THE DRAFT PROGRAMME

1. The draft programme published today proposes 18 bills and refers to a number of non legislative actions that the Government plans to introduce to address the key challenges facing the country today. Although there is legislation addressing a broad range of issues, the Government is particularly focussed on delivery in four key areas: economic stability; making the most of your potential; personalisation and improvement of public services and handing power back to people.

2. It is important that the Government retains some flexibility in order to respond to emerging priorities, and further bills may be added to the programme before the Queen's Speech later in the year or even once the next session of Parliament has begun. If a significant number of new priorities emerged, it might be necessary to defer one or more of the bills in this draft programme. Also, as is normal practice, there will be a Finance Bill to implement the proposals made in the next Budget.

3. Chapter Three includes details on each bill, including information, where it is already known, about which parts of the United Kingdom each bill would apply to. All bills would apply to England. Bills that make provisions in reserved areas (and excepted matters in Northern Ireland) will apply to the entire United Kingdom. In many cases, a bill may also apply in part to a devolved matter in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. In other cases, the exact extent may not yet be known and discussions with the devolved administrations may still be continuing. The Government remains committed to respecting the devolution settlements.

4. The Government believes that people want public services that are responsive to their concerns, treat people fairly and are good value for money. The Government's legislative and non-legislative programmes will empower people to take control of their lives and their communities. They will give patients, parents, students, tenants and communities as a whole more rights to information, participation and redress, and more direct control over the services they use. They will help people and communities to take control of their lives and their neighbourhoods. They will improve the position of employers and learners as customers of the skills and apprenticeship system, unlocking the talents of our people and improving productivity.

Economic Stability

5. The United Kingdom enjoys continuous high employment and low inflation growth. A strong, stable economy is central to providing all people with the opportunities they want to live happy and healthy lives. Global economic challenges do however have an impact. The Government's first priority is helping families through these challenges and ensuring fairness in the UK economy:

• The 2007 Queen's Speech announced legislation to protect bank depositors and ensure confidence in the banking system. This will be delivered by the introduction of a banking reform bill  later this year which would deliver more effective ways to prevent banks from experiencing severe difficulties and to deal with them, including through changes to insolvency law and improving protection for bank customers;

• The bill would also enhance the Financial Services Compensation Scheme to increase the level of protection for depositors in the event of a bank failure and help speed up payouts to customers;

• Across the world there is a lack of confidence in credit markets - most notably mortgage backed securities - prompted by the downturn starting in the US housing market. UK banks and building societies are reluctant to lend to each other, and as a result lending to customers is more expensive and more restricted. The Special Liquidity Scheme announced in April 2008 by the Bank of England that offers at least £50bn in lending is a further step towards tackling these problems;

• The Government will make up to £200m available to purchase unsold new homes, either to rent to social tenants or to make them available to first time buyers on shared ownership terms. For the first time all first time buyers will be eligible for shared ownership schemes (subject only to an income limit) and a new shared equity scheme will be introduced for newly built properties, helping thousands of people (including nurses and health workers) to buy their first home;

• The Government is revising the Memorandum of Understanding that sets out how the Bank of England, the Financial Services Authority (FSA) and Her Majesty's Treasury will coordinate their activities, and introduce new mechanisms for coordination to ensure better and more effective regulation of the financial system. This includes looking at whether lessons can be applied from emergency arrangements to coordinate response to other large-scale disruptive events;

• In addition to domestic activity, the Government is also working with international partners, in particular through the Financial Stability Forum and the EU, to strengthen the resilience of the global financial system. This includes ensuring strengthened risk management by banks, through more stress testing and improved liquidity management, and also seeking to improve the functioning of securitisation markets and the role of credit ratings agencies in structured finance;

• Reflecting the Government's commitment to promote saving and financial inclusion amongst those on lower incomes, a Saving Gateway bill would establish a new national savings scheme for around 8 million people on

low incomes. The scheme provides a financial incentive to save through "matching" (a Government contribution) for every pound saved into the accounts. There will also be financial inclusion benefits through bringing individuals into contact with financial institutions for the first time;

• The Government plans to bring forward a business rates supplement bill that would give upper tier local authorities the ability to levy a local supplement of up to 2 pence per pound of rateable value on the business rate for economic development - following consultation, and in some cases a ballot of businesses that would be affected;

• A Community empowerment, housing and economic regeneration bill would also implement key recommendations from the review of tsub-national economic development and regeneration intended to strengthen economic performance in regions, cities and localities throughout England.

