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Bills in Parliament Autumn 2009

This article summarises the key provisions of the bills currently in Parliament that will be of most relevance to local authorities.

The Bills which are likely to be of most interest are the Equality Bill, the Health Bill and the Local Democracy, Economic Development and Construction Bill which were all announced by the government in December 2008.

Not all Bills currently before Parliament will enjoy government support. This will be made clear by the Queen’s Speech due on 18 November, which may include significant new Bills.

Apprenticeships, Skills, Children and Learning Bills

The Bill provides a wide range of measures covering apprenticeships, learning and skills and educational provisions. The main elements of the Bill are:

	For Local Authorities to take responsibility for funding education and training for 16-18 year-olds.
	To provide a statutory framework for apprenticeships, to create a right to apprenticeships for suitably qualified 16-18 year-olds.
	For employees to request absence to undertake training and for employers to take such requests seriously and only to refuse leave for specified business reasons.
	To dissolve the Learning and Skills Council and create a Young Person’s Learning Agency, the Skills Funding Agency and a new regulatory body for qualifications. As regards non-regulatory functions a new agency is to be created to perform those duties currently undertaken by the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority.

Business Rate Supplements Bill

The main elements of the Bill are:

	For upper tier local authorities in England and Wales to have the power to levy a local supplement on the business rate (for London the power rests with the Greater London Authority) and to retain the proceeds for investment in their area.
	The current national business rate of up to 2p per pound of rateable value shall apply and all business rate supplements must be spent on economic development.
	All properties with a rateable value of £50,000 or less will be exempt.

Children in Care (Custody) Bill

This Bill is intended to make provisions about the services provided by local authorities in relation to the care of children in custody. The Secretary of State within six months of the passing of this Act will issue guidance setting out the standards he requires local authorities to meet when fulfilling their duties. A new body called Care of Children in Custody Advisory Panel will be established within three months of the passing of the Act to advise the Secretary of State in the form of written reports on budgetary matters. Funding will need separate authorisation by Parliament.

Child Poverty Bill

This proposed legislation provides a statutory commitment made by the Government to eradicate child poverty by 2020. It aims to succeed in eliminating poverty by creating a framework to monitor progress at a national and local level. The Secretary of State has various duties to fulfil and must meet four UK-wide poverty targets by the end of the financial year 2020.

Equality Bill

A number of separate Acts concerning discrimination on grounds of religion or belief, sexual orientation and age have been enacted in recent years. The legislation has become complex and hard to understand so the Government’s Discriminatory Law Review team has recommended consolidation into a single Equality Act for Great Britain.

The main elements of the Bill will be:

	To reduce nine major pieces of discrimination legislation, 100 statutory instruments and 2,500 pages of guidance and statutory codes of practice into one single Act in an attempt to make the law on equality easier to understand for everyone and to impose an equality duty on public bodies.
	To fight discrimination in all forms and to help make equality a reality for everyone. Specifically the Bill will strengthen the law by banning age discrimination, allowing for multiple discrimination, increasing transparency and reporting, and allowing tribunals to make wider recommendations in discrimination cases.
	For the public sector to have due regard to equality when buying goods and services and to support trade unions to create a more equal workforce.

Equality and Diversity (Reform) Bill

The Bill introduces a prohibition on affirmative or positive action by public authorities in recruitment or appointment processes on the basis of age, sex, sexual orientation, race, nationality, disability, religion, or socio-economic status. The Bill would also repeal the Sex Discrimination (Election Candidates) Act 2002.

Health Bill

The main aims of the Bill are:

	To improve the quality of NHS care and services by placing a duty on providers and commissioners of NHS services to adhere to a new NHS Constitution which will set out patient and staff responsibilities.
	To give patients greater control over the health care services they receive by the introduction of direct payments for health services and to provide quality information on patients, clinicians and managers to improve local accountability for services.
	To create provisions through advertising and sales from vending machines for the protection of children and young people from the harm caused by smoking.
	To promote innovation within the health service by providing recognition through awarding prizes.
	To enable the Local Government Ombudsman to consider complaints from those who have arranged their own adult social care in order to place them on a similar footing to those who receive funding by their local authorities.

