The legislative agenda for the year ahead is going to be a big one. With a general election almost certain to happen this year, there is going to be a big effort to achieve the Government’s manifesto commitments and the Prime Minister’s pledges.
The main piece of outstanding business before the Commons is the Safety of Rwanda (Asylum and Immigration) Bill, which underpins the Government’s strategy to stop the boats. The Bill will go through committee, and report stage in short order in the Commons, and, after what I anticipate will be robust scrutiny in the Lords, reach third reading in the Spring. The Bill needs to pass. With some amendments, it will provide a credible deterrent and reduce the illegal trafficking across the Channel, which only benefits the criminal gangs behind this. Coupled with changes announced in December on legal migration, restricting dependant visas and increasing baseline salary requirements (excluding health and care workers) immigration numbers should see a reduction.
The Renters (Reform) Bill and the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Bill are also making their way through the Commons. These Bills propose a shake-up of the housing market, something that is long overdue, rebalancing the respective rights and obligations of landlords and tenants and between freehold owners and leasehold owners. Whilst we have recognised that the tenant’s lot needs to be improved, the Renters (Reform) Bill as currently proposed, is in my view overly restrictive on landlords. The result is many are selling up. This will impact not just private tenants, but also has knock-on effects for local authorities who use the private rented sector as the main route out of emergency accommodation for homeless households. The government needs to use the year ahead to think about finding the right balance – it’s not there yet.
In the King’s Speech, there was a good chunk of new legislation that will be brought forward and be debated this year. The Government proposes to reform criminal justice, with harsher punishments for serious offenders, more rights for the victims of crime and greater powers of arrest and seizure for the police. The Criminal Justice Bill delivers this and also amends powers for dealing with anti-social behaviour, granting broader discretion to the Police when issuing dispersal orders, Community Protection Notices and Public Space Protection Orders. This matters. Communities need to be safe and feel safe and criminals need to be properly punished. I’m concerned about the changes to short term sentencing, making judges deliver more community sentences rather than prison sentences, but provided these are properly supervised and enforced, the priority must be to take the worst offenders off the street for a very long time.
The government has also made a commitment to new licencing for oil and gas in the North Sea, these commitments will be delivered by passing the Offshore Petroleum Licensing Bill which, once passed, will add £16 billion to the British economy each year. Most importantly, it will strengthen the UK’s energy security and reduce reliance on volatile international energy markets and hostile foreign regimes. Alongside this the government will be seeking to attract record levels of investment in renewable energy sources, reform grid connections and build upon the UK’s track record of decarbonising faster than other G7 economies. The balance needs to be right to enable a smooth transition to Net Zero.
With the advent of new technologies, the government plans to introduce new legal frameworks to support the safe commercial development of emerging technologies, such as self-driving vehicles, introduce new competitive rules for digital markets, and encourage innovation in machine learning (a subset of AI). And as we now have more freedom over which markets we wish to compete in because of Brexit, a Bill will be brought forward to promote trade and investment with economies across the globe, delivering jobs and growth in the UK.
As always, if you would like to book a surgery appointment (in-person or virtual) or raise a specific issue, please call my office on 01626 368277 or email annemarie.morris.mp@parliament.uk to arrange an appointment.