Download here - Kerry McCarthy

Prime Minister’s Statement to the House of Commons on the Draft Legislative
Programme
14 May 2008
Check Against Delivery
Mr Speaker, building a more prosperous Britain and a fairer Britain is the purpose of the draft
legislative programme published today for debate in this House and in the country.
And in this statement I will focus on both immediate action the government is taking to help
steer the economy safely through the current global economic problems. And also on the
changes - including a new Welfare Reform Bill and a new Education and Skills Bill - that are
needed to make Britain a fairer, more prosperous society and to meet the challenges of the
future.
Mr Speaker, our immediate priority - at a time when food and fuel bills are rising and
mortgages more difficult to obtain - is to help family finances. And in the next few weeks we
will set out the elements of our economic plan as we steer our economy safely through the
global downturn, the credit crunch and international oil and food price rises.
Legislation in the Queen’s Speech will include a Banking Bill so that Britain underpins its
banking system with the best protection for depositors. And in addition to action we will take
on fuel bills, to help small firm finance, and internationally on oil prices and food prices - and
the benefit we gain from three year public sector pay deals now covering 1.5 million workers my Rt Hon Friend the Housing Minister is today announcing:



a £200 million pound fund, re-allocating money, to purchase unsold new homes
and then rent them to social tenants or make them available on a shared ownership
basis;
£100 million pounds for shared equity schemes to allow more first time buyers to
purchase newly built homes on the open market;
and for the first time an offer of shared equity housing open to applications from
all first-time buyers, subject to a household income limit.
The Queen’s Speech will also introduce a Savings Bill to help homeownership and wealth
ownership generally - giving 8 million people on low incomes access to a national savings
scheme, with each pound saved matched by a contribution from the Government.
And we will look at whether further action is required in light of the study by the Office of Fair
Trading into the sale and leaseback market and the rise in second charge mortgages to
ensure consumers are treated fairly.
1
With a second public sector efficiency review now underway we are setting the objective of
greater efficiency and value for money in public administration as we move to achieve the
lowest civil service numbers since 1945.
And advancing our enterprise agenda the Government will also consult on the idea of
regulatory budgets ---- for the first time giving Departments that seek new regulation a strict
annual limit on what they can impose.
Mr Speaker, as well as taking decisive action to help families and businesses weather the
current economic storms, the Government has a duty to equip this country to meet the
challenges of the future:


with welfare and education reform to help people rise as far as their talents can take
them;
and in the education, health, policing and community empowerment bills we are
announcing today, a commitment to new standards of excellence in services and to the
transfer of more power and resources to parents, patients and citizens --- measures
which alongside our Constitutional Renewal Bill reshape for a new age the respective
roles and responsibilities of citizen and government.
In the next two decades the size of the world economy will double;
1 billion new skilled or professional jobs will be created;
And the new legislation we propose is founded on the new economic truth that the countries
that have the skills and the best education systems will reap the greatest rewards.
So attaining the highest of education standards as we expand opportunity is the theme of our
Education Bill - for schools and life long learning.
First, it is unfair to consign any child to a poor school or even one that is coasting along
without the ambition to do better. So having legislated this year for education to 18 there will
be a second education bill to support our plan to ensure that, by 2011, no school is
underperforming:



