With the Queen’s Speech tomorrow marking a new session of Parliament and setting out the Government’s programme for the forthcoming year, it is a good time to reflect upon the legislative achievements of the Coalition Government since the election.
The Government has passed 31 main Bills since May 2010: implementing reforms to our public services, reducing the UK’s record budget deficit, and making important changes to our constitutional architecture. As the Prime Minister set out at the start of the session, our first legislative programme has been guided by three core values:
• Responsibility: restoring fiscal responsibility through the Budget Responsibility and National Audit Act; and strengthening social responsibility through the Police Reform and Social Responsibility Act and the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act;
• Fairness: the Academies and Education Acts increasing aspiration and social mobility; improving social justice through the Welfare Reform Act; and reducing constitutional inequalities through the Scotland, European Union, Fixed-Term Parliaments and Parliamentary Voting Systems and Constituencies Acts;
• Freedom: a Protection of Freedoms Act safeguarding our liberties; cutting back on Labour’s surveillance state through the ID Cards Act; a Localism Act devolving power from Whitehall to communities; cutting back on the quango state through the Public Bodies Act.
While introducing a full programme of reforms, the Government has also sought to do better than the last government in how laws are passed through Parliament. Under Labour, bills were too often used as a way of generating news rather than seeking to change behaviour. In contrast, the Coalition has aimed to legislate less, but legislate more effectively.
This is has achieved, publishing more Bills in draft form, giving MPs and their constituents more time to contribute their views, and creating the Backbench Business Committee, allowing MPs to nominate issues for debate. I was delighted to secure, via this Committee, a debate last year on Financial Education for Young People, something now being considered as part of the national curriculum review.