Queen sets out UK Parliament legislative agenda in speech

Britain's Queen Elizabeth II delivered her customary speech to mark the State Opening of Parliament in London on Tuesday, as she laid out the government's legislative agenda for the year with around 30 bills included as part of a reform agenda focusing on jobs and skills.

The 95-year-old monarch, who travelled to the Palace of Westminster for her first major event since her husband Prince Philip’s funeral last month, presented the speech at a Covid-secure ceremony, including face masks, in the House of Lords to mark the start of the parliamentary calendar of the year.

Priorities for the coming year formulated by the Boris Johnson led government include a boost for adult education, home ownership, planning reform, tackling obesity and improving mental health support to unleash the country’s “full potential".

"My government's priority is to deliver a national recovery from the pandemic that makes the United Kingdom stronger, healthier and more prosperous than before," the Queen said.

"To achieve this, my government will level up opportunities across all parts of the United Kingdom, supporting jobs, businesses and economic growth and addressing the impact of the pandemic on public services," she said.

Also read: Prince Philip’s death adds new urgency to UK Monarchy’s transition plans

The State Opening of Parliament is normally a grand affair but it was pared back this year because of the pandemic restrictions, with fewer members of Parliament and peers than normal gathering in the House of Lords to participate and the Queen arriving by car rather than carriage.

In his introduction, Johnson said: "We must harness the ingenuity and resolve that has been revealed in the struggle against Covid-19 and use it to create a stronger, healthier and more prosperous nation.

"We have been given a historic opportunity to change things for the better, level up opportunities across the whole of the United Kingdom, and address the problems that have constrained us far too often before."

Downing Street said the British Prime Minister’s “Lifetime Skills Guarantee” forms the central part of the legislative agenda, as new laws will create a post-16 and adult education and training system that is fit for the future, providing the skills that people need for well-paid jobs and opportunities to train throughout their lifetime.

These build on the extensive action already underway to revolutionise the skills and training offer across the country, including the introduction of new T Level courses and access to free, job-relevant “bootcamp” courses.

"These new laws are the rocket fuel that we need to level up this country and ensure equal opportunities for all. We know that having the right skills and training is the route to better, well-paid jobs,” said Johnson.

"I’m revolutionising the system so we can move past the outdated notion that there is only one route up the career ladder, and ensure that everyone has the opportunity to retrain or upskill at any point in their lives,” he said.

The Opposition raised concerns that the only mention of proposals on social care in the Queen's Speech was to say that they would be "brought forward", with no specific bill to tackle an issue.

"We must also see detail on long-promised plans to fix the broken social care system, reduce the shocking levels of violent crime and narrow the gap between different parts of the country,” said Labour Leader Keir Starmer.

The government has said it would be laying out further details on social care plans in the course of the year.

The Queen's Speech also includes new laws allowing post-Brexit reforms to government procurement and state aid, a shake-up of the planning system, a bill to repeal the fixed-term parliaments act, new rules on asylum and measures to tackle voting fraud, including requiring people to provide ID when casting their ballot.

On obesity, adverts for food that is high in fat, salt and sugar will be restricted from April next year. This includes a ban on junk food adverts before the 9 pm watershed and a total block online. Restaurants will also have to display how many calories are in the food they sell, but not on drinks.

Plans for online safety laws were also set out with the Online Safety Bill requiring social networks to tackle illegal content on their services and clearly define what content is not acceptable.