What’s The Story?
Marking the start of the Parliamentary year, the Queen’s speech which takes place in the House of Lords every year (except in 2011 when it was cancelled) set out all the laws that the Government will be looking to get approved for the coming year. “For Over 500 Years this has served as a symbolic reminder of the unity of Parliament’s three parts: the Sovereign; the House of Lords; and the House of Commons”

What Was Included?
Within the speech, the Queen announced 27 bills and draft bills which deliver on the following themes: Delivering Brexit, Building a stronger economy and Making our country fairer.

Here the key areas addressed in the Queen’s speech:
• Brexit, Brexit, Brexit. The Governments priority is to secure the best possible deal as the country leaves EU
• New National Policies on immigration, international sanctions, nuclear safeguards, agriculture, and fisheries
• Strengthening the economy to generate the tax revenues needed to invest in the national health service, schools, and other public services.
• Attracting new investments to remain a world leader in new industries: Electric Cards, Commercial Satellites, and high-speed rail
• Ensuring every child has the opportunity to attend a good school and that schools are fairly funded
• The national Living Wage will be increased
• Plans to tackle to gender pay gap and other pay issues involving race, faith, gender, disability and sexual orientation
• A legislation to support victims of domestic violence and abuse
• A reform of the Mental Health Legislation to ensure mental health is prioritised
• Proposals to ban unfair tenant fees, promote fairness and transparency in the housing market, and help ensure more homes are built will be brought forward
• Measure to tackle unfair practices in the energy market to help reduce energy bills
• A new digital charter to ensure the UK is the safest place to be online
• Modernising the court systems and reductions in motor insurance premiums
• A full public inquiry into the Grenfell Tower to ascertain the causes
• At least 2% of national income to be spent on defence
• A commission for countering extremism
• A review of the current counter-terrorism strategy
• Sustainable political solutions to conflicts across the Middle East
• Action against climate change, introducing the implementation of the Paris Agreement

A full transcript of the Queen’s Speech can be found here if you would like to read the full dialogue: Read the Queen’s speech here.

So, What’s next?
Well, it is important to remember that all these areas raised in the Queen’s speech are still yet to be put through parliament. There will always be room for change and adaptation to these proposals bills. All of these proposed bills will have to go through the ‘Passage of a bill’ where the proposed law or change to existing law is presented for debate before Parliament.

The Passage Of A Bill

All of these proposed bills will have to go through the ‘Passage of a bill’ where the proposed law or change to existing law is presented for debate before Parliament.
For a more, in-depth diagram of how this works, Parliament.uk have a handy diagram representing this process.

If there is a particular bill that you are concerned about or are thinking “How will this affect me?” Then Parliament has an online service where you can follow the progress of a bill. For the latest bills you can view them here http://services.parliament.uk/bills/ which, at the time of this article, there are no bills posted as of yet.

Resources:

Policy Paper, Queen’s Speech 2017: what it means for you

Parliament’s Bills service

The Passage of a Bill

State Opening Of Parliament