Queen’s speech: health and care specific announcements

The Government’s commitment, announced in the Queen’s speech, to bring forward new mental health legislation is welcome news as we discuss in our earlier post and will have far-reaching impacts for patients. There are also a number of other Bills announced which will be of interest to the wider health and care sector.

These include the following:

• Procurement Bill:  the Bill was introduced to Parliament on 11 May starting its next stage on our journey to a new procurement law regime. To find out more, head to our procurement portal blog.
• Bill of Rights: this is likely to change the UK’s relationship with the European Convention of Human Rights. The UK will remain a signatory but the roles of our courts and tribunals in interpreting domestic legislation in conformity with the Convention is likely to be restricted. This could affect the way some Mental Capacity Act and deprivation of liberty cases are interpreted.
• Data Reform Bill: this will take some fairly limited steps towards liberalising the UK’s data protection regime, including improving appropriate access to data in health and social care settings.

Nothing ever stands still! We will keep readers posted on their progress through Parliament.