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The government has set out its legislative agenda for the next year in the King’s Speech.

The announcements focus on three priorities – growing the economy, strengthening society and keeping people safe.

Here, Sky News looks at each bill included in the speech, and what it aims to deliver.

Reaction as King sets out PM’s legislative agenda – follow live

Growing the economy

Offshore Petroleum Licensing Bill

This will support the future licensing of new oil and gas fields, in a move the government says will enhance the UK’s energy security, but which has been criticised by green campaigners.

Trade (Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership) Bill

This will “secure benefits of Brexit” by enabling the UK’s formal accession to an Indo-Pacific trade bloc of 11 nations, including Australia and Japan, after it signed an agreement to do so earlier this year.

Automated Vehicles Bill

A new legal framework to enable self-driving cars to be used on Britain’s roads.

Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Bill

Aims to make it harder for firms to trap people in unwanted subscription contracts, take action against fake reviews and drip pricing, and increase competition between big tech firms.

Data Protection and Digital Information Bill

This aims to update the UK’s data protection laws post-Brexit and strengthen the regulator.

Media Bill

A bill to “support the creative industries and protect public interest journalism”. This includes repealing a law requiring media outlets to pay all legal costs in libel cases, regardless of who won.

Arbitration Bill

This bill seeks to modernise the law on dispute resolutions known as arbitration – which take place outside of the courts, including allowing arbitrators to kick out baseless claims quickly and strengthening the courts’ supporting powers.

Draft Rail Reform Bill

This is a draft bill to create a new public sector body, Great British Railways (GBR), aimed at reforming the rail sector. Being in draft form means it is unlikely the legislation will make it on to the statute books in this parliamentary session, or before the next general election.

Strengthening society

Tobacco and Vapes Bill

This aims to introduce a “smoke-free generation” by stopping children turning 14 this year or younger from ever legally buying cigarettes in England. Also aims to crack down on vaping among youngsters.

Leasehold and Freehold Bill

Brings forward long-awaited plans for leasehold reform, including capping ground rents and extending the length of leases from 90 to 990 years. But the proposals have been watered down, with new flats excluded from the plan to phase out leaseholds on new properties.

Renters (Reform) Bill

Carried over from the last parliament, this bill aimed at strengthening renters’ rights includes a long-awaited ban on “no-fault” evictions – but only after stronger possession grounds for landlords and a new court process are in place. It also strengthens powers to evict anti-social tenants and ends a blanket ban on pets.

Football Governance Bill

Legislation to safeguard the future of football clubs for the benefit of communities and fans. This includes the establishment of a new independent football regulator, with the body set to have powers to step in and resolve how money flows from the Premier League down the pyramid.

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Campaign group Republic said close to 200 people attended the protest

Pedicabs (London) Bill

Enables Transport for London to introduce fare controls and a licensing regime for pedicabs – the only form of unregulated transport on the capital’s roads – and bar them from congested areas.

Holocaust Memorial Bill

This will progress the construction of a national Holocaust Memorial and Learning Centre in Victoria Tower Gardens.

Animal Welfare (Live Stock Exports) Bill

Mentioned in explanatory notes of the speech, but not the speech itself, this is a ban on the live export of livestock for slaughter and fattening. The government promised to keep this after the flagship animal welfare bill, which was wider in scope, was dropped. The new bill does not include measures to outlaw the importation of hunting trophies, as promised in the 2019 Tory manifesto.

Economic Activities of Public Bodies Bill

A bill “to ban public bodies from implementing their own politically motivated boycotts of foreign countries”.

More on this story:
Hard to see how Sunak’s first King’s Speech won’t be his last

Keeping people safe

Sentencing Bill

Aims to ensure dangerous offenders are locked up for longer and rapists and sex offenders service their full sentences. Short sentences will also be reformed to help low-level offenders rehabilitate.

