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King’s Speech 2023: Reforms to data protection, housing, pedicab licensing and leasehold announced in next legislative programme

Bills covering data protection, housing, licensing and the ‘economic activities’ of public bodies are among a raft of new legislation announced in the King’s Speech today (7 November).

The programme includes the following:

Data Protection and Digital Information Bill

The Government aims to create a new UK data rights regime, "while taking tangible steps to harness the benefits of secure data use for everyone through innovation and technology".

Its main elements are:

  • The Bill will create a new data protection regime which maintains the UK’s high standards of data protection “and ensures we can unlock £2.2 billion of net present benefits to businesses and £2.5 billion to the public sector over 10 years, in the form of compliance cost savings, increased productivity and savings to law enforcement and intelligence service bodies”.
  • It will ensure the better use of data in delivery of health and adult social care, law enforcement, security, and other government services to increase efficiency and the quality of services for individuals.
  • It will also strengthen and modernise the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) by ensuring it has the capabilities and powers to tackle organisations that breach data rules, empowering it to better allocate its resources, and ensure it is more accountable to Parliament and the public.

Renters (Reform) Bill

The Government said this bill will provide greater security and certainty of quality accommodation for renters, while helping landlords get their property back swiftly when needed, such as evicting anti-social tenants or those repeatedly in rent arrears.

Its main elements are:

  • Abolition of section 21 ‘no fault evictions’ – but this will not be commenced until stronger possession grounds and a new court process are in place.
  • Strengthening landlord grounds for possession, adding new mandatory grounds for possession; for example, if landlords wish to sell property or for repeated serious rent arrears, as well as expanding grounds for when close family members wish to move in. If a tenant breaches their tenancy agreement or damages the property, landlords will be able to evict them in as little as two weeks.
  • Introducing stronger powers to evict anti-social tenants, by halving the delay between a landlord serving notice for anti-social behaviour and eviction, with landlords able to make a claim in the court immediately. The Government will also broaden the criteria for disruptive and harmful activities that can lead to eviction.
  • Creating a digital Private Rented Property Portal to bring together key information for landlords, tenants, and councils. Councils will be able to use the Portal to target enforcement where it is needed against unscrupulous landlords.
  • Supporting quicker, cheaper resolution when there are disputes - preventing them escalating to costly court proceedings – with a new Private Rented Sector Ombudsman that will provide fair, impartial and binding resolution, reducing the need to go to court.

Alongside this, the Government intends to put forward amendments to ‘squeeze out’ criminal landlords that would make it easier for councils to target enforcement action and arm them with further enforcement powers.

It also announced it is pursuing wider measures to speed up the courts process “so landlords can quickly regain possession of their property if a tenant refuses to move out”.

“We will align the abolition of section 21 with reform of the courts. We are starting work on this now, with an initial commitment of £1.2m to begin designing a new digital system for possessions. As work progresses, we will engage landlords and tenants to ensure the new system supports an efficient and straightforward possession system for all parties.”

Economic Activities of Public Bodies (Overseas Matters) Bill

This bill aims to ban public bodies from imposing their own boycotts, divestment, or sanctions campaigns against foreign countries. The Government said it will ensure the UK has a consistent foreign policy and prevent public bodies from wasting tax payers’ money “pursuing their own foreign policy agendas”.

The bill will:

  • Ban public bodies from taking account of territorial considerations in a way that indicates moral or political disapproval of foreign state conduct when making procurement and investment decisions. ban public bodies from publishing statements indicating that they intend to engage in a boycott or divestment policies.
  • Apply to all public bodies across the UK, as defined in section 6 of the Human Rights Act 1998.
  • Enable enforcement activity to ensure that public bodies comply with the ban. This includes the power for enforcement agents to investigate breaches of the ban, issue compliance notices, and impose monetary penalties.

In April 2020, the Supreme Court overturned ministerial guidance to the Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS), which included a provision that the scheme’s administrators should not pursue policies contrary to UK foreign or defence policy.

Pedicabs (London) Bill

The bill seeks to hand Transport for London (TfL) powers to regulate London’s pedicab industry “so that passengers, pedestrians and other road users go about their lives safe in the knowledge these vehicles and their operators are properly licensed and accountable”.