Environment

6. The Government believes our future prosperity depends on tackling climate change, developing alternative energy sources and protecting our land and water:

• The Climate Change Bill, currently being considered by Parliament, will make Britain the first country in the world to have a legally binding long term framework to both cut carbon dioxide emissions and adapt to climate change. The independent Committee on Climate Change to be established by the Bill will give its advice on the level of the 2050 target and on the first three, five-year carbon budgets. The Government will then announce the first three carbon budgets alongside Budget 2009, and lay its policies and proposals for meeting them before Parliament as soon as is reasonably practicable after they have been set;

• The Government has committed to introducing the Carbon Reduction Commitment (CRC) - a new mandatory UK wide emissions trading scheme capturing energy use emissions from large non-energy intensive organisations such as supermarkets, hospitals and government departments. The CRC is expected to begin in January 2010 and the Government will consult on secondary legislation for the scheme in Autumn 2008;

• There will be a public consultation in the summer of this year on the options for increasing the use of renewable energy in the UK, in the context of the EU target for 20% of the EU's energy to come from renewable sources by 2020;

• The Government intends to publish a draft Floods and water bill for consultation during the next session of Parliament, following the Pitt Review into the 2007 floods and the Government's Water Strategy, Future Water, which launched a review of competition in the water industry and water charging and tariffs;
 
• The Government will also consult on the proposed definition of zero-carbon standards - to meet the Government's target for all new homes to be built to such standards from 2016; and the programme and timetable for zero-carbon non-domestic buildings from 2019;

• A Marine and coastal access bill, which has recently been published in draft, would take further steps to ensure the sustainable use of our coasts and seas enabling us to balance our demands on the marine environment with conservation. It would introduce a new planning system for the marine area, reduce burdens on business, and make it easier to protect the marine environment. The bill would also create, for the first time, a right of access to walk around the English coast, with benefits for recreation and tourism, particularly for small businesses;

• A Heritage protection bill, which has also been published in draft as two separate bills (heritage protection and cultural property (armed conflicts)), would create a more open, accountable and transparent heritage protection system by reforming the way that historic sites and buildings in England are registered, and streamline the current system by bringing together a number of separate consent regimes, such as Listed Building Consent and Scheduled Monument Consent. The bill would also make it an offence to attack designated cultural property.

Making the most of your potential

7. The Government thinks that equality and opportunity for all is vital if people are able to fulfil their potential and is committed to creating a fair society in which everyone can realise their talents and make the most of opportunities available to them.

8. Globalisation presents ever-greater opportunities for countries and companies with creativity and new ideas. The United Kingdom must be ready to take advantage of these opportunities and ensure that all people are in a position to benefit from the global economy.

Education and Skills

9. In the 21st Century prosperity and security will be driven by the ability to compete on a global basis. The United Kingdom's primary competitive advantage as a nation is human capital - the strength and hard work of the British people. Empowering every child and every adult to realise their full potential is the goal of the Government:

• An Education and skills bill would improve schools and reform the skills and apprenticeship system in England. It would provide powers to ensure that every school is a good school, by including measures to ensure local authorities use their powers when necessary to intervene in seriously underperforming schools on a timely basis, in the drive to have no secondary schools with fewer than 30% of its pupils attaining 5 A*-C GCSEs including English and Maths. It would strengthen the powers that parents have to ensure that their children receive a high standard of personalised education and ensure parents' complaints are handled in a straightforward and open way;

• The bill would deliver streamlined arrangements for 14-19 education and training, putting local authorities at the centre of ensuring joined up education and children's services. It would establish an independent regulator of qualifications and tests, and a development agency for curriculum, assessment and qualifications, continuing to push for higher standards across the system;

• The bill would secure a demand-led skills system serving employers and learners, including creating an adult advancement and careers service within a new Skills Funding Agency;

The Government recognises that many adults who are in work or looking for work do not always get the time needed to go on a course or study in order to get the skills training they need to advance their careers.