the first independent qualifications system to guarantee to parents the highest
standards,
more power for parents to receive regular information on their children's progress,
and as we expand academies, reform to strengthen the accountability of schools to
parents, giving them a bigger say on how to raise standards and whether new schools
are needed in an area.
It is unfair, and a threat to our country's future prosperity, that many qualified young people are
still denied access to an apprenticeship. By deciding to legislate for the first time for the
statutory right of every suitably qualified young person to obtain an apprenticeship, we expect
2
the numbers of people starting an apprenticeship - just 65,000 a year ten years ago - to rise
by 2011 to 210,000: three times as many.
Mr Speaker, every adult should have the right to a second chance in education – to have the
chance to make the most of their potential. It is not only a threat to prosperity but unfair also
that adults - in work or looking for work - are denied the opportunity to get the training they
need to advance their careers, or even the time needed to do a course.
So my Rt Hon Friend the Secretary for Skills is proposing today for the first time a major new
change in workplace rights that will benefit both employees and employers --- giving every
worker the right to request time to train. And we will offer every adult a personal skills account
so that they can access the training they need, with resources tailored to the individual.
Leaving the unemployed without the skills they need to obtain work is costly for our prosperity
and unfair to both benefit claimants and those who pay taxes. So as part of the next stage of
welfare reform, emphasising obligations as well as rights, the Secretary for Work will legislate
a duty on the unemployed to have their skills needs assessed and to acquire skills.
And we will consult on further radical reforms to ensure that no-one with the ability to work is
trapped on benefits for life. Those that can work should work. So new and existing incapacity
benefit claimants will be required to go through a medical assessment and will be given a
personalised programme to help them back into work.
Fair treatment also means respecting that people need flexible arrangements to care for their
children, especially as evidence now shows that flexible work is no obstacle to business
success --- fairness and efficiency advancing together. So My Rt Hon Friend the Secretary for
Business will announce tomorrow that we will take forward the recommendations of the Walsh
Report to extend the right to flexible working to parents of older children. We will consult on
the details of implementation, with the aim of introducing the new rights from next April.
Mr Speaker, since last year we have secured in the NHS cleaner hospitals, better access to
GPs, and progress on waiting times.
And it is right - as we celebrate sixty years of the NHS next month - to introduce a new NHS
Reform Bill to continue the change and renewal of the NHS: to equip it to offer a higher
standard of care, focus it on prevention as well as treatment, and make it more accountable to
local people, giving patients real power and control over the service they receive.
We will establish a constitution of the NHS that sets out what patients can expect to get from
the health service including entitlements to minimum standards of access, quality and safety.
And - for the first time - payments to NHS hospitals will be adjusted according to patient
satisfaction and health outcomes --- deepening our commitment to a patient-focused NHS.
3
In the same way as we are tackling underperforming schools, we will take new powers - as
part of a comprehensive NHS performance regime - to ensure no healthcare provider falls
below minimum standards.
And just as we will consult in education on giving more rights to parents, we will bring forward
radical proposals in health to put more power in the hands of patients - including new rights to
information about their care, to control their own personal budgets and to have a more say
over the decisions of their local primary care trust.
And just as we will give both parents and patients more control, so we will give social housing
tenants more say - greater choice over where they live and new rights to independent
information on landlords' performance. We will look at ways of rewarding good tenants and
hold to account those who do not meet their responsibilities, as we crack down further on antisocial behaviour on our estates.
Mr Speaker, protecting the safety of the British people is paramount for any government.
Since 1997, we have significantly increased the numbers of policemen and women,
introduced new community support officers, and introduced new powers for police and the
courts to target anti-social behaviour, burglary, car crime and street crime.
Our aim is not just a reduction in crime but that people feel safe in their homes and in their
neighbourhoods.
One way forward – as with education and health - is to empower citizens, giving them more
direct say on how crime is tackled in their areas.
So My Rt Hon Friend the Home Secretary will bring forward proposals for directly elected
representatives to give local people more control over policing priorities and responsiveness.
We will legislate so that neighbourhood police teams have to meet tougher national standards
to ensure the high visibility and responsiveness of local police and community support officers.
Legislation will give the victims of crime more legal rights, including protection for vulnerable
victims and witnesses of gun and gang related crime during investigations and trials. And My
Rt Hon Friend the Home Secretary will set out shortly further detailed plans to allow policetime now spent on paperwork to be spent on the beat, liberating the police from needless red
tape. And she will announce new measures to improve police performance.
Organized crime - particularly in the areas where there are serious problems with drugs and
illegal immigration - must be dealt with severely. It is right to close every loophole to prevent
criminals retaining the proceeds of their crimes. So the Policing and Crime Reduction Bill will
legislate to speed up the recovery and seizure of assets obtained through criminal acts.
4
Mr Speaker, if our crime policy is to punish and prevent, our migration policy is to ensure for
Britain the benefits that migration brings while managing it securely and ensuring that
expectations for newcomers are clear.
We have already introduced the new Australian-style points system to ensure only those that
contribute can come in to Britain;
And integrated the vital work of the Border and Immigration Agency, Customs and UK Visas
into a single border agency;
And after a consultation which finished this week, Mr Rt Hon Friend the Home Secretary will
legislate to put in place our new and tougher test for permanent residence or British
citizenship.
The requirements in law will be that newcomers learn English, play by the rules and show they
are making an economic contribution to the UK. Only full citizens will get full access to benefits
or social housing. And newcomers will be required to pay into a migration impact fund to help
local communities deal with changes in population.
We will also take new powers in legislation to enhance airport security and protect against
terrorist acts at sea.
Mr Speaker, we will take further steps in the next session of Parliament to safeguard and
enhance our heritage and our environment.
For the first time in thirty years there will be legislation to increase protection of our historic
sites and buildings. This will include reforms to the planning system to improve the protection
of old buildings; and new rules to make it an offence to deal in cultural property illegally
exported from occupied territory.
We will consult in draft on the legislation necessary to implement the recommendations of the
Pitt Review into the 2007 floods - and so better protect vulnerable communities in the future.
And having already legislated this session to put a legal limit on Britain’s carbon emissions, we
will bring forward a bill in the next session to protect our seas and our shores: new powers to
designate marine conservation zones and to create a path around the whole of the English
coastline, with public access for walking and other recreational activities.
Mr Speaker, last year I announced new measures including restricting the royal prerogative to
make the government more accountable to Parliament - and these will be taken forward in a
constitutional renewal bill. But we will go further and consult on a major shift of power directly
to citizens themselves. So My Rt Hon Friend the Communities Secretary will set out
proposals, to be taken forward through a new Community Empowerment Bill, to give people
greater power to influence local decisions - local spending decisions, local council agendas,
the use of local assets - that affect them.
5
My Rt Hon Friend the Secretary for Justice will also publish a white paper on reform of the
House of Lords and details of our proposals to reform the system of party finance and
expenditure. And he will bring forward proposals for consultation on a Bill of Rights and
Responsibilities.
Mr Speaker, we are committed to both flexibility and to fairness in the workplace and we will
do nothing that jeopardises jobs and businesses taking on workers. But most people agree
that it is not fair that even after months in the job, agency workers can currently be paid less
than the staff they work alongside ---- and as a result permanent staff can feel they are being
unfairly undercut. So My Rt Hon Friend the Secretary for Business plans to bring forward
legislation – subject to an agreement between employers and employees, and in Europe - that
will for the first time ensure new rules for fair treatment of agency workers here in Britain.
Discrimination anywhere is unacceptable and a new Equality Bill will compel public bodies to
take seriously the needs and requirements of both their workforce and the communities they
serve --- sending a clear message that in 21st century Britain prejudice is no longer
acceptable.
Mr Speaker, a Banking Bill to support financial stability;
An Education Bill to ensure every school is a good school;
An NHS Bill to entrench patients rights;
An Immigration Bill so that people can earn their citizenship;
A Welfare Reform Bill to help people into work;
Reforms on agency workers, on skills and on flexible working.
These are the priorities.
And I commend this statement to the House.
Ends
6