King's Speech roundup

This Bill will establish a new framework to devolve greater powers to local communities across England.

CIEH comment:

• CIEH welcomes the Government’s recognition of the importance of locally based knowledge, capacity and flexibility, and continue to highlight the need for local authorities to have adequate resourcing, alongside greater powers, to adequately fulfil environmental health functions.

This Bill will convene employers, unions, education and training providers, alongside experts with national government to develop a single picture of national and local skills needs; to subsequently inform the Department for Education’s policies, ensuring that this is supported by local and regional vacancy data.

CIEH comment:

• CIEH welcome a new approach to address the skills shortage but look forward to working with the Government to determine the impact that a transfer of functions from IfATE will have on the Environmental Health Practitioner BSc Apprenticeship as well as to ensure the economic value of public and environmental health is understood.
• CIEH awaits details of the reforms to the Apprenticeship Levy and urges the Government to provide sufficient ring-fenced funding for Environmental Health apprentices and trainees.

This Bill will establish Great British Energy – a new, publicly-owned energy production company which will accelerate the rollout of renewable energy as part of the government’s effort to decarbonise the UK’s electricity system by 2030.

CIEH comment:

• CIEH welcomes the new Government’s prioritisation to invest in renewable energy. However, further details are needed around how local authorities will be resourced to implement renewable energy projects.
• To fully achieve the UK’s net zero goals, we call upon the government to take a holistic approach to the climate emergency and engage with environmental health professionals throughout all wider climate legislation.

The Bill will seek to deliver improved transportation services by empowering local transport authorities and reforming funding models to grant more flexibility to deliver local transport priorities.

CIEH comment:

• CIEH welcomes the government’s efforts, throughout a number of bills, to create a modernised transportation system which is critical to improving air quality and tackling climate change.
• However, the King’s Speech missed the opportunity to implement a holistic approach to tackling air pollution through a Clean Air Bill. Priority continues to be given to widely understood forms of emissions, such as those from transport, but addressing nitrogen and fine-particulate pollution will be critical to improving public health.

This Bill will seek to strengthen the powers of the water regulator to tackle sewage pollution by:

1. Strengthening regulation to ensure water bosses face personal criminal liability for lawbreaking.
2. Granting the water regulator new powers to ban the payment of bonuses if environmental standards are not met.
3. Boosting accountability for water executives through a new ‘code of conduct’ for water companies, so customers can summon board members and hold executives to account.
4. Introducing new powers to bring automatic and severe fines.
5. Requiring water companies to install real-time monitors at every sewage outlet with data independently scrutinized by the water regulator.

CIEH comment:

• CIEH supports tougher enforcement action in the form of fines, and criminal sanctions, against water companies illegally discharging untreated sewage into our waterways.
• However, with all 11 water and wastewater companies in England and Wales now under investigation over sewage spills, there remains a need to introduce stronger sewage targets and alongside a clear national plan to improve the UK’s sewage treatment and drainage infrastructure. CIEH looks forward to the Government's delivery of further legislation to fundamentally transform our water industry.

This Bill will seek to reform the planning system to accelerate the delivery of high-quality infrastructure and housing, by:

1. Simplifying the consenting process for major infrastructure projects and enable relevant, new and improved National Policy Statement
2. Improving local planning decision making by modernising planning committees.
3. Increasing local planning authorities’ capacity, to improve performance and decision making, providing a more predictable service to developers and investors.
4. Requiring development to fund nature recovery.

CIEH comment:

• CIEH are concerned that too much weight and emphasis is given within urban development to maximising the number of houses, with insufficient consideration for the unintended consequences of contaminated land, air quality and noise pollution which have deleterious effects on health.
• More clarity is needed regarding how the priority of maximising the number of houses will align with the goals of the Environmental Improvement Plan.
• CIEH believes that reforms to the planning system should ensure that all new developments account for these unintended consequences, incorporate the best available standards of energy efficiency and climate resilience and are linked to local delivery.

This Bill will deliver the Government’s manifesto commitment to introduce a progressive smoking ban and introduce greater regulatory powers on the marketing and sale of vapes and other nicotine products.

CIEH comment:

• CIEH supports this progressive piece of legislation that will undoubtedly impact the rates of smoking-related disease and outline environmental health’s role in supporting the enforcement of these regulations.

The deliverance of this Bill follows Labour’s manifesto commitment to pass Martyn’s Law in the next Parliament. This Bill aims to strengthen security in public venues and events by:

Creating a two-tiered system in relation to the event’s capacity including a standard tier and an enhanced tier. The Bill will mandate simple and low-cost procedural measures for venues or events in the standard tier. For premises or events that fall within the enhanced tier, the bill introduces a requirement to put in place anti-terrorism measures that are expected to reduce both the risk of an attack occurring and physical harm if an attack occurs.

CIEH comment:

• CIEH welcomes the introduction of this Bill and the awareness it has raised around the importance of security and safety measures at venues and events.
• More clarity is needed on the regulatory function of this bill and how this legislation will impact post-hoc enforcement and investigations. CIEH urges the Government to work alongside environmental health professionals to determine the further details of this legislation.

The Employment Rights Bill will introduce a large selection of legislative changes to employment rights across Great Britain, including, but not exhaustive to, the banning of zero hour contracts, ending ‘Fire and Rehire’ and establishing a ‘Fair Work Agency’.

CIEH comment:

• CIEH are working with partners to establish what this means for environmental health professionals and urge the Government to work alongside CIEH in determining the further details of this legislation.

The King’s Speech announced the introduction of Junk Food and Energy Drink Legislation to restrict advertising junk food and selling high-caffeine energy drinks to children.

CIEH comment:

• CIEH welcomes the efforts within this legislation to provide healthier options to customers. To continue to increase consumer awareness and decision making, CIEH continues our calls for a Mandatory Food Hygiene Rating Scheme in England.

This Bill will reform the private rented sector and will be similar to the Renters (Reform) Bill that fell before the election. As well as abolishing Section 21 ‘no fault evictions’, it will apply a Decent Homes Standard to the sector and create a digital private rented sector database to bring together key information for landlords, tenants and councils. One way in which the Bill will differ from its predecessor is that it will apply ‘Awaab’s Law’ to the sector.

CIEH comment:

• CIEH is urging the Government to use the Bill as an opportunity to make it easier for local authorities to use licensing schemes to improve housing standards.
• With regards to 'Awaab’s Law' we would like to see a greater focus on enabling local authorities to enforce existing legislation.