King's Speech and Government Summary

AN INTRODUCTION FROM THE PRIME MINISTER

Integrity, professionalism, accountability. That’s what I promised when I stood on the steps of Downing Street just over a year ago – and that’s what we have delivered.

I set out five priorities to judge us by and the results are clear. Inflation is down. The economy is growing. Debt is set to fall. There’s more to do on cutting NHS waiting lists, but we’ve made progress – cutting the longest waits for NHS treatment and providing record funding for the NHS and social care, including additional support for the winter. And we are stopping the boats. Some said it couldn’t be done, but this year the number of migrants coming illegally by boat is down by over a fifth.

We have turned the corner over the last year and put the country on a better path. But these immediate priorities are not the limit of our ambition. They are just the foundations of our plan to build a better future for our children and grandchildren, and deliver the change the country needs.

When I talk to people across the UK, I see the incredible talent and potential that we have – it’s our most powerful resource. They want to see a government that is even more ambitious for the future of this country – and prepared to take the long term decisions and do the hard work to deliver it.

With this historic King’s Speech, we are rising to that challenge. We are changing our country for the long term, delivering a brighter future.

We are introducing new legislation to grow the economy, increase energy security, bring in investment, create jobs, improve skills and boost our brilliant innovators and entrepreneurs – helping people everywhere seize new opportunities which will make their lives better.

We are strengthening society by supporting the NHS, creating a smokefree generation to protect young people from the harms caused by tobacco, giving renters more security, and doing everything we can to eradicate antisemitism.

We are keeping people safe by making sure the police and security services have the powers they need and that criminals receive proper punishment.

And we are protecting our national interests by backing our brilliant Armed Forces, supporting Ukraine, leading in NATO, and striving for peace and stability in the Middle East.

In every area, we are looking to the long term, making the difficult decisions needed and changing things for the better.

Together, we will make our country more prosperous, more innovative, and more secure, ready to seize the better future that the British people deserve.

Growing the economy

A better future is one where our economy is growing faster so that everybody, everywhere across our Union, has new opportunities for better paying jobs and the chance to realise their full potential.

Thanks to the measures we have taken over the last year, inflation is down from 11.1% in October 2022 to 6.7% in September – the largest fall in inflation since the start of the 1980s.

The UK has recovered from the pandemic faster than Germany, France and Japan. And while Germany has fallen into recession, our economy is growing.

Investors are excited about what the UK has to offer. This year I have brought back £18 billion of investment from Japan, £14 billion from the US, and Tata has announced the biggest ever investment in British car manufacturing with £4 billion to build a battery plant, choosing the UK over the EU and creating thousands of jobs.

We’re sharpening our cutting edge in tech and innovation. In the last decade, the UK has created 134 tech unicorns – more than France and Germany combined. Last year, UK start-ups brought in over £25 billion of venture capital funding – over 9 times more than a decade ago. And leading AI firms like Google DeepMind, OpenAI and Anthropic have set up their European headquarters in the UK.

All of this is built on the sound foundations we’ve constructed. We have the lowest corporation tax in the G7. We’re increasing investment in R&D to reach £20 billion a year. We have four of the top ten universities globally, with our leading science institutions attracting the world’s brightest talents. And our capital allowances regime – the most generous in the OECD – is equivalent to a tax cut worth £27 billion, helping businesses to re-invest profits, and create yet more jobs and growth.

Our vibrant economy is the most powerful engine we have for transforming people’s lives. So I’m determined to make it the best it can be.

That’s why we are building on these firm foundations with new legislation that will strengthen our economy even more for the long term.

The new Offshore Petroleum Licensing Bill will help to safeguard our energy independence and security, by backing North Sea oil and gas extraction, supporting hundreds of thousands of jobs. Alongside this, we are working to secure record amounts of investment in renewable energy sources – building on the UK’s record

for decarbonising faster than other G7 economies, while also changing the way we reach net zero by reducing the burden on working people.

We will continue securing the benefits of Brexit, introducing the Trade Bill so we can confirm our membership of the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership – a huge trading pact with a combined GDP of £12 trillion. This deal will give us access to a club that will account for the majority of global growth between now and 2050, guarantee that 99% of our goods can be sold tariff free, and reduce red tape for our world-leading services and goods exporters.

We will also modernise regulation so that the most innovative firms can thrive in the UK. With the Automated Vehicles Bill, the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Bill, and the Data Protection and Digital Information Bill, we will open the door to game-changing new technologies like driverless cars and machine learning. We will shake up the legal framework to support tech companies to grow and compete more easily in the British economy, while also putting in place new protections to stop consumers being ripped off.

