A comparative look at the King’s Speech

With the Olympics on the horizon, Sir Keir Starmer will now be swapping his England football shirt for a Team GB vest. The new UK government’s mantra of “hitting the ground running” may be good advice for our track and field athletes, but perhaps less so for our divers or trampolinists...

The King’s Speech this week was certainly an impressive starting gun for this administration, in its scope and breadth of policy matters. And despite the Prime Minister donning the Team GB vest, many of the policies are for England-only and/or take inspiration from equivalent interventions in the other nations.

The move to take all rail services into public ownership will have direct effect on English and cross-nation franchises. Transport for Wales, ScotRail and Tramslink are all (in some form or other) already publicly owned, although franchises such as Great Western and LNER are not captured by the devolved governments’ ownership.

Just this week, the Welsh Government launched its publicly owned renewable energy developer for ‘Trydan Gwyrdd Cymru’, ahead of the King’s Speech confirmation of Great British Energy. There’s been no official announcement of the location, but expectations are it will have its headquarters in Scotland. The Scottish Government had previously planned to create its own public energy company, but those plans have not been implemented.

We wait to see the full details of the education reforms announced in the King’s Speech – but these will be for the sector in England. The policy of free breakfast clubs in every English primary school has caught the headlines.

A similar initiative in Wales started in 2004 and was made statutory in 2013 (with some nuances). The Scottish Government had pledged to introduce universal free breakfasts in primary schools but has yet to deliver on this. However, it is rolling out free school lunches in primary schools (up to Primary 4 and 5 so far), and the Welsh Government plans to complete its roll out of universal school lunches in primary schools in September. There are no provision for universal free school meals in Northern Ireland, although eligibility for free school meals is more generous there.

The King’s Speech include a commitment to create an Armed Forces Commissioner “to act as a strong independent champion for our service personnel and their families”. The Commissioner landscape across the UK is a complex one, with a mix of roles, responsibilities, and territorial remits. Our recent Wise in 5 briefing is an up-to-date guide on this. Administrations should learn from each other and from current practice to ensure that existing, and any future, Commissioners avoid unnecessary duplication of their remits and roles, and can co-operate as necessary.

The speech highlighted the decision to revive the Renters Reform Bill (now called Renters Rights Bill), which covers England, and includes Labour manifesto pledges to end rental bidding wars and prevent landlords from unreasonably refusing for tenants request to keep a pet. These changes have already been made in Scotland and Wales, according to some commentators the reforms for England don’t go as far in terms of security of tenure but are an important step to ensuring greater balance between landlords and renters.  According to our friends at SPICE “the majority of this Bill will apply to England only, the Scotland Office has indicated that in respect of discrimination against tenants on benefits or with children, these measures may apply to Scotland.” For Northern Ireland, the Private Tenancies Act (Northern Ireland) 2022 brought in more protections for tenants with different regulations including differential rights depending on length of tenancy,

 We also heard official confirmation that a Council of the Nations and Regions will be established, bringing together heads of government and regional mayors and leaders in England. Our latest newsletter included an article on ‘people, policy and process’ for more thoughts on this. The commitment from the Prime Minister to renew opportunities for collaboration and respect is welcome, and will need a keen eye for shared understanding, policy learning and Whitehall’s approach to mission-led government.

Many of the proposed bills in the King’s Speech will be GB or UK-wide, such as Digital Information and Employment Rights, and we will watch those with interest. On other matters where policy for England is diverging from, or echoes, policy in the other nations, we hope to see comparative analysis and research playing a role in development and delivery.

As highlighted by colleagues at our recent cross-nation roundtable in Cardiff, the “living laboratory” of devolution should facilitate collaboration not competition. More Olympic hockey or volleyball than a 100-metre sprint. And let’s hope we have more vest-wearing weather in the weeks ahead…!

by Dewi Knight and Catherine May