The King’s Speech, kicking off Labour’s legislative programme, contained some 40 bills.
Most of the legislation was trailed in the party’s manifesto and has had a lot of publicity in the last few months – for example plans to start renationalising the railways and the establishment of Great British Energy.
The speech, delivered on Wednesday, also confirmed the government would go ahead with plans to introduce a duty of public candour for public servants.
But the series of bills also include some lesser-publicised plans for reform. Here are four you may have missed.
Skills reform: power transfer
Labour’s manifesto contained plans to establish Skills England “to bring together business, training providers and unions with national and local government to ensure we have the highly trained workforce needed to deliver Labour’s Industrial Strategy”.
The Skills England Bill sets out more details, including the transfer of some powers from the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education, a Department for Education-sponsored government agency whose primary function is to enable employers to shape skills training in England.
The bill will “simplify and improve the skills system, ensuring the supply of skills needed for the economy and breaking down barriers to opportunity”, according to the briefing document which accompanied the King’s Speech.
Skills England will develop a single picture of national and local skills needs, which will inform the Department for Education’s policy priorities. It will also assess whether national and regional skills systems are meeting skills needs and are aligned, providing advice to government, “leading to a more coherent system”. The body will also assess training courses for Labour’s new Growth and Skills Levy, which will replace the current Apprenticeships Levy.
The bill states “it is expected that Skills England will need to take on several of the functions” of IfATE.
Modernising the ICO
The Information Commissioner’s Office is set to get a new lease of life.
A Digital Information and Smart Data Bill sets out that the ICO will be given “new, stronger powers and a more modern structure”.
The data watchdog, which is an executive non-departmental public body, sponsored by the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, will have a chief executive, board and chair, under the planned legislation.
The King’s Speech briefing document states that this bill aims to ensure “we harness the power of data for economic growth, to support a modern digital government, and to improve people’s lives”.
Pushing forward with audit regulation reform
Plans to give more teeth to the regulator of auditors have been long-delayed but are included in the King’s Speech.
A Draft Audit Reform and Corporate Governance Bill to strengthen audit and corporate governance sets out that the Financial Reporting Council will be replaced with a new regulator – the Audit, Reporting and Governance Authority – which will have “the powers it needs to tackle bad financial reporting”.
The “revamped regulator will uphold standards and independent scrutiny of companies’ accounts, as well as accountability for company directors,” the bill adds.
Richard Moriarty, the chief executive of the Financial Reporting Council, welcomed the announcement, saying it would “modernise” the authority’s regulatory toolkit.
“The FRC has transformed in recent years into a more robust and effective regulator,” he said.
“But despite this progress, there are serious gaps in the regulatory toolkit that have long been identified as being in need of reform so we can act fully in the public interest and support growth and the ability of companies to attract the capital they need. Without these changes we are the regulatory equivalent of being a sheriff for only half the county and with weaker powers than are needed.”
He added: “We will work with the Department of Business and Trade as it brings forward this draft legislation, while continuing to use our existing powers to deliver good standards of corporate governance, financial reporting and audit and fulfilling our remit to support growth across the UK.”
Armed Forces commissioner
The speech also outlined plans to establish a statutory armed forces commissioner.
The Armed Forces Commissioner Bill will create the commissioner role which will “act as a strong independent champion for our gallant armed forces and their families”.