We are cutting red tape by delivering 12 Freeports across the UK – each one benefiting from tax reliefs and simplified customs processes, helping to create tens of thousands of jobs and billions in new investments. We’re also introducing Investment Zones to provide a similar boost to 12 local areas around the country.

Growing the economy means investing in the fundamentals, like transport. Instead of taking the easy but misguided approach of sticking with HS2 with its delays and spiralling costs, we’re taking the right decision for the long term interests of the country by investing in local and regional transport links through Network North. Spending every penny that would have gone towards HS2, we will invest £36 billion in improvements that will benefit far more people, in far more places, far more quickly, helping to transform the economy in the North and the Midlands.

The long term decisions we’ve taken over the last year haven’t always been easy, but they are paying off – just look at the inflation figures. Now we’re looking to the long term with this plan to build a globally connected, dynamic, innovative economy, with sound infrastructure and world-leading regulation – an economy that will deliver a better future for generations to come.

Strengthening society

A better future also means reinforcing people’s pride in the places they call home. I love my local community and it’s not right that for far too long many people have not felt that same sense of meaning and belonging. We must do away with the idea that it’s inevitable some communities and some places can never and will never get better. They can – and they will.5

The government can’t do this alone – we must all work at it together – but the state does provide the foundations. So we will deliver on our promise to level up – with greater investment in local areas, to boost growth, create jobs, build a million more homes in places communities want them, and breathe new life into our high streets and town centres.

Network North will help to turbocharge this effort by connecting and reinvigorating towns and cities across the North and the Midlands. Our Long Term Plan for Towns is making a big difference too, giving 55 towns across the country £20 million each for local people to invest in their community over the next 10 years.

A strong society also means making sure that when people fall sick, they get the care they need – so, crucially, we’re supporting the NHS and social care with record funding. We’ve backed the NHS’s first ever long term workforce plan, meaning we’ll train more doctors, more nurses, more dentists and more GPs than ever before. And we’ve scrapped the lifetime allowance charge for senior NHS consultants, takingthousands out of the pension tax, to encourage experienced doctors to stay on in the NHS. We’re also investing at least £2.3 billion of additional funding a year by March 2024 so an extra two million people can get mental health support, and we’re continuing to roll out our mental health support teams in schools and colleges across the country so that 50 per cent of pupils are covered by 2025.

To protect the safety of the public and ensure that services are there for people when they need them, we’ve introduced tough new minimum service levels, to balance the ability of workers to strike with the rights of the public.

And now, with this King’s Speech, we’re going to further strengthen society for the long term.

We’re announcing new laws to reform the housing market with a Leasehold and Freehold Bill – making it easier for leaseholders to extend their lease or purchase their freehold, and tackling the exploitation of millions of homeowners through punitive service charges. And our Renters Bill will ensure a fairer deal for renters and landlords, by outlawing no fault evictions and enabling landlords to evict anti- social tenants faster.

Strengthening society is also about supporting those things which help bring the community together. We’ve already backed pubs with the Brexit Pubs Guarantee, taking advantage of our Brexit freedoms to simplify the tax system and reduce the price of a pint. We’ve also encouraged more local sport with new community pitches and ensuring young girls have the same access to sport as boys. Now we’re going even further with a Football Governance Bill, which will safeguard the future of football clubs – the beating heart of communities up and down the country – and put fans first.

We’ll also protect the health of our young people by creating the first smoke free generation with the Tobacco and Vapes Bill, ensuring no one turning 14 or younger this year will ever be able to be sold cigarettes. Smoking causes a quarter of cancer deaths, so this will be the most significant public health intervention by the government for generations. It will save tens of thousands of lives and save the NHS billions of pounds.

We will also act swiftly in response to the final report of the Infected Blood Inquiry – following the interim payments we have already made. The use of infected blood and blood products was an appalling tragedy and a dreadful failure. Those affected deserve proper recognition of their loss and pain, as well as appropriate action to address it.

And we’ll do everything we can to protect the diverse nature of our communities and drive out sickening and divisive hatred, including antisemitism. Our Holocaust Memorial Bill will ensure the Holocaust is never forgotten. The Bill will allow us to build a national Holocaust Memorial and Learning Centre in central London. And the Economic Activity of Public Bodies (Overseas Matters) Bill will ban public bodies from implementing their own politically motivated boycotts of foreign countries.

