BIBA welcomes positive progress with member Manifesto issues in Queen’s Speech

10th May 2022

BIBA is pleased to see several announcements relevant to our announcements in the Queen’s speech including matters relating to the Financial Services and Markets Bill, the Transport Bill, Levelling-up and Regeneration Bill, Brexit Freedoms Bill and draft Protect Duty Bill.

Financial Services and Markets Bill

This is a key issue for BIBA members, many of whom believe that our regulator has not been balanced in their approach to our low- risk sector. We welcome the Treasury’s proposals to introduce the new growth and international competitiveness objective for the FCA and PRA, we look forward to the detail of the Bill and we want to see the FCA issuing an annual report to evidence how it is implementing its new objectives and activities.

BIBA has campaigned on this for the last four years and we believe it should make the regulator more balanced and more accountable.

Transport Bill

We welcome the Transport Bill which aims to introduce new laws to safely enable self-driving and remotely operated vehicles. We look forward to further detail about access to vehicle-generated data to resolve claims including location data so that insurers and brokers have sufficient information to establish negligence.

We are surprised that the speech made no mention of the regulation of e-scooters within the Bill.

Draft Protect Duty Bill

This Bill will establish a new requirements framework which requires those in control of certain public locations and venues to consider the threat from terrorism and implement appropriate and proportionate mitigation measures. We welcome the intent of the proposed legislation but do have concerns on the proportionality of the measures and impact on insurance covers for those locations in scope. Our members’ position is that it is vital that the introduction of any new requirements is phased to allow those businesses affected sufficient time to prepare. We welcome the Government point that they will expand the support available to help those responsible for delivering security in public places.

Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill

We note that Government has indicated that this Bill will introduce a new approach to environmental assessment in our planning system. Flood risk is an important issue and the Government’s proposal to amend planning rules must embed resilience measures against flooding from sea, river or surface water. Flood damage costs run to £multi-millions every year and has a devastating impact on communities and businesses. The Government must ensure that its planning rules create housing stock that is insurable against flood events so that consumers and