This page is a quick reference guide for local authorities on the proposals, Bills and draft Bills announced in the Queen's Speech 2007. These form part of the Government's legislative programme for the coming year. A full list of the Bills announced in the speech and further information is available on the Number 10 website. Links to related documents on info4local have been added, where appropriate, to provide background information.

Housing and Regeneration Bill

This Bill supports delivery of three million new homes by 2020 through the creation of the Homes and Communities Agency. It reforms social housing and social housing regulation to promote better services for tenants and make better use of surplus public sector land and maximise the potential for brownfield development.

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Planning Reform Bill

This Bill aims to streamline and improve the planning regime by implementing the proposals outlined in the May 2007 Planning White Paper, including introducing a single consents regime for major infrastructure projects, establishing an Independent Infrastructure Planning Commission, and further measures to improve the Town and Country Planning System. It would improve speed, responsiveness and efficiency in land use planning, and take forward Kate Barker's and Rod Eddington's proposals for reform of major infrastructure planning.

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Local Transport Bill

This Bill would support the Government’s strategy to improve public transport and tackle road congestion by ensuring local authorities have the right powers to take local action to meet local transport needs.

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Crossrail Bill

The Crossrail Bill would grant powers for the construction and maintenance of Crossrail, which would provide high-capacity main line rail services to and through the centre and West End of London and the South East of England.

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Marine Draft Bill

This draft Bill would provide a new system for marine planning that would improve the capacity for planning and handling the growth in offshore developments across a range of sectors, greater clarity for development decisions, and a better mechanism for balancing sustainable development with protection of marine resources.

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Energy Bill

This Bill aims to strengthen the market framework to help ensure secure and affordable energy supplies and strengthen the Renewables Obligation to drive greater and more rapid deployment of renewables in the UK. It would also create a framework to help protect the taxpayer by requiring owners or operators of a new nuclear power station to make financial provisions to cover the full decommissioning costs and their full share of waste management costs.

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Climate Change Bill

This Bill would enable the UK to meet its commitment to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by at least 60 per cent by 2050 and provide a strong, sustainable framework for adapting to the impacts of climate change. It would also provide a power to pilot local authority incentives for household waste minimisation and recycling.

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Education and Skills Bill

This Bill would introduce a requirement for young people to remain in education or training beyond the current statutory leaving age, and provide new rights to skills training for adults. It would put a duty on local authorities to ensure that young people participate in education, and a duty and a power to assess the education and training needs of young people aged 16-19 with special educational needs.

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Apprenticeships Draft Legislation

The Government proposes bringing forward legislation to reform apprenticeships, which would provide a right to public funding for apprenticeship programmes and put a duty to promote and offer apprenticeships on a range of public organisations.

Children and Young Persons Bill

This Bill aims to improve services for vulnerable children and young people, including those in care. It would improve placement stability and ensure more consistency for children in care, increase schools’ capacity to address their needs of children in care, and improve the experience children in care have at school and increase their educational attainment.

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Child Maintenance and Other Payments Bill

The Bill would establish a new non-departmental public body, the Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission, to administer the statutory child maintenance system and provide information and support to separated parents.

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Dormant Bank and Building Society Accounts (formerly Unclaimed Assets) Bill

This Bill would enable unclaimed assets to be invested for community purposes, including youth facilities, financial inclusion and social investment, while ensuring the rights of owners to be reunited with their assets are protected.

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Health and Social Care Bill

This Bill would assure the safety and quality of care and apply a consistent approach to regulation by requiring providers of health services and adult social care to register with a new regulator, the Care Quality Commission. It would also provide a comprehensive set of public health measures to help prevent or control the spread of serious diseases caused by infection or contamination.

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Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill

This Bill would ensure that the creation and use of all human embryos outside the body are subject to regulation, recognise same-sex couples as legal parents of children conceived through the use of donated sperm, eggs or embryos, and include provisions increasing the scope of legitimate embryo research activities.

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Criminal Justice and Immigration Bill

This Bill would ensure that the police and their community safety partners have appropriate powers to tackle anti-social behaviour at its roots and reinforce a culture of respect in their communities. It would provide Violent Offender Orders, which would allow courts to impose post-sentence restrictions on those convicted of violent offences, and introduce a new offence of inciting hatred against gay, lesbian, transgender and disabled persons to combat hate crimes.

Citizenship and Immigration Draft Bill

The purpose of the Bill is to take forward any recommendations requiring primary legislation that come out of the Goldsmith Review of Citizenship, which looks at clarifying the legal rights and responsibilities associated with British citizenship and the incentives for long-term residents to become citizens.

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Counter-terrorism Bill

This Bill would ensure that police and other agencies have the powers they need to protect the public, while preserving essential rights and liberties. It includes new measures to strengthen terrorist prosecutions and deal with terrorists after they have been charged.

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Regulatory Enforcement and Sanctions Bill

This Bill would reduce regulatory burden on business and establish the Local Better Regulation Office, bringing consistency to local authority enforcement.

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Employment Bill

This Bill would improve the effectiveness of employment law to the benefit of employers, trade unions, individuals and the public sector, and increase protection for vulnerable workers.

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Pensions Bill

This Bill would place a duty on every employer to contribute to good quality workplace pensions for their employees.

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Work-life Balance

The Government will bring forward proposals to ensure that parents benefit from having the right to find working patterns that enable them to strike a better balance between their working and caring responsibilities.

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Stronger Communities

The Government will take further action to create stronger communities. This includes £50 million in funding, guidance on best practice to ensure community cohesion, information packs for new migrants and specialist integration teams to provide help and support where local authorities need it and a new national indicator to help local authorities focus their attention on what really works.

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