I’m proud to live in a country, where we have such a wealth of diverse and different communities – and I want to make sure that wherever you live in our United Kingdom, you should feel proud of your local community too. That’s what we’ll work together to achieve – so that we can create a better future by boosting our public services, strengthening our communities, and strengthening our society for the long term.

Keeping people safe

Building a better future won’t mean anything unless people feel safe in their communities.

Strong communities are built on values, and on the golden rule: treat others as you would like to be treated yourself. But too often, a small minority break that rule. They spray graffiti on war memorials, discard needles and Nitrous Oxide cannisters in children’s playgrounds, gang together on our streets and cause disorder and disruption.

Anti-social behaviour isn’t inevitable, and it isn’t a minor crime. It makes life miserable for so many and it can be a gateway to more extreme crimes.

So we’re working tirelessly to crack down on anti-social behaviour, giving police forces, mayors, and local authorities the tools they need and giving communities confidence that these crimes will be quickly and visibly punished.

We’ve already delivered an extra 20,000 police officers, meaning there is now a record number of police patrolling the streets, answering the call for help, and catching criminals.

We’ve taken new steps to tackle fraud and we’ve put petty criminals on notice with our action plan to beat anti-social behaviour. We’re banning Nitrous Oxide, meaning possession of this substance will be illegal from tomorrow. And I am going further to protect our communities, by banning XL Bully Dogs under the Dangerous Dogs Act by the end of the year.

All of this is already having an impact. Crime is down 50% since 2010, excluding fraud. And fraud fell 13% in the last year.

But of course there is more to do. For too long, the justice system has been too lenient and left victims feeling hollow, even when perpetrators are caught. So with this King’s Speech, we’re going further to protect victims and keep people safe.

We’re reforming sentencing to ensure that we not only have tougher sentences for serious offenders, but also greater confidence in the system for victims.

Our Sentencing Bill will ensure that

Under our plans, life will mean life for the worst murderers – and rapists and serious sexual offenders will serve the entirety of their sentence behind bars.

We will introduce a Criminal Justice Bill to give the police the tools they need to tackle complex offences like economic and organised crimes, and to bring in tougher sentences for grooming and child sexual exploitation. We will introduce mandatory reporting of child sexual exploitation and introduce powers to compel criminals to attend sentencing hearings.

We will do more to support victims and strengthen the parole system. The Victims and Prisoners Bill will give ministers the power to stop the parole of the worst offenders and prevent them getting married, while ensuring victims are at the heart of justice considerations. We will create an Independent Public Advocate who will

Finally, we will take the necessary steps to protect our national security. As technology and national security threats continue to evolve, we’ll ensure our security and intelligence agencies have the powers they need through urgent and targeted amendments to the Investigatory Powers Act. We will introduce “Martyn’s Law”, with the Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Bill – designed to further protect public premises from terror attacks after the horrendous Manchester Arena attack in 2017.

• the most dangerous criminals are locked up for longer, whilst reforming short sentences so that prison does not push offenders who can be rehabilitated into a merry-go-round of reoffending.
• advocate for and support victims following a major incident or a disaster, like Hillsborough.

As Prime Minister, keeping people in this country safe is my most important responsibility – today and for the long term. Through this King’s Speech, we’ll do exactly that, ensuring those charged with protecting the public have the tools they need to do their jobs.

Promoting our national interests

A better future rests on our security – and how we promote and protect our interests on the global stage for the long term.

We will continue to invest in our Armed Forces – the finest in the world – ensuring that they have what they need to protect our country and keep people safe, while also supporting our fantastic veterans.

We will continue to work with our international partners on the most pressing crises – supporting Ukraine to prevail against Putin’s war of aggression, supporting Israel’s right to self-defence after Hamas’s horrific act of terror, delivering humanitarian aid to the Palestinian people, and working to revive the prospects for peace and stability in the Middle East.

We recognise that we live in a more dangerous world – and that we must shape our response accordingly. That’s why I set out a far-sighted plan earlier this year with the refresh of the Integrated Review of foreign and security policy.

In the 21st century I believe we must look beyond the traditional concept of national security to keep our people safe and protect our interests. We must also be robust in protecting our economic security, our energy security, the openness of the trade routes we need, our strong alliances, and our ability to anticipate new threats. We’re investing in all of these areas.

We’re going beyond our baseline commitment to spend 2% of GDP on defence with a new ambition of 2.5%. If anyone thinks we are no longer able to wield hard power in defence of our values, just ask the Ukrainian soldiers driving British tanks or training with our troops.

