The Queen’s Speech forms part of the State Opening of the United Kingdom’s Parliament for each session and today (21 June 2017 – 11:30 Hrs BST) follows the same tradition without the usual “pomp and circumstance” as it was not possible to prepare the normal State Carriage and other ceremonial elements as the snap General Election did not provide enough time for practise and security measures between the Trooping of the Colour for the Queen’s Birthday and the State Opening.
The Queen’s Speech sets out the Prime Minister’s legislative plans for the new session of parliament. Already it has been highlighted that the next proposed Queen’s Speech will be cancelled to make way for the increased parliamentary time needed for the Brexit debates.
Some of the run-up to the State Opening of Parliament has been overshadowed by the Conservative / Democratic Unionist Party “confidence and supply” arrangement negotiations, which may yet see the Queen’s Speech vote resulting in a slim margin for the Conservative Government with support from the DUP.
Given the current status of Brexit negotiations, the Speech covered the Great Repeal Bill as the foundation to deal with over 1,200 EU Laws to ensure that they become UK legislation upon leaving the European Union.
Also, following the Conservative Manifesto issued during the General Election, other policy and legislation developments affecting the environment included a new agri-environment system to replace the European Union’s Common Agriculture Policy & a new regime for commercial fishing and to withdraw from the London Fisheries Convention including the Common Fisheries Policy.
The full text of the Queen’s Speech can be found here with an accompanying Policy Paper covering the individual Bills in further details can be viewed here.
Initial reaction from Media Sources are provided below:
Queen’s Speech summary: Bill-by-bill at a glance (BBC)
Queen’s Speech tears up most of Tory manifesto (ITN)
LIVE: Queen’s Speech tears up Theresa May’s key manifesto pledges (Sky News)
May drops key pledges in Queen’s Speech (The Times)
May drops key manifesto pledges from Queen’s speech (The Guardian)