QUEEN Elizabeth will deliver her 65th Queen’s Speech to parliament today, October 14.
The speech is used to set out what the government intends to do during the next session of parliament and what the plans for the future are.
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What time is the Queen’s Speech?
The Queen is due to address parliament today at 11.30am.
The State Opening of Parliament is a full-blown state occasion with all the usual pomp and ceremony to go with it.
Queen Elizabeth will be wearing ceremonial robes and a crown to deliver the speech that will have been written for her.
A carriage procession will precede events.
The actual speech is given in the House of Lords.
The last State Opening took place on June 21, 2017.
Who attends the Queen’s Speech?
Members of the Lords attend along with ambassadors and high commissioners.
Judges from the High Court and Court of Appeal are also there along with Justices of the Supreme Court.
MPs from the Commons can watch from the entrance to the chamber – which is referred to as the “bar” due to the rail across the entrance.
Members of the Royal Procession and others gather around the throne.
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What is in the Queen’s Speech?
The 93-year-old monarch will lay out 22 bills in the first State Opening of Parliament in more than two years.
Seven of them – almost a third – will be in the law and order crackdown while five are from the Home Office and two from the Ministry of Justice.
PM Boris Johnson hopes to use his first full legislative package to woo voters to back him in an imminent general election.
With his Commons majority wiped out during Brexit battles last month, the speech faces an uphill battle to be passed before a new nationwide vote.
There will also be:
- A major series of reforms unveiled for the NHS, from patient safety to mental health care;
- A power bid to fight the social care crisis, expected to be based around a new insurance system for older workers;
- Legally binding targets to enforce cleaner air and slash single-use plastics;
- Six different Brexit bills, including rushing through a Withdrawal Agreement Bill to ratify an 11th-hour deal by October 31.
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The Home Office last night estimated 400 criminals a year breach deportation orders as the maximum sentence is just six months’ jail.
But the Foreign National Offenders Bill proposed today will hike it to at least two years, with Home Office ministers pushing for five.
Home Secretary Priti Patel said at the recent Conservative Party conference: “Many criminals conclude that it’s worth trying to get back in the country when all you get is a slap on the wrist.
“Deterring foreign criminals from re-entering the country and putting those that do behind bars for longer will make our country safer.”
In the crime-fighting package, there will also be significant new protections for under-fire cops.
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The Police Protections Bill will help to stop high-pursuit officers from being unfairly prosecuted by ensuring their high levels of training are taken into account.
There will also be a Prisoners Bill that will include “Helen’s Law”, which will punish murderers who hold back information on their victims’ whereabouts.
It is named after Helen McCourt, who was murdered in 1988.
The health package includes a Patient Safety Bill, which will set up the world’s first independent investigations unit to police standards in hospitals and GPs’ surgeries.
It will also see black box-type gadgets installed in machinery.
The NHS Long Term Plan Bill will oversee building and repairs to 40 hospitals.
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Landmark new proposals for major reforms to mental health care will also be published.
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn yesterday dismissed it as a “Tory party political broadcast”.
He said it was “utterly ludicrous” for the PM to be setting out his proposals when he is running a Government that “hasn’t yet won a vote in Parliament”.
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