[UK] Queen’s Speech December 2019

The 2^nd Queen’s speech of 2019 was a dress-down affair for Her Majesty and contained a lot of the Bills that she had already announced in October.  Also, it contained a number of policy announcements that the Conservatives had been making during the election campaign.

The speech and briefing documents are worth a view however, here are the names of the 29 bills that were announced:

1. Agriculture Bill
2. Air Traffic Management and Unmanned Aircraft Bill
3. Birmingham Commonwealth Games Bill
4. Building Safety Bill
5. Counter Terrorism (Sentencing and Release) Bill
6. Divorce, Dissolution and Separation Bill
7. Domestic Abuse Bill
8. Employment Bill
9. Environment Bill
10. EU (Withdrawal Agreement) Bill
11. Extradition (Provisional Arrest) Bill
12. Fire Safety Bill
13. Fisheries Bill
14. Health Service Safety Investigations Bill
15. Immigration and Social Co-ordination (EU Withdrawal) Bill
16. Medicine and Medical Devices Bill
17. NHS Funding Bill
18. Pension Schemes Bill
19. Police Powers and Protections Bill
20. Prisoners (Disclosure of Information About Victims) Bill
21. Private International Law (Implementation of Agreements) Bill
22. Railways (Minimum Service Levels) Bill
23. Renters’ Reform Bill
24. Sentencing (Pre-consolidation Amendments) Bill
25. Sentencing Bill
26. Serious Violence Bill
27. Thomas Cook Compensation Bill
28. Trade Bill
29. Windrush (Compensation Scheme) Bill

Global Payroll Association Comment

There are several Bills and announcements that are worth looking for:

• The Immigration and Social Security Co-ordination (EU Withdrawal) Bill will contain information about the new Australian-style points-based immigration system but will also give details about social security co-ordination post-Brexit
• There is talk of increasing English devolution though we cannot see that this affects the payroll profession
• The Employment Bill’s details will be worth looking at when it is published as this will impact employers
• There is the pledge in the briefing notes to increase the National Insurance threshold to £9,500 in 2020/21
• There is the pledge to continue the increase of the National Living Wage and, importantly, reduce the qualifying age from 25 to 21
• The Pensions Bill has been re-introduced and this will pave the way for the pensions dashboard and give the Regulator increased power 

There will be plenty for payroll, software and HR professionals to keep them busy during the course of this parliamentary year!

The 2^nd Queen’s speech of 2019 was a dress-down affair for Her Majesty and contained a lot of the Bills that she had already announced in October.  Also, it contained a number of policy announcements that the Conservatives had been making during the election campaign.

The speech and briefing documents are worth a view however, here are the names of the 29 bills that were announced:

1. Agriculture Bill
2. Air Traffic Management and Unmanned Aircraft Bill
3. Birmingham Commonwealth Games Bill
4. Building Safety Bill
5. Counter Terrorism (Sentencing and Release) Bill
6. Divorce, Dissolution and Separation Bill
7. Domestic Abuse Bill
8. Employment Bill
9. Environment Bill
10. EU (Withdrawal Agreement) Bill
11. Extradition (Provisional Arrest) Bill
12. Fire Safety Bill
13. Fisheries Bill
14. Health Service Safety Investigations Bill
15. Immigration and Social Co-ordination (EU Withdrawal) Bill
16. Medicine and Medical Devices Bill
17. NHS Funding Bill
18. Pension Schemes Bill
19. Police Powers and Protections Bill
20. Prisoners (Disclosure of Information About Victims) Bill
21. Private International Law (Implementation of Agreements) Bill
22. Railways (Minimum Service Levels) Bill
23. Renters’ Reform Bill
24. Sentencing (Pre-consolidation Amendments) Bill
25. Sentencing Bill
26. Serious Violence Bill
27. Thomas Cook Compensation Bill
28. Trade Bill
29. Windrush (Compensation Scheme) Bill

Global Payroll Association Comment

There are several Bills and announcements that are worth looking for:

• The Immigration and Social Security Co-ordination (EU Withdrawal) Bill will contain information about the new Australian-style points-based immigration system but will also give details about social security co-ordination post-Brexit
• There is talk of increasing English devolution though we cannot see that this affects the payroll profession
• The Employment Bill’s details will be worth looking at when it is published as this will impact employers
• There is the pledge in the briefing notes to increase the National Insurance threshold to £9,500 in 2020/21
• There is the pledge to continue the increase of the National Living Wage and, importantly, reduce the qualifying age from 25 to 21
• The Pensions Bill has been re-introduced and this will pave the way for the pensions dashboard and give the Regulator increased power 

There will be plenty for payroll, software and HR professionals to keep them busy during the course of this parliamentary year!