We are strengthening our role as a leading NATO ally, and building up our defence- industrial base, together with our closest allies. With Japan and Italy, we’re building the next generation of combat air fighter jets. And through our AUKUS partnership with the US and Australia we’re developing one of the most advanced nuclear- powered subs the world has ever known.

We’re securing our supply chains by doing trade deals around the world, creating new partnerships on semiconductors with the likes of Japan, and negotiating a new critical minerals agreement with the US.

Earlier this year, we agreed the historic Windsor Framework with the EU,

With measures like the National Security and Investment Act we are blocking acquisitions which could harm our security and safeguarding critical infrastructure – including energy.

We are tackling global drivers of instability. We’re taking action at home and abroad to stop the boats and break the business model of the people smugglers. This is a top priority of the British people. That’s why we will deliver on our Illegal Migration Act to ensure that if you come here illegally, you will be swiftly detained and removed to your home country or a safe third country, such as Rwanda. And it is why I have put illegal migration on the agenda at every international meeting from the G7 to the Council of Europe. These steps will make sure that it is the democratically elected government of this country who decides who comes here, not the criminal gangs. We’ve heard the concerns of the poorest countries, so we’re working to boost foodsecurity by helping Ukraine to open up routes to export their grain to those who need it most and leading the charge to improve development finance with fundamental reforms of the World Bank.

While we deliver our net zero targets at home, we’re also leading the global effort to tackle climate change – including committing over £1.6 billion for the Green Climate Fund – the biggest single international climate pledge the UK has ever made.

We’re leading efforts to safely harness the power of AI for the long term. AI will bring new knowledge, new opportunities for economic growth, new advances in human capability, and the chance to solve problems we once thought beyond us. But it also brings new dangers and new fears. So, we’re taking the right long term decisions to address those fears head on, giving people the peace of mind that we will keep them safe, while making sure you and your children have all the opportunities for a better future that AI can bring. Our new AI Safety Institute will advance the world’s knowledge of AI safety and give the British people the most advanced protections for AI of any nation.

I believe Britain is the best country in the world. We are a global defence power, an economy built on innovation and openness, a leader and a partner in tackling global challenges, a frontier nation in the tech revolution and a robust, thriving
democracy. We should be proud of our role on the global stage – and what it delivers for us all at home. I will keep taking the long term decisions to build a stronger, safer country, and a more stable world.

My Ministers will take steps to make the economy more competitive, taking advantage of freedoms afforded by the United Kingdom’s departure from the European Union. A bill will be brought forward to promote trade and investment with economies in the fastest growing region in the world [Trade (Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership) Bill]. My Ministers will continue to negotiate trade agreements with dynamic economies, delivering jobs and growth in the United Kingdom.

My Government will promote the integrity of the Union and strengthen the social fabric of the United Kingdom.

Working with NHS England, my Government will deliver its plans to cut waiting lists and transform the long-term workforce of the National Health Service. This will include delivering on the NHS workforce plan, the first long-term plan to train the doctors and nurses the country needs, and minimum service levels to prevent strikes from undermining patient safety. Record levels of investment are expanding and transforming mental health services to ensure more people can access the support they need. My Government will introduce legislation to create a smokefree generation by restricting the sale of tobacco so that children currently aged fourteen or younger can never be sold cigarettes, and restricting the sale and marketing of e- cigarettes to children [Tobacco and Vapes Bill].

My Ministers will bring forward a bill to reform the housing market by making it cheaper and easier for leaseholders to purchase their freehold and tackling the exploitation of millions of homeowners through punitive service charges [Leasehold and Freehold Bill]. Renters will benefit from stronger security of tenure and better value, while landlords will benefit from reforms to provide certainty that they can regain their properties when needed [Renters (Reform) Bill].

My Government will deliver a long-term plan to regenerate towns and put local people in control of their future. Legislation will be brought forward to safeguard the future of football clubs for the benefit of communities and fans [Football Governance Bill]. A bill will be introduced to deal with the scourge of unlicensed pedicabs in London [Pedicabs (London) Bill].

My Government is committed to tackling antisemitism and ensuring that the Holocaust is never forgotten. A bill will progress the construction of a national Holocaust Memorial and Learning Centre in Victoria Tower Gardens [Holocaust Memorial Bill].

My Government will act to keep communities safe from crime, anti-social behaviour, terrorism and illegal migration.

A bill will be brought forward to ensure tougher sentences for the most serious offenders and increase the confidence of victims [Sentencing Bill]. My Ministers will introduce legislation to empower police forces and the criminal justice system to prevent new or complex crimes, such as digital-enabled crime and child sexual abuse, including grooming [Criminal Justice Bill].