The King’s speech in July 2024 set out the priorities for the first years of the new government. A range of proposed legislation was announced, including in respect of budget responsibility, employment rights, audit reform, and green energy.
We look at some of the key implications for businesses.
Great British energy bill
A new bill relating to green energy will establish a publicly owned energy company. The government aims to find £8.3 billion to invest in Great British Energy, a publicly owned power company that will invest in renewable energy and clean power projects.
The government states that GB Energy will ‘develop, own and operate assets, investing in partnership with the private sector.’ This will include co-investing and entering into joint ventures with energy companies.
Once the money has been raised, it is intended to invest £3.3 billion into the Local Power Plan by helping local authorities with energy projects and facilitating cheap loans to community energy groups. The remaining £5 billion will fund GB Energy in its participation ‘in the production, distribution, storage, and supply of clean energy, the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions from energy produced from fossil fuels as measures for furthering the transition to clean energy and improving energy efficiency.’
The sums of money promised would suggest that this is an area of future economic growth for those in the energy and related sectors.
Corporate governance and audit requirements
The Audit Reform and Corporate Governance Bill will set up a new regulator, the Audit, Reporting and Governance Authority, to replace the Financial Reporting Council.
This is intended to strengthen auditing quality and authorisation. Poor financial reporting will be dealt with more harshly and there will be powers to take action against company directors for failures.
Employment Rights Bill
An anticipated Employment Rights Bill, an Equality (Race and Disability) Bill, and a Skills England Bill all aim to implement Labour’s policy set out in its ‘New Deal for Working People’.
The Employment Rights Bill is expected to include:
- Ending ‘exploitative’ zero-hours contracts
- Prohibiting ‘fire and rehire’ or ‘fire and replace’
- Providing certain rights from day one of employment, instead of after a period of two years of work, including protection from unfair dismissal and parental leave
- Providing the same right to statutory sick pay for all
- Allowing the right to ask for flexible working from day one for all workers
- Preventing the dismissal of women who have had a baby for six months from their return to work
The government has stated that it intends to introduce the Employment Rights Bill by 12 October 2024. It will take time to go through parliament and there is also likely to be a secondary legislation process needed to implement parts of the new legislation.
The government is also expected to:
- Create the Fair Work Agency to enforce employment matters
- Make it easier for trade unions to operate
- Give workers more access to trade unions within the workplaces
Product Safety and Metrology Bill
A new Product Safety and Metrology Bill intends to enable recognition in the UK of new or updated EU product regulations as well as allowing the UK to decide not to recognise EU regulations, should it choose to do so.
The EU will be reforming its product safety rules and the new UK Bill aims to align UK laws with these changes while also allowing some rules to be dropped if this is believed to be an advantage.
The Bill will also address compliance and enforcement, the responsibilities of supply chains, and products that carry risks, such as lithium-ion batteries.
Cyber Security and Resilience Bill
New cyber security legislation will aim to make both critical infrastructure and digital services more secure.
The existing Network and Information Systems (NIS) Regulations 2018 will be expanded so that more digital services and supply chains are covered by the rules.
More mandatory reporting will be put in place for organisations who suffer ransomware attacks and other cyber incidents.
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