In order to address this issue the Government intends to promote skills training for adults, and will also consult on including a right for employees to ask for time to train to develop relevant skills.

The Government would particularly welcome the views of employers and employees on these proposals and other ideas to ensure they are supported in this area.

• The bill would also strengthen apprenticeships through establishing a statutory basis for the apprenticeship programme, creating a national apprenticeship service, providing a statutory entitlement to apprenticeships for all suitably qualified young people and ensuring that schools provide comprehensive career information about apprenticeships;

• The bill would also legislate to strengthen the operation of Children's Trusts to champion and take responsibility for improving the lives of children across all five Every Child Matters outcomes, in particular to make arrangements for the identification of and support for children with additional needs;

• The Government has high ambitions for all children, which must be supported by high quality teaching. The Government will take steps to ensure that new performance management arrangements for teachers, alongside existing provisions in the case of under-performance, are utilised effectively. Pupils who are falling behind will receive targeted support to help them keep up, including, where appropriate, access to one-to-one tuition;

The Government wants to ensure that it supports parents as partners in their children's education.

If necessary the Government will legislate to do this but initially it plans to consult on some options including how to give parents better access to parents to information - on their child's school and on their child's progress, behaviour and attendance. The Government will also consult on its plans that every child at secondary school will have a personal tutor who knows them well and is the main contact for parents.

The Government will shortly be seeking the views of parents on these proposals and other ideas to ensure they are supported in their children's education.

• The Government is determined to ensure that those in alternative education also get the best education and therefore will bring forward measures to reform Pupil Referral Units that will include considering different providers of these services. It will also strengthen local behaviour partnerships to improve behaviour and attendance. The Government will bring forward a White Paper in the summer setting out proposals in this area, including exploring different ways of delivering alternative education, such as schools which would have close links to business and provide a high quality vocational education;

• In January 2008, Sir Brian McMaster published his policy review, Supporting Excellence in the Arts: From Measurement to Judgement.  Work has now begun on the further study and implementation of Sir Brian's recommendations.  In addition, a 'Find Your Talent' programme of 10 pilots will trial ways of offering young people a range of cultural experiences over five hours a week in and out of school. This will build on what is already included in the curriculum and will offer opportunities beyond the school day.  This will inform plans for how a national roll out that would give these opportunities to every child in the country might be possible.

A Fairer Nation

10. The Government believes that the country is only strong if all people are treated fairly in the workplace so it proposes to introduce legislation to protect the rights of hard working families - and establish fair responsibilities for those rights:

• In order to ensure that agency workers receive appropriate protections, the Government will continue to pursue an agreement on the treatment of agency workers through an EU Directive incorporating the principle of equal treatment;

• An Equality bill would meet the Government's commitment to bring together and simplify existing legislation on all forms of discrimination.  But it would go much further than that, shifting from an approach reliant on individuals seeking remedies when they are discriminated against. There is still much work to be done to reduce inequalities and the bill would provide a number of ways to make progress, for example making public bodies more transparent;

• The Government is committed to a radical reform package to extend and improve opportunities and incentives to work and upskill, and to encourage independence, choice, and control for disabled people. The Government remains committed to making progress towards the target on child poverty The Government anticipates Welfare Reform proposals will be published in the summer which would require legislation. A package of measures is being considered to produce a welfare reform bill which delivers value for money for the taxpayer. This would place greater emphasis on measures to help those who face barriers to work or have been out of work for a long time to become more independent and better skilled. Also under consideration are measures to streamline the benefit system and promote financial inclusion;

• As part of welfare reform the Government intends to require the unemployed not just to seek work but to train to improve their skills. All unemployed people would be required to have their skills assessed when they first claim benefits - and for those that refuse to undertake the training that is considered essential to finding employment we will consult on the prospect of having their benefit sanctioned;

• The Government will publish a housing reform green paper towards the end of 2008 that sets out proposals to provide housing services and options which help and encourage people towards greater economic independence and social mobility - matching responsibility with opportunity so that they can realise their potential and best meet their own housing aspirations in the future - and to deliver greater fairness and make best use of resources;

• As a further measure to help working parents achieve a better work life balance, the Government asked Imelda Walsh to look at how the right to request flexible working can be extended to parents of older children. The Government will be consulting on how to implement the recommendations of the Walsh Review to extend flexible working.