Land Use (Gardens Protection) Bill

This Bill is designed to protect back gardens, front gardens and green land to tackle the issue of overdevelopment. Clause 1(2) will insert a new section in the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 to create a new requirement for planning authorities to give “special regard” to gardens and green spaces.

Local Democracy, Economic Development and Construction Bill

The main elements of the Bill are:

	For the community to have a greater involvement in the workings and decision-making process of local authorities.
	To ensure that a Council responds to any petitions and considers other matters which are raised by citizens within the local area.
	For local authorities to assess economic conditions in order to produce a single regional strategy and powers for councils to co-operate in promoting economic development.
	To establish a new body to represent the interests of housing tenants in England at national level by creating a separate Boundary Committee for England from the Electoral Commission.
	New powers for audit authorities to appoint auditors to produce public interest reports on entities connected with local authorities.
	Improving the operation of construction contracts especially regarding cash flow and adjudication.

London Local Authorities Bill

The Bill confers a number of powers upon local authorities in London, including:

	To serve management orders on owners of houses in multiple occupation that require maintenance.
	Issuing penalty charges for littering and dog related offences.
	Miscellaneous powers relating to public health, environmental protection, highways and for the licensing of premises.

London Local Authorities and Transport for London

The Bill empowers London Boroughs and Transport for London to:

	Recover the costs of repairing any damage to public footpaths or roads by building works being carried out on any adjacent sites, and to ensure that more effective measures are in place in relation to builder’s skips which are not properly lit and covered when placed on footpaths and roads.
	Ensure good highway maintenance by removing and disposing of any objects placed on pavements or roads, and to recover the cost of additional traffic management and street cleaning from the organisers of large scale public events.
	Enforce road traffic regulations against owners of pedicabs or cycle rickshaws, to impose stiffer penalties on cyclists who put pedestrians at risk by riding on footpaths, and to issue penalties on motorists who infringe specially designated stopping boxes for cyclists at busy junctions.

Policing and Crime Bill

The Bill draws upon a number of the following disparate policing issues:

	To modify the law on soliciting and alcohol sales.
	To initiate new provisions to improve police accountability and effectiveness.
	Airport security and policing arrangements are to be amended.
	Changes to the criminal asset recovery scheme established under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002.

Protection of Garden Land (Development Control) Bill

This Bill has been presented to preserve private gardens from development which is out of character with the surrounding area. The Bill also makes provision regarding the circumstances in which a planning application may be rejected by a local authority and about rights of appeal in such circumstances; to prohibit repeated planning applications in certain circumstances; and for connected purposes.

School Bus (Safety) Bill

This Bill aims to provide a safety regime for school buses.

Schools (Health Support) Bill

A Bill to amend the Education and Inspections Act 2006 to establish standards in schools for the support of children with specified health conditions; to make provisions about the inspection of such support; and to tackle some of the concerns and problems that children experience at school.

Small Business Rate Relief (Automatic Payment) Bill

A rate relief system for small businesses is in place in England. Businesses which occupy one property with a rateable value below a certain threshold need to apply for the relief every five years. This Bill would make the award of this relief to small businesses automatic.

Transport for London (Supplemental Toll Provisions) Bill

Under the New Roads and Street Works Act 1991 highway authorities, such as Transport for London, may implement a toll order for a new road. This Bill would allow Transport for London to make supplemental toll orders for any tolled new roads after they have come into operation. The regime is intended to be similar to the tried and tested regime operating in respect of congestion charging with which all Londoners are familiar.

Young People Leaving Care (Accommodation) Bill

A Bill to make provision for minimum standards in respect of accommodation for young people leaving care; to impose a duty on local authorities to ensure that such standards are met. This legislation focuses on identifying and supporting children who are at risk of harm.

For More Information Contact:

Peter Hill
TPP Law Limited
53 Great Suffolk Street
London SE1 ODB

t 020 7620 0888
f 020 7620 0778
e info@tpplaw.co.uk

Email: Peter

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