Criminal Justice Bill

Forces criminals to attend their sentencing hearings; gives police powers to enter a property without a court warrant to seize stolen goods; criminalises the sharing of intimate images and allows the transfer of prisoners in and out of England and Wales to serve their sentence abroad.

Investigatory Powers (Amendment) Bill

Security and intelligence services will be handed powers “they need” and “will strengthen independent judicial oversight”.

Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Bill

Also known as Martyn’s Law, the bill requires venues to take steps to be better prepared to respond if there is a terrorist attack.

Victims and Prisoners Bill

This will give ministers the power to stop the parole of the worst offenders and prevent them getting married. It will also see creation of Independent Public Advocate to support victims of major disasters like Hillsborough.

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US government announces ChatGPT integration across agencies

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US government announces ChatGPT integration across agencies

US government announces ChatGPT integration across agencies

The deal was announced in response to the White House’s recent policy strategy to make the United States the AI capital of the world.

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Nomura’s Laser Digital to launch first regulated OTC desk for crypto options in Dubai

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<div>Nomura's Laser Digital to launch first regulated OTC desk for crypto options in Dubai</div>

<div>Nomura's Laser Digital to launch first regulated OTC desk for crypto options in Dubai</div>

Nomura’s crypto arm gains regulatory green light in Dubai to offer institutional OTC crypto options, expanding the UAE’s footprint in global digital derivatives.

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Jess Phillips condemns ‘idiot’ councils that don’t believe they have grooming gang problem

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Jess Phillips condemns 'idiot' councils that don't believe they have grooming gang problem

Safeguarding minister Jess Phillips has told Sky News that councils that believe they don’t have a problem with grooming gangs are “idiots” – as she denied Elon Musk influenced the decision to have a national inquiry on the subject. 

The minister said: “I don’t follow Elon Musk’s advice on anything although maybe I too would like to go to Mars.

“Before anyone even knew Elon Musk’s name, I was working with the victims of these crimes.”

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Elon Musk. Pic: Reuters
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Elon Musk. Pic: Reuters

Mr Musk had called Ms Phillips a “rape genocide apologist” in one of a series of inflammatory posts on X in January and said she should go to jail.

Mr Musk, then a close aide of US President Donald Trump, sparked a significant political row with his comments – with the Conservative Party and Reform UK calling for a new public inquiry into grooming gangs.

At the time, Ms Phillips denied a request for a public inquiry into child sexual exploitation in Oldham on the basis that it should be done at a local level.

But the government announced a national inquiry after Baroness Casey’s rapid audit on grooming gangs, which was published in June.

Asked if she thought there was, in the words of Baroness Casey, “over representation” among suspects of Asian and Pakistani men, Ms Phillips replied: “My own experience of working with many young girls in my area – yes there is a problem. There are different parts of the country where the problem will look different, organised crime has different flavours across the board.

“But I have to look at the evidence… and the government reacts to the evidence.”

Ms Phillips also said the home secretary has written to all police chiefs telling them that data collection on ethnicity “has to change”, to ensure that it is always recorded, promising “we will legislate to change the way this [collection] is done if necessary”.

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Operation Beaconport has since been established, led by the National Crime Agency (NCA), and will be reviewing more than 1,200 closed cases of child sexual exploitation.

Ms Phillips revealed that at least “five, six” councils have asked to be a part of the national review – and denounced councils that believed they don’t have a problem with grooming gangs as “idiots”.

“I don’t want [the inquiry] just to go over places that have already had inquiries and find things the Casey had already identified,” she said.

She confirmed that a shortlist for a chair has been drawn up, and she expects the inquiry to be finished within three years.

Ms Phillips’s comments come after she announced £426,000 of funding to roll out artificial intelligence tools across all 43 police forces in England and Wales to speed up investigations into modern slavery, child sex abuse and county lines gangs.

Some 13 forces have access to the AI apps, which the Home Office says have saved more than £20m and 16,000 hours for investigators.

The apps can translate large amounts of text in foreign languages and analyse data to find relationships between suspects.

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