Its main elements are:

  • Conferring powers on TfL to bring forward a licensing regime for pedicabs, in a similar way to local authorities throughout the rest of England and Wales.
  • Providing TfL with the ability to introduce fare control to combat overcharging on pedicab services and protect consumers from being ripped off.
  • Allowing TfL to set standards for operators, drivers, and their vehicles to improve the safety of pedicabs, as well as introducing insurance requirements and ensuring vehicles are road worthy.
  • Ensuring that pedicab drivers undergo criminal record and right to work checks before being allowed to carry passengers in the same way that drivers of taxis and private hire vehicles must do, allowing passengers to use pedicabs with confidence and cutting crime.
  • Giving TfL powers to take steps to improve congestion and tackle issues such as highways obstruction. TfL will be able to restrict the presence of pedicabs in certain areas, at certain times. This will help improve road safety and traffic-related issues in central London.
  • Enabling enforcement action against those operating without a licence or outside their licence conditions, including civil sanctions and criminal offences.

Leasehold and Freehold Bill

This Bill will make long-term changes to home ownership of leaseholders in England and Wales, by making it cheaper and easier for more leaseholders to extend their lease, buy their freehold, and take over management of their building.

The main elements are:

  • Changes to make it cheaper and easier for existing leaseholders in houses and flats to extend their lease or buy their freehold.
  • Increasing the standard lease extension term from 90 years to 990 years for both houses and flats, with ground rent reduced to £0.
  • Making buying or selling a leasehold property quicker and easier by setting a maximum time and fee for the provision of information required to make a sale (such as building insurance or financial records) to a leaseholder by their freeholder (known as ‘landlords’).
  • Requiring transparency over leaseholders’ service charges.

Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Bill (also known as Martyn’s Law)

The Bill aims to improve protective security and organisational preparedness across the UK by mandating those responsible for certain premises and events to consider the terrorist risk and how they would respond to an attack.

The main elements are:

  • A requirement that certain venues fulfil necessary but proportionate steps according to their capacity to mitigate the impact of a terrorist attack and reduce harm. The duties that premises will have will depend on the size of the venue. Premises and events with a capacity of 800 or above will be in the enhanced tier, while premises with a capacity of 100 to 799 will be in the standard tier.
  • 'Enhanced tier' premises and events will be required to take steps to ensure preparedness for, and protection from, terrorist attacks.
  • Those responsible for an enhanced duty premises or qualifying public events must: 
    • notify the regulator of their premise or event;
    • take ‘reasonably practicable’ measures that will reduce the risk of a terrorist attack occurring or physical harm being caused. The reasonably practicable test is utilised in other regulatory regimes e.g. Health and Safety, and will enable organisations to tailor their approach to the nature of the premises, and their activities and resources;
    • keep and maintain a security document, aided by an assessment of the terrorism risk, which must also be provided to the regulator; and
    • if the responsible person is a body corporate, they must appoint an individual as the designated senior individual for the premise or event
  • Standard tier: this will apply to premises with a capacity between 100 and 799 people. The Government wants to ensure businesses and venues can deliver the standard tier duty rather than imposing conditions upon them that they will struggle to meet. This will mean the law stands the test of time, and be accessible, proportionate and deliverable for smaller venues.

Arbitration Bill

This bill seeks to modernise the law on arbitration as recommended by the Law Commission of England and Wales, including clarifying the law governing arbitration agreements, strengthening the courts’ supporting powers, and facilitating quicker dispute resolution.

Its main elements are:

  • Empowering arbitrators to expedite decisions on issues that have no real prospect of success. This will make arbitrations more efficient and aligns with summary judgments available in court proceedings.
  • Introducing a statutory duty on arbitrators to disclose circumstances which might give rise to justifiable doubts about their impartiality. This will codify the common law and align English law with international best practice to promote trust in arbitration.
  • Extending arbitrator immunity against liability for resignations, unless shown to be unreasonable, and the costs of the application to court for their removal, unless they have acted in bad faith. This will support arbitrators to make robust and impartial decisions without fear of being sued by a disappointed party.
  • Clarifying the law governing arbitration agreements, providing that the law applicable will be those of the legal location chosen for arbitration unless parties expressly agree otherwise. This will ensure that, where arbitration is seated in England and Wales or Northern Ireland, it will be fully supported by our arbitration law which is among the most supportive of arbitration globally.
  • Simplifying the procedure for challenging arbitral awards on substantive jurisdiction by providing for rules of court that would mean these applications should contain no new evidence or new arguments. This will avoid challenges based on jurisdiction becoming a full rehearing, reducing the delay and costs involved in court hearings repeating what has already been argued before the tribunal.
  • Empowering the court to make orders supporting those of emergency arbitrators. This will give emergency arbitrators the same pathways to enforce their orders as other arbitrators and enhance their effectiveness.
  • Providing that the court can make orders in support of arbitral proceedings against third parties. This will resolve conflicting decisions in the case law and aligns with the approach in court proceedings.

Source: The King's Speech 2023: background briefing notes
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