On 17 July 2024, the King delivered his speech at the State Opening of Parliament, setting out the Labour government's first legislative programme for the new session (King's Speech 2024 and Government News Story). The government has published King's Speech 2024: Background briefing notes to provide further information on nearly 40 proposed bills and draft bills alongside other policy proposals it intends to bring forward in the coming year.
The new government's stated priority is to promote economic growth through a package of wide-ranging measures that include planning, transport and energy reforms, the expansion of workers' rights and a new framework for English devolution. Proposed policies and legislative measures of key interest to corporate lawyers include those set out below.
- Audit and corporate governance – the government will publish a draft Audit Reform and Corporate Governance Bill to strengthen the UK's audit, corporate reporting and corporate governance systems. The legislation would replace the FRC with a new statutory regulator, the Audit, Reporting and Governance Authority (ARGA) and equip it with effective powers to oversee the audit market, scrutinise companies' accounts and enforce directors' financial reporting duties. The draft bill is likely to take forward many of the significant reform proposals set out in the previous government's Response to the 2021 White Paper on restoring trust in audit and corporate governance that were not progressed in the last Parliament (see FC Features 31 May 2022 and 7 November 2023). The FRC has welcomed the announcement (FRC Press Release).
- Employment rights – the government is committed to implementing in full the far-reaching employment reforms laid out in Labour's Plan to Make Work Pay published in May 2024. Key policy proposals in the Plan include banning 'exploitative' zero hours contracts and 'fire and rehire' practices, as well as introducing new 'day one' rights in relation to parental leave, statutory sick pay and protection from unfair dismissal. An Employment Rights Bill will be introduced to Parliament within 100 days to implement certain policies set out in the Plan that require primary legislation, although the exact list of reforms to be included in the bill is unclear. The government will also fulfil manifesto commitments to delivering a living wage that accounts for the cost of living and the removal of 'discriminatory' age bands to ensure all adults are entitled to the same minimum wage.
- Equal pay and pay gap reporting – a draft Equality (Race and Disability) Bill will be tabled to enshrine in law the full right to equal pay for ethnic minorities and disabled people. The draft bill would also introduce mandatory ethnicity and disability pay gap reporting for employers with more than 250 employees.
- Data protection/AI – a Digital Information and Smart Data Bill will be introduced to create a framework for the safe development and deployment of new innovative uses of data, such as digital verification services and 'smart data' schemes. The bill will also include measures to modernise and strengthen the Information Commissioner's Office, as well as targeted reforms to (unspecified) data laws while maintaining high standards of data protection. The previous government's Data Protection and Digital Information Bill, which proposed a number of changes to the UK's data protection framework, did not pass into law before Parliament was dissolved in May 2024. The King's speech references new legislation to create a regulatory framework for companies developing the most powerful artificial intelligence models, although no further details are given in the briefing notes.
First published on the Corporate News Service on 17 July 2024.
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