The King’s Speech 2024

We have picked the bones out of the King’s Speech and considered some of the proposed reforms most likely to impact upon civil litigation in the coming years. We were particularly interested in the changes proposed in the fields of:

• Mental health
• Inquiries into disasters and state-related deaths
• Occupiers’ liability (in the context of terrorist attack)
• Football governance
• Zero hour contracts
• Discrimination

 

Mental Health Bill

The number of people being detained under the Mental Health Act has doubled since 1983. Concerns have long been expressed that the law covering detention through sectioning was being misused, particularly as regards its impact upon people with learning disabilities and autism. It was also disproportionately impacting black people. According to Mind, black people are, for example, 8 times more likely to be issued with a Community Treatment Order (‘CTO’).

The Bill is promised to lead to a wide-ranging reform of the 1983 Mental Health Act. The changes seek to implement the recommendations of Professor Sir Simon Wessely in his independent review of 2017, by improving autonomy, rights and support for patients.

Specifically:

• The detention criteria will be revised so that people can only be detained if they pose a risk of serious harm either to themselves or to others, and where there is a reasonable prospect that treatment would have a therapeutic benefit.
• It will revise and shorten the period that a patient may be kept in detention for treatment and provide faster, more frequent reviews and appeals of both detentions and treatment.
• Add statutory weight to patients’ rights to be involved with planning for their care, and to make choices and refusals regarding the treatment they receive.
• Introduce a new statutory role – the nominated person – who is chosen by the patient, to replace the nearest relative, and extend access to Independent Mental Health Advocates to informal patients.
• Police stations and prisons will no longer be categorised as ‘places of safety’ for people experiencing a mental health crisis.

 

Hillsborough Law

The bill is designed to address the iniquities faced by the families of the victims of disasters or state-related deaths and to tackle a defensive culture across public sectors when such events are investigated. This culture was criticised in reports such as Bishop James Jones’s into the experiences of the Hillsborough families and Sir Brian Langstaff’s following the Infected Blood Inquiry. The bill will:

• introduce a duty of candour for public servants to comply fully with, and proactively assist, inquiries.
• provide legal aid for victims of disasters or state-related death.

 

Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Bill (‘Martyn’s Law’)

In large part this is the product of the campaign of Figen Murray, on behalf of her son Martyn Hett, who was one of the 22 victims murdered in the 2017 Manchester Arena attack. The venue had been under no formal legal duty to provide a plan in case of a terror attack. The bill will:

• in respect of smaller premises, require them to put in place reasonably practicable measures to keep the public safe, such as educating staff on locking doors and evacuation procedures.
• in respect of larger premises and certain public events, introduce a duty to put in place counter terrorism measures to reduce the risk of an attack occurring as well as the risk of physical harm if an attack was to occur.

 

Football Governance Bill

The King’s Speech included a commitment to pass a Football Governance Bill. It is unclear how different any bill under a Labour Government will be to that which the Conservatives were taking through Parliament before the General Election intervened. The Bill will be a legislative completion of the process commenced with the Fan-Led Review conducted by Tracey Crouch MP from 2021. In the area of professional discipline and regulation, the Owners and Directors’ tests are likely to be the most impactful changes, with a new regime being implemented to include measures similar to the “fit and proper persons’ tests” applied by regulators such as the Financial Conduct Authority and Solicitors’ Regulation Authority. Additionally, checks will be introduced on the sources of wealth used to buy or fund a club and the sufficiency of financial resource to ensure a club’s solvency. The Football Governance Bill is a significant statutory incursion in the area of Sports Law where traditionally government has been hesitant to intervene. Given that the issues of governance and financial instability are not unique to football, it will be interesting to see whether other government or statutory intervention will be seen in other sports.

 

Zero hour contracts

In Employment Law, the Government has reiterated its pre-election commitment to ‘make work pay’. It proposes an Employment Rights Bill, designed to ban exploitative practices and enhance employment rights. The Bill is expected to result in a ban on ‘exploitative’ zero hour contracts, although it is not presently clear to what extent some zero hour working arrangements will remain. In place of zero hour contracts, Labour intend workers to have a contract that reflects the number of hours they regularly work, based on a 12-week reference period. The need of businesses to mobilise workforces quickly without long-term commitment is unlikely to disappear, particularly in industries reliant on seasonal staff such as hospitality. With a downturn in zero hour contracts, practitioners may see an increase in other mechanisms to meet short-term demands, such as fixed term contracts.

 

Discrimination 

The [Draft] Equality (Race and Disability) Bill pledges to enshrine the ‘full right to equal pay in law’ with two key proposals. First, the Government intend to introduce a statutory right to equal pay for people from ethnic minority backgrounds and disabled people, in a bid to make the pursuit of equal pay claims easier. Second, although studies show that most ethnic minority groups and disabled people earn consistently less than their white British counterparts and non-disabled counterparts respectively, there remains a dearth of data across these groups in comparison to gender pay gap reporting. The draft Bill proposes to introduce mandatory ethnicity and disability pay reporting for larger employers (those with 250 plus employees). It is hoped that surfacing pay gaps will enable companies to consider why they exist and how to tackle them. Before the Bill is put to Parliament, the Government will most likely have to grapple with the difficulties that come with extended pay gap reporting, including: complexities in obtaining correct data, confidentiality, and the likely increased burden on employers.

 

Conclusion

As ever, the devil will be in the detail, and for all the legal nuts and bolts we will need to await the text of the bills themselves. Watch this space. For more detail as to the broader political context and the political intent, see No. 10’s briefing notes here.

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