Personalisation and Improvement of Public Services

Safety and Security

11. The Government thinks that safety and security is of fundamental importance to all as individuals, to families, communities, and as a nation and is committed to working to ensure that everyone is safe at home, when travelling and in public places. The Draft Legislative Programme includes a number of bills and other initiatives to achieve this:

• A policing and crime reduction bill would bring forward proposals which will be set out in the Policing Green Paper to be published in June to secure further improvements to policing and crime reduction.  The aim is to help the police deliver a service most suited to the needs of the citizen and communities, reclaiming public spaces through police reform and local accountability and measures to tackle anti-social behaviour and alcohol abuse;

• By March, Neighbourhood Policing teams were rolled out in every police force across the country. The Government has announced plans to introduce a 'policing pledge' that will agree a set of minimum standards for policing and give people a greater say in, and influence over, how their streets are policed. The Policing Green Paper will seek to build upon these successes by setting out the next steps in Neighbourhood Policing to place the citizen and communities at the heart of the vision for policing. The bill would also strengthen police powers to recover criminal assets and to make cross-border arrests;

• The Green Paper will also take forward the recommendations of the Flanagan review on reducing bureaucracy in the police service, in particular through removing the requirement to complete the lengthy stop and account form by the end of the year. The Government will also appoint an independent and high profile Bureaucracy Champion to focus on driving out unnecessary red tape and test future proposals for their impact on the front line, helping the police to spend more time out of the station and in communities;

• The forthcoming policing green paper will bring forward new proposals on a local accountability mechanism to provide a clear and powerful public voice in decision making through directly elected representatives to give local people more control over policing priorities and responsiveness;

• The bill would include more powers to reclaim public places and reduce binge and underage drinking.  It would introduce tougher measures against irresponsible licensees by changing the offence of persistently selling alcohol to a person under 18 from three strikes to two strikes in three months, after which licensees would lose their licence. The maximum fine would be increased for anyone not obeying an instruction to stop drinking in a designated public place and it would be easier for police to disperse anti-social drinkers - both adults and children - from any location.  The Government is encouraging closer and more effective parental involvement to extend our work on anti-social behaviour into a wider range of public spaces;

• A transport security bill would strengthen arrangements for airport security planning as well as implementing the UK's international obligations to combat terrorist activity at sea as the Government continues to enhance the UK's counter-terrorism capabilities. The bill would also provide a clear statutory authority for naval, police and customs officers to board and seize pirate ships;

• A communications data bill would help ensure that crucial capabilities in the use of communications data for counter-terrorism and investigation of crime continue to be available.  These powers would be subject to strict safeguards to ensure the right balance between privacy and protecting the public;

• Alongside progress in reducing crime, the Government is committed to putting further measures in place to support victims of crime. A law reform, victims and witnesses bill would aim to protect the vulnerable and increase confidence in the criminal justice system, in particular for victims of gun and gang related crime and those who give evidence in an attempt to secure convictions. It would also reform the law on murder and prevent criminals profiting from books and other publications about their crimes;

The Government is committed to providing appropriate support, information and a voice in court for relatives in murder and manslaughter cases.

The Government is considering how the creation of Victim Advocates might help achieve this, by enabling relatives of the victim to have their chance to set out to the Court the impact of the crime - going beyond the existing system that allows them to make a written statement.

The Government would welcome views on this approach and any other ideas to enable relatives to have a voice in court.

• A coroners and death certification bill would modernise the Coroners Service and result in a better service for bereaved families with more effective investigations and inquests - so that families, who will have improved opportunities for involvement in the process, can be assured that the cause of death of their loved one has been properly established and that, where possible, lessons can be learned to prevent future deaths. It would also establish a body of medical examiners to scrutinise death certificates, to help prevent a repeat of cases like the Harold Shipman murders. The coroners' clauses, which form the majority of the bill, have already been consulted on extensively, and the death certification clauses will be added following a recent consultation on the policy proposals.

