The State Opening of Parliament takes place on Wednesday 17 July and will include the King’s Speech. The King’s Speech is written by the Government for the King and outlines the Government’s priorities for the next session of Parliament, which likely last around a year to 18 months.
There were several significant commitments included in Labour’s manifesto, which UKHospitality helped to secure. Most notably, these include replacing business rates and reforming the Apprenticeship Levy.
Will these be included in the King’s Speech and what else may feature, which would be of interest to hospitality businesses?
We’ve gone through the different policy commitments and press speculation, to ponder over what might come next for each of the policy commitments, as well as identifying Bills that might be included.
It’s worth remembering that no one knows exactly what will be featured in the King’s Speech until it is announced, so this has been compiled through industry insight and media reporting.
Once the proposed areas of legislation are announced, UKHospitality will continue its engagement with those teams of officials and ministers working on these policies to ensure they work for hospitality.
Business rates:
The headline commitment for hospitality businesses was to replace the broken business rates system and rebalance the system in favour of sectors like hospitality. It’s unlikely, but not impossible, there will be a specific piece of legislation dedicated to business rates reform, and it is more likely this will be addressed in the Government’s first formal fiscal event. This is likely to be from October.
Apprenticeship Levy:
Reform of the Apprenticeship Levy has been a priority for the sector for years, and the Government has committed to reform through the creation of a new Growth and Skills Levy. This should see businesses given more flexibility on how they spend their levy funds and also how apprenticeships function.
We anticipate there will be an outline of the Government’s plans on education and skills and this is likely to include setting out how adult education will work. As there is a fiscal element to the Apprenticeship Levy, some details may need to wait for an Autumn Budget.
New Deal for Working People:
One of Labour’s most high-profile commitments was to introduce a range of employment law changes, including banning exploitative zero-hour contracts, day one employment rights and removal of minimum wage age bands.
The party pledged to introduce an employment bill within the first 100 days of government, which is almost certain to be included in the King’s Speech.
Martyn’s Law:
Named after Martyn Hett, a victim of the 2017 Manchester Arena bombings, the legislation would introduce a requirement for venues to have preventative plans against terror attacks. The plans were discussed and consulted on extensively with the last Government and, following engagement with UKHospitality, a pragmatic approach was pursued for ‘standard’ capacity premises, to allow venues to create bespoke plans.
A bill to enact the law is widely expected to be included in the King’s Speech and we would urge the new Government to continue engagement with the sector, to ensure that any requirements are workable and proportionate for all types of hospitality businesses.
Drink spiking:
The BBC has reported that the Government is set to make drink spiking a specific criminal offence. This was a commitment in the Labour manifesto and would enable police to better respond to incidents.
We have worked closely with partners to create guidance for venues about how to have in place procedures that can best prevent incidents and also how to respond, should an incident occur.
‘Take Back Control’ Bill:
The new Government has talked extensively about devolving more powers to local authorities and metro Mayors. It is speculated that this could cover areas including energy, taxation, planning and transport, and therefore could have implications for hospitality venues.
