The King’s Speech has been delivered, setting out the Government’s legislative priorities for the year ahead.

In total, the Government has identified 37 Bills that it intends to introduce in the next Parliamentary session, covering everything from energy to immigration, housing, security, transport, and the economy. While we don’t intend to cover them all here, a number are highlighted below:

• The European Partnership Bill will introduce powers to ensure that agreements reached with the EU including those arising from the UK-EU Common Understanding can be implemented “now and in the future”.
• The Competition Reform Bill will deliver significant reforms to the competition regime including, as we have discussed here, making market reviews quicker, giving businesses greater certainty about whether mergers are likely to be reviewed, and providing for businesses and the CMA to engage at the early stage of an investigation to resolve concerns.
• The Commonhold and Leasehold Reform Bill will, among other things, create a new legal framework for commonhold, ban the use of leasehold for new flats, and cap ground rents at £250. We discussed the draft Bill here.
• The Ticket Tout Ban Bill will make it illegal to resell tickets for live events at more than their original cost, cap service fees charged by resale platforms, introduce resale volume limits, and extend enforcement powers of the Competition and Markets Authority. We discussed the Government’s proposals in this area here.
• The Sporting Events Bill will “establish a common legislative framework that can be applied to major sporting events in the UK”, including measures to deter ticket touts and to protect commercial rights by “introducing a UK-wide prohibition on unauthorised association with a sporting event and measures to restrict advertising and trading around event locations”.
• The Digital Access to Services Bill will introduce a Digital ID scheme in the UK, as discussed here.
• The National Security Bill will include measures that “criminalise the creation and sharing of the most harmful violent material to stop the spread of content that glorifies, trivialises, or normalises serious violence”.
• The Cyber Security and Resilience Bill (which we discussed previously here) will update existing legislation to protect core services and businesses.

To read the background briefing notes on the Bills, click here.