Laws of the Land

The Bill would require the Secretary of State to specify a date to be observed each year as Anti-Slavery Day. The purpose of the day would be to raise awareness of the dangers and consequences of modern-day slavery and human trafficking.

The Bill will harmonise and in some cases extend existing discrimination law covering the 'protected characteristics' of age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex, and sexual orientation. It will address the impact of recent case law which is generally seen as having weaken…

The Bill imposes a statutory duty on the Treasury to meet specific targets for the reduction of government borrowing and debt. The Government believes that this legislation demonstrates its commitment to ensuring the sustainability of the public finances. The Bill gives Parliament a greater role in fiscal policy. Key areas The Bill requires the Treasury t…

This Bill will reinstate the Government's terrorist asset-freezing regime, after the Supreme Court quashed the Terrorism (United Nations Measures) Order 2006 and provisions in the Al-Qaida and Taliban (United Nations Measures) Order 2006. The Court found that the Treasury was exceeding its powers in using the United Nations Act to give effect to United Na…

This Bill contains a range of policing, crime and security measures. Key areas reduces information requirements for police stops and searches establishes new time limits for the retention of DNA samples, DNA profiles and fingerprints (following a European Court of Human Rights judgement) together with extensions to the circumstances in which such samples…

The purpose of the Bill is to provide a modern and comprehensive scheme of bribery offences to equip prosecutors and courts to deal effectively with bribery in the UK and abroad. Key areas replaces old and fragmented legislation with a modern and consolidated bribery law, based on the recommendations of the Law Commission creates offences of offering, pro…

The Bill will provide for those with the greatest care needs to be offered free personal care at home. Existing powers allow local authorities to provide certain community care services free of charge for up to six weeks. The Bill will remove this time limit in respect of personal care at home for those in the greatest need. The Government estimates that…

This is the third piece of financial services legislation since 2007 to respond to the banking and financial crisis. It also includes measures designed to improve the position of financial services’ customers. Key areas creates a Council for Financial Stability to co-ordinate the responsibilities and action of the Bank of England, Financial Services…

The Bill responds to recent pressure to introduce legislation to address the threat of flooding and water scarcity, both of which are predicted to increase with climate change. Key areas requires the Environment Agency to create a National Flood and Coastal Erosion Risk Management Strategy, which a number of organisations will have to follow requires lead…

The Bill follows on from the low carbon transition plan, published in July 2009. This plan aims to deliver emissions cuts of 34 per cent from 1990 levels by 2020 and of 80 per cent by 2050, while maintaining security of supply, maximising economic opportunities and protecting vulnerable consumers. The Bill will deliver some of the primary legislation requ…

The Bill as introduced aimed to provide guarantees for parents and pupils, setting out what they were entitled to expect from the school system. It also aimed to reform the curriculum and introduce a new licensing scheme for teachers. Clauses on a number of key provisions were removed during the consideration of Lords Amendments, including: the Pupil and…

As introduced, this was a wide-ranging Bill covering a number of different policy areas. Many of the proposals had their origins in the 'Governance of Britain' Green Paper published in July 2007. The content of the Bill as introduced varied in some significant ways from its draft version. New chapters were added to the Bill and the clauses on the Attorney…

A Bill to grant certain duties, to alter other duties, and to amend the law relating to the National Debt and the Public Revenue, and to make further provision in connection with finance.

The Bill provides Parliamentary authority for funds requested by the Government. It is part of what is called ‘supply procedure’. This is how Parliament grants the Government’s requests for resources. A Consolidated Fund Bill is passed every year. The Bill is one of three pieces of legislation in each financial year which provide authori…

This Bill follows the Corporation Tax Act 2009, which rewrote the charge to corporation tax and the primary corporation tax legislation used by companies in computing their income. The Bill substantially completes the rewrite of the corporation tax code. It includes provisions on losses and gifts to charities, various reliefs such as group relief, distrib…

The Co-operative and Community Benefit Societies and Credit Unions Bill is a Private Members’ Bill which has government support. It was introduced in the 2008-09 Session of Parliament by Malcolm Wicks, Labour MP for Croydon North. The Bill completed all its Commons stages but was not able to finish its passage through the House of Lords before the e…

The Bill repeals and revives, without amendment, the Video Recordings Act 1984. Its purpose is to rectify a procedural error made during the passage of the 1984 Act, thereby making the age-rated classification and supply controls contained in that Act enforceable in UK courts. The Bill would also allow the 1984 Act to be amended by the Digital Economy Bil…

The Bill rewrites a series of provisions in existing tax law, including provisions on double taxation relief, transfer pricing, advance pricing agreements and tax arbitrage. It also relocates and where appropriate rewrites some provisions which would otherwise have been left in the Income and Corporation Taxes Act 1988 or one of the Finance Acts. This is…

The purpose of the Marriage (Wales) Bill is to change the legal requirements for getting married in the Church of Wales. At the moment, it is normally required that at least one of those getting married should reside in the parish where the wedding is to take place. This Bill would allow people with a qualifying connection to a parish to hold their weddin…

The Bill seeks to limit the amount that can be recovered by any commercial creditor of those countries designated as having unsustainable external debts. It would restrict the activities of so-called 'vulture funds', which buy developing countries' sovereign debt at discounted prices, then seek to recover its value in full through the courts. Its provisio…