all workers.
- Default flexible working options when people start jobs.
- Establishing a Fair Work Agency and Fair Pay Agreement in adult social care sector.
- Reinstate the Schools Support Staff Negotiating body
- Update Trade Union legislation.
- Simplify process of statutory recognition.
The bill will also make it unlawful to sack a woman who has had a baby for six months after her return to work, except in specific circumstances.
Skills England Bill (Department for Education)
This legislation intends to improve the skills system to ensure the supply of skills needed for the economy and break down barriers to opportunity. Functions will transfer to Skills England from the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education.
Specifics include:
- Scrapping the apprenticeship levy to be replaced with a “growth and skills levy” that funds training for the skills people need to participate in the labour market and the technical skills required for productivity and economic growth.
- Firms to be able to spend up to half of this money on upskilling existing staff. There is not expected to be new money attached to this overhaul.
- Skills England to identify training for which the growth and skills levy will be accessible.
Draft Equality (Race and Disability) Bill (Government Equalities Office)
The goal is to enshrine equal pay rights for ethnic minority staff in the same way as women currently have these rights protected. The legislation will also include reporting requirements for public services to collect and publish data on ethnic inequality within their organisations.
Mental Health Bill (Department for Health and Social Care)
Reform to the Mental Health Act. The legislation will aim to see fewer people detained, give them more say over their treatment and deal with racial disparities that mean black people are four times more likely to be held under the current act.
National Wealth Fund Bill (HM Treasury)
This new investment vehicle aims to encourage private investment through distributing public capital, targeting job creation and boosting economic growth.
- It will be capitalised with £7.3bn over the course of the whole Parliament term.
- It aims to generate £3 of private investment for every £1 of public investment.
- The fund will invest in priority sectors, such as clean energy.
- The National Wealth Fund will bring together institutions including the UK Infrastructure Bank and the British Business Bank under one body.
- It will be set up by a taskforce that includes former Bank of England Governor Mark Carney, the Barclays CEO Coimbatore Sundararajan Venktakrishnan, and Aviva CEO Dame Amanda Blanc.
Labour hope this could create 650,000 jobs across the country by 2030.
Watch the King's Speech from the State Opening of Parliament here.
Over to You
We want to know which of these proposals’ present opportunities and challenges for your business. We are currently designing group work for the face-to-face meeting on the 19th of September and would like to know how to prioritise this list. Please let us know via srag@peopleplus.co.uk or look out for a poll in the LinkedIn group soon.