Migration

12. The Government believes migration bring benefits to our country - with migrants contributing to the economy and also enriching our nation. But the Government knows that migration also brings challenges to communities and is therefore determined that our system for managing migration should be both robust and fair. It will not accept abuse of our system and will increasingly focus more on the social impacts of migration as well as the economic benefits:

• A citizenship, immigration and borders bill would be part of the biggest shake-up of Britain's border security and immigration system for over 35 years.  The Government has introduced a points system for economic migrants and students which will allow only those with the skills we need to come to the UK, and we will continue to welcome those genuinely fleeing persecution. The Government has also introduced new rules to guard against abuse of marriage and new visa protections to guard against abuse of family visit routes. There will be tougher action to attack the causes of illegal migration in the illegal economy with big fines for employers who employ illegal migrants and new systems to track people in and out of the country. There will be more and faster deportations of those who abuse our welcome and break the law. The Government will also ask new migrants to pay into a migration fund to help manage the transitional costs associated with migration;

• The Green Paper, The Path to Citizenship: Next steps in reforming the immigration system set out a new agenda of earned citizenship where the rights and responsibilities of becoming a British Citizen have to be earned. The bill would ensure that only those who share our values can earn the right to stay by clearly spelling out the rights and obligations of legal immigrants to the United Kingdom and the requirements that must be fulfilled to earn British citizenship. Requirements would include learning the English language, paying tax and becoming self sufficient and obeying the law. The Government also wants to encourage people to join in with the British way of life through playing an active part in the community;

• The Government will ensure further protection of our border by equipping the new UK Border Agency with stronger powers to protect our borders and help keep the United Kingdom safe. The new Agency brings together the work of immigration, UKvisas and customs operational work at the border. The Government is creating a triple ring of security for the borders; a wider visa regime with fingerprint checks for all visa applicants, electronic screening against no fly lists, tougher defences at the border and compulsory ID cards for foreign (non European Economic Area (EEA)) nationals. The bill would ensure border protection officials have the right powers at the right time, including powers to cancel visas at foreign airports, tougher, simpler powers of detention, powers to tackle organised crime and powers to take and check fingerprints for non EEA nationals at the British border. The bill would also change out of date customs law to support the delivery of the new border operating model and to strengthen the grip on cross-border smuggling in drugs, guns and cash;

• The bill would cut red tape and make enforcement of the law speedier and more effective by replacing all existing immigration law, creating a simplified, consistent and coherent legal framework for the whole system,. There would be stronger enforcement powers, with a new simpler procedure for quick removal, banning people from return, cutting the number of opportunities for challenge which slows down expelling those with no right to be here. The bill would provide greater transparency, clarity and predictability for staff, applicants, sponsors and the wider public. It would also ensure greater efficiency and more straightforward decision-making processes leading to quicker and easier to reach decisions.

Health

13. The National Health Service (NHS) is one of our most respected and important institutions. As we celebrate the 60th anniversary of its foundation, the Government is continuing to work to ensure the highest possible standards of care, and to give more power to individuals to shape the care they receive. Significant progress is being made to improve the performance of the NHS:

• Subject to consultation following Lord Darzi's review of the National Health Service in England, which is due to report this summer, the Government will prepare an NHS reform bill to implement any proposals which require legislation, and ensure that the NHS stays true to its founding principles of care for all, free at the point of need. The review will determine measures that the Government will take to enable frontline staff, working in partnership with service users and local communities, to make clinically-led changes that deliver clinical benefit, improved patient care and tackle variations in performance;

• As part of this, an NHS Constitution would describe the rights and responsibilities of staff and patients to strengthen and sustain the NHS. It would clarify rights for patients, such as informed consent prior to treatment; and expectations on patients - attending appointments and respecting staff;

Many families in Britain worry about how they will pay for the care they need without losing all the assets they worked hard to earn over the course of a lifetime.

The Government has responded to this concern by recently launching a public consultation process on the future of the care and support system, to ensure that people can be confident of high quality and affordable care when they need it.

The Government welcomes views on this subject and more information and ways to contribute to this discussion can be found at www.careandsupport.direct.gov.uk. This will lead to a Green Paper identifying key issues and options for reform.

• The Government will also look at options to encourage greater responsiveness of primary care trusts to their local communities;

• The Government will look at the opportunities for patients, if they wish, to have more scope to organise their treatment and care around their own needs. The choices which patients and carers can make over the treatment they receive will be extended, for example to choose to receive care at home or to self care;

• The creation of a new performance regime for health care will provide new powers to suspend the Chair and Non-Executive Directors of NHS Trusts that fail to meet the requirements of public office;

• The NHS will be expected to maintain a high standard of cleanliness which will be monitored and performance managed at a local level. Specialist Healthcare Commission inspections of all acute trusts against the code of practice for the prevention and control of healthcare associated infections began in April, and with the completion of the deep clean programme, on-going activity will be monitored locally and included in Patient Environment Action Team inspections from next year; 

• The Government will develop the new vascular prevention programme with the potential to prevent 9,500 heart attacks and strokes each year, 2,000 of which would have been fatal.  It would prevent 4,000 people a year from developing diabetes and detect 25,000 cases of diabetes or kidney disease earlier. The programme should have a significant impact not only on death and disease, but also on health inequalities, given that vascular disease is the major cause of the mortality gap between the more deprived and the better-off;

• There will be a new Sport England strategy to deliver a world-leading community sport infrastructure.  This will focus on three strands of work - 'excel' to allow everyone to develop their sporting talents and increase the pool of talented athletes; 'sustain' to reduce drop off rates and increase user satisfaction; and 'grow' to increase regular participation in sport.  The Government is also investing at least £755m over the next three years to deliver a world class system for physical education (PE) and sport.  The ambition is that by 2012, all 5-16 year olds will access two hours of quality PE and sport per week within school hours, and all 5-19 year olds will be offered three additional hours of sport out of school hours, in school or community settings.

Housing

14. The Government has set out its ambition for three million new homes by 2020. As part of this vision, the Government has a number of plans to increase the supply of housing:

• The Government plans to announce by the summer the successful locations of the New Growth Points programme and provisional allocations to local authorities for the £510m Housing and Planning Delivery Grant, to incentivise local authorities to deliver higher levels of housing and better planning, including an adequate supply of land for housing;

• The Government will continue to identify and release surplus public sector land for housing: in the next year land will have been released to provide for an additional 20,000 homes;

• The Government is currently consulting on proposed locations for up to ten new Eco-towns, providing up to 100,000 homes. A final list of potential locations will be published later this year;

• A community empowerment, housing and economic regeneration bill would give a new social housing regulator the power to regulate local authority and social landlords so that the interests of all social housing tenants, regardless of their landlord, are placed at the heart of regulation;

• A national tenant voice will be established to give tenants both a voice and expertise at national and regional level.

Handing power back to people

15. The Government believes it needs to be more flexible and responsive to the concerns and desires of its citizens. The state must be redefined as a partner and agent of the people - doing things with them and for them and not just to them. The legislative programme will include bills to empower people in key public services and in governance:

• A constitutional renewal bill, which has already been published in draft, sets out the next stage of constitutional reform following on from the proposals in the "Governance of Britain" Green Paper published in July 2007. Among other measures, the bill would remove the requirement to give notice of demonstrations in and around Parliament Square, change the role of the Attorney General in relation to the main prosecuting authorities and prosecutions themselves, strengthen Parliament's role in the scrutiny of treaties prior to ratification and place the Civil Service on a legal footing;

• A community empowerment, housing and economic regeneration bill would implement parts of an Empowerment White Paper, due to be published this summer. It would focus on transferring power from government to communities and citizens in England, helping to build vibrant and cohesive communities of empowered, self confident citizens who are active and in many different ways contributing to their local community. The bill would offer opportunities and remove barriers to involvement and participation so that government and citizens and communities can work together to seize opportunities and solve problems;

The Government wants to ensure local people are empowered in their community and can help shape the issues that councils discuss as well as own and run some services themselves.

To do this, the Government proposes enhancing the traditional role of petitioning in the political system to give improved rights for citizens to get clear information and prompt answers from local councils. For example to be able to influence decisions about priorities for local public spending; to spark a debate on local issues; to be are able to compel the sale and transfer of derelict properties or a run down park.

The Government wants to hear views on these proposals.

• The Government will be building a longer-term vision for constitutional reform with a White Paper on the reform of the House of Lords;

• The Government will shortly publish a White Paper on reform of party finance and expenditure.