Reaction from ePolitix.com Stakeholders to measures contained in the 2006 Queen's speech.

Stakeholder Response: Help the Aged

Mervyn Kohler, head of public affairs, said: "Free local off-peak bus travel, currently only available within a local authority area, will become a national reality for pensioners, but questions remain as to what alternatives Ministers intend to put in place for those older people who cannot access bus travel due to disability. 

"The Local Government Bill needs to contain provisions to limit the pernicious and growing burden of Council Tax on pensioners and others on fixed incomes.  

"For older employees hoping to extend their working lives, the Further Education Bill and Welfare Reform Bill may provide a measure of encouragement and assistance.

"As MPs and peers consider these and other proposed Bills, they should probe for clarity about the impact of these measures on an ageing population. 

"The Treasury has identified the rapid increase in the old age dependency ratio as one of the five 'new challenges' Britain will need to address in constructing the framework for the comprehensive spending review. 

"This legislative programme should at least be nibbling at this agenda."

Stakeholder Response: Institute of Chartered Accountants in England & Wales

Eric Anstee, chief executive of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England & Wales, said: "The forthcoming legislative programme will pose a number of challenges for the accountancy profession.

"The proposed Legal Services Bill is an opportunity to open up the market for legal services to greater competition and to create a level playing field for appropriately qualified professionals.

"We would like chartered accountants to be allowed to provide professional advice in areas spanning legal and non-legal areas such as non-contentious probate and trusts without being subject to any additional regulatory burden.

"The Pensions Bill has the potential make a significant difference to the planning of retirement provision.

"As an issue, this not only needs political consensus but also the support of employers and employees in reaching a solution. Our own research shows that this can be achieved.

"The Exchange and Clearing Houses Bill is also welcome as a means of safeguarding the UK's corporate governance regime as it impacts on the City of London.

"We will scrutinise carefully all the Government's legislative proposals outlined in today's Queen's Speech and make proposals for improving them where possible, acting in the public interest."

Stakeholder Response: Federation of Small Businesses

Carol Undy, FSB national chairman, said: "As usual the speech delivered by Her Majesty contained both good and bad proposals from the government. 

"We welcome the government's commitment to a strong economy and a number of the proposed Bills will directly impact upon business. 

"Small firms employ over 12 million people and the government will need to keep the interests of our members in mind if it is to protect the economic future of the UK."

Stakeholder Response: Chance UK

A spokesman for Chance UK told ePolitix.com: "Chance UK welcomes the continued investment in public services to improve their effectiveness in helping the most vulnerable members of society. 

"We work with many vulnerable children and families and recognise that more effective public services can help them to regain control over their own lives. 

"The children that we work with are those who have been identified at an early age of being at risk of developing anti-social behaviour in the future. 

"We believe that the best way to tackle this problem behaviour is to continue to invest in early intervention programmes, such as our preventative mentoring programme, that can help children to recognise and manage their own behaviour."

Stakeholder Response: ACCA

A spokesman said: "ACCA warns that any future welfare reform such as additional child support payments should not be administered via the payroll system – it must not become another burden on companies like the over-complex tax credits system.

"Small businesses, in particular, already suffer disproportionately as unwitting and unpaid administrators of the tax system.

"Protecting the UK's risk-based regulatory regime is essential to maintain London as the global centre of business.

"ACCA believes UK companies must not become subjected to US-style burdensome regulatory requirements, such as the Sarbanes-Oxley Act."

"Plans to simplify fraud trials, tighten up the national strategy on fraud and re-open the question of judge-only trials for fraudsters is an understandable measure and is welcomed by ACCA.

"Complex fraud cases are often too difficult for juries to understand.

"ACCA believes this Bill to strengthen the powers of investigation and seizure by accredited financial investigators will help create a more efficient criminal assets recovery system.

"Measures to restrict the movements, transactions and activities of those suspected of being involved in organised crime are needed in the context of global terrorism.

"The Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Bill is to be carried over from the last Parliamentary session.

"This legislation could be potentially very wide-ranging, affecting businesses in many different sectors.

"ACCA cautions that it could have an inflationary effect on employers insurance, which is already a major problem for many businesses, and could add to the burgeoning 'compensation culture' in the UK."

Stakeholder Response: British Retail Consortium

A spokesman said: "Retailers have an important role to play in improving the quality of life in local communities, not only through the provision of essential services but also as a driver of economic growth through job creation, investment in regenerative projects and improvements in the skills and aptitudes of people at local level.

"We welcome government's commitment to reform local government and thereby ensure the delivery of quality public services to communities and businesses, however with local authorities consistently claiming to be under-funded we are interested to hear how the government intends to ensure local authorities have the appropriate funding to deliver their enhanced powers.

"Certainly we believe a relocalised business rate will not fill the void in local government finances, and additional rate levies cannot be seen as an appropriate means of providing local authorities with a mechanism to raise funds from business without a robust evaluation of the benefits to the contributors and assurances that funding from business is used to provide services additional to existing service provision."

Stakeholder Response: ERA

A spokesman said: "The ERA welcomes the introduction of the Consumers, Estate Agents and Redress Bill.

"The energy retail sector has been working tremendously hard on key customer related issues over the past three years and tangible improvements have been made in areas such as doorstep sales, disconnection, billing and metering and customer switching.

"The average number of complaints in the energy retail sector is ten times less than three years ago, which equates to 1 in every 10,000 customers.

