The King's Speech 2023 - What's In It For UK Business, Trade, And Training
Today, King Charles III outlined the UK government’s legislative agenda for the 2023-24 session in the annual State Opening of Parliament. It was his first speech as King and the first by a King Of England in 72 years.
Amongst many things, like supporting the NHS, the housing market, and developing safe A.I. the king spoke on the UK economy and business. In his Parliament speech today he said, My Ministers’ focus is on increasing economic growth and safeguarding the health and security of the British people for generations to come.’ and, ‘My Government will continue to take action to bring down inflation… My Ministers will support the Bank of England to return inflation to target by taking responsible decisions on spending and borrowing.’
The King also mentioned, support and change for training, and education for the young, with a true purpose for skilled labour, ‘My Ministers will strengthen education for the long term. Steps will be taken to ensure young people have the knowledge and skills to succeed… Proposals will be implemented to reduce the number of young people studying poor quality university degrees and increase the number undertaking high quality apprenticeships.’
He went on to say, ‘My Ministers will take steps to make the economy more competitive… A bill will be brought forward to promote trade and investment with economies in the fastest growing region in the world. My Ministers will continue to negotiate trade agreements with dynamic economies, delivering jobs and growth in the United Kingdom.’
Adding, ‘My Ministers will introduce new legal frameworks to support the safe commercial development of emerging industries… introduce new competition rules for digital markets, and encourage innovation in technologies… Legislation will be brought forward to support the creative industries.’
A total of 21 parliamentary Bills were announced. Here are a couple of the plans of interest to businesses.
Trade (Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership) Bill
This Bill will allow the UK to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), the trade group which includes Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam.
The UK is the first new member and first European country to join since CPTPP launched in 2018. The government says 99% of UK goods exported to CPTPP member countries will be eligible for zero tariffs.
The countries in the group have a combined GDP of £12 trillion, are home to more than half a billion people and, according to the government, is worth 15% of global GDP with the UK as a member.
Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Bill
This Bill is aimed at strengthening consumer and business protection, and ensuring competition in the digital and technology space which is dominated by large technology companies. They are defined as those with global turnover exceeding £25bn, or UK turnover more than £1bn
Measures include:
A new Digital Markets Unit within the Competition and Markets Authority will have powers to directly enforce consumer law rather than go through court processes. Penalties of up to 10% of global turnover for breaching consumer law can be imposed on large technology firms such as Google, Apple, Meta and Amazon.
Fake reviews will be tackled with new laws making it illegal to commission someone to write or submit a fake review, posting consumer reviews without taking reasonable steps to check they are genuine, and offering or advertising to submit, commission or facilitate fake reviews.
‘Subscription traps’ in which businesses make it difficult to exit a contract will also be stopped by requiring businesses to provide clearer information to consumers before they enter a subscription contract, issuing a reminder to consumers that a free trial or low-cost introductory offer is coming to an end and before a contract auto-renews onto a new term, and ensuring that consumers can exit a contract in a straightforward, cost-effective and timely way.
Ensuring that business customers are treated fairly by large technology businesses. The government says that businesses of all sizes “are often locked into burdensome, unfair relationships with powerful tech firms” because “they are forced to sign up to onerous contract terms, use specific payment services and pay inflated prices”. Ministers say that new system “will force the most powerful tech firms to treat businesses in the UK fairly”.
Opening up opportunities for innovative start-ups in the UK to compete with big technology firms.
- Increasing choice and reducing prices for UK consumers for online goods and services such as social media and search
Read the transcript of King Charles III Parliament speech 2023 here