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Queen’s Speech 2014
This month the coalition government announced its legislative programme for the next parliamentary year. Eleven bills will be presented to parliament, three draft bills have been published for pre-legislative scrutiny and six bills have been carried over from the last parliamentary session. The programme includes:
The Childcare Payments Bill:
•will entitle those with responsibilities for a child to access government support with their childcare costs in the form of effective tax relief. For every £8 that a parent pays for childcare, the government will contribute £2; and
•will repeal an existing government system that currently provides financial assistance for parents with their childcare costs, known as employer-supported childcare.
•Tax-Free Childcare will be launched in autumn 2015 and rolled out to all eligible families with children under 12 within the first year of the scheme’s operation, instead of just to under fives in the first year.
The Modern Slavery Bill:
•will consolidate and simplify existing modern slavery offences into one Act to provide clarity and focus when prosecuting slave drivers and traffickers;
•will increase the maximum sentence available for offenders to life imprisonment, with those who have a previous conviction for a serious sexual or violent offence facing an automatic life sentence;
•will ensure that perpetrators convicted of slavery or trafficking face the toughest asset confiscation regime;
•will give the courts new powers to order perpetrators of slavery and trafficking to pay financial redress to their victims;
•will introduce slavery and trafficking prevention orders to restrict the activity of individuals who have been convicted of modern slavery offences, where they pose a risk of causing harm;
•will introduce slavery and trafficking risk orders to restrict the activity of individuals who have not been convicted of a modern slavery offence, where they pose a risk of causing harm;
•will create a new anti-slavery commissioner to ensure that law enforcement is doing all it can to tackle this crime;
•will create a statutory defence for victims of modern slavery so that those who are forced to commit an offence are not treated as criminals by the criminal justice system; the defence will not apply to serious sexual and violent offences;
•will extend special measures so that all victims of modern slavery are supported through the criminal justice process;
•will provide statutory guidance on victim identification and victim services;
•will provide an enabling power for child advocates to support child victims of trafficking;
•will create a statutory duty for public bodies including the police, local authorities and immigration personnel to notify the National Crime Agency about potential victims of modern slavery; and
•will close loopholes which prevent the police and Border Force being able to act where it is suspected that human trafficking or forced labour is taking place on board vessels at sea.
The Serious Crime Bill:
•will improve the government’s ability to recover criminal assets by amending the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002;
•will extend the scope of serious crime prevention orders and gang injunctions;
•will create a new offence targeting people who knowingly participate in an organised crime group;
•will create a new offence of possessing ‘paedophilic manuals’;
•will amend the Computer Misuse Act 1990 to ensure sentences for attacks on computer systems reflect the damage they cause;
•will clarify the Children and Young Persons Act 1933 to make it explicit that cruelty which is likely to cause psychological harm to a child is an offence;
•will extend the extra-territorial reach of the offences in the Female Genital Mutilation Act 2003 so that they apply to habitual as well as permanent UK residents.
The bills being carried over from the 2013–14 parliamentary session include:
•the Consumer Rights Bill; and
•the Criminal Justice and Courts Bill.