"In Great Britain's competitive energy market customer service is rightly the number one priority for energy companies and the year on year reduction in complaints is evidence that competition is the best form of consumer protection.

"In addition, earlier this year the industry established the energy supply ombudsman to further strengthen consumer representation in the sector.

"As well as the creation of Consumer Voice, which we are sure will be an accessible, coherent and efficient consumer advocacy body to replace energywatch, the government has also called for redress schemes to be set up in other industry sectors which is to be welcomed.

"The introduction of the Bill is a clear indication that the government recognises the lengths the energy retail industry has gone to in order to improve the customer experience and consumers should look forward to a responsive, service-orientated and results-driven system in the future."

Stakeholder Response: Which?

Which? personal finance campaigner Doug Taylor said: "Which? welcomes the creation of a delivery authority for personal accounts but warns that consumer representation must be firmly imbedded within it in order to achieve the trust of consumers.

"We have a once in a generation opportunity to create a pension system which consumers can have confidence in.

"Which? research shows that consumers value trust and simplicity over everything else when it comes to Personal Accounts.

"This delivery authority must be independent and accountable as well as efficient, and be governed by a fully representative board."

Stakeholder Response: United Response

Chief executive Su Sayer said: "As a provider of services for people with mental health needs we recognise the need to reform mental health legislation.

"But we are concerned that the government's proposed amendments to the 1983 Mental Health Act will force treatment on people without adequate safeguards.

"Compulsion should only ever be used as a last resort. All too often people experiencing mental distress are denied help when they or their carers request it.

"Legislation should introduce the right for patients to receive a full assessment of all their health and social care needs before crisis point is reached.

"Legislation should also provide a right to independent advocacy for everyone sectioned under the Act, from the point at which they are detained.

"Mental health provision must be given greater priority by the government and by service commissioners so that services are properly resourced, person-centred and offer a genuine choice to people experiencing mental distress."

Stakeholder Response: Ethnic Minority Foundation

EMF welcomes the Queen’s Speech new proposed legislative measures, but warns of the need to implement existing equality and diversity legislation in order to effect longlasting change The Ethnic Minority Foundation welcomes the Queen’s Speech’s emphasis on building community cohesion as well as tackling prevailing socioeconomic inequalities. Given the disproportionate levels of poverty and social exclusion still experienced by minority ethnic and disadvantaged groups despite five decades of equality and diversity legislation, we wonder whether a new set of legislative measures will deliver much needed longterm outcomes for those living at the margins of British society.

While urging the implementation of already existing equality and diversity legislation, EMF recognises that progress has been made towards addressing prevailing deepseated socioeconomic inequalities.

It is within this context that we welcome the legislative measures announced specifically aimed at redressing such imbalances, including:

1) Community cohesion: renewed efforts to build strong, secure and stable communities in Britain as well as tackling the threat of terrorism through strengthened border control measures and immigration crimerelated legislation. EMF hopes that the government will actively seek the engagement of community leaders in tackling inter as well as intracommunity relations through open dialogue and debate. Some difficult conversations need indeed to be had.

2) Poverty and welfare: legislation to restructure the welfare system while reducing poverty, as well as improving the current child support system, longterm reform of pensions, the provision of a better framework for treating people with mental disorders and free offpeak public transport for the elderly and disabled. EMF hopes this package of measures will be specifically targeted at minority ethnic, vulnerable and hardtoreach groups. We also expect the provision of culturally sensitive services as well as the mainstreaming of equality and diversity values and practices throughout.

3) Education: educational reform to raise the standards in schools in order to help all children to achieve their full potential as well as additional legislation to reform the Further Education system. While welcoming these measures, EMF would like to see a greater emphasis on the issue to ‘access’ to education as much as the quality of education for minority ethnic, disadvantaged and consistently academically underperforming groups.

4) Public Services: continued investment in – and reforms of – public services in order to improve their effectiveness, particularly as they relate to the most vulnerable members of society. EMF expects that the role of the voluntary and community sector in the provision of public services will continue to increase. As a funder and provider of public services, we would urge the government to renew its efforts to ensure the existence of a level playing field, where both established mainstream and grassroots minority ethnic voluntary organisations are able to compete on equal terms for the allocation of scarce resources; including greater accountability of tendering and procurement processes, provision of adequate support to organisations bidding for funds and implementation of full cost recovery principles.

5) Consumer advocacy: creation of a new superconsumer body aimed at providing consumers with a stronger and more coherent voice, while offering better value for money. EMF welcomes the setting up of such a body with the potential to widen participation and representation of underrepresented groups. We are concerned however that it may not be truly representative and able to adequately cater for the needs of vulnerable and hard to reach consumers. In particular, the government’s current modernisation trend – with its emphasis on online and telephone services as opposed to facetoface interaction – will further exclude already isolated individuals, mostly those with linguistic and cultural barriers to accessing service provision.

On the whole, the package of measures here announced aimed at tackling longterm social problems affecting minority ethnic and disadvantaged groups is indeed desirable; but it will not by itself provide a lasting solution to such problems. If real progress is to be made and farreaching changes effected, there is a need to go beyond legislation and towards the effective implementation of already existing equality and diversity laws. Implementation of such laws can of course only succeed if accompanied by attitudinal changes at individual, organisational and societal level. Lack of legislation, after all, is by no means the reason behind the prevailing lack of equality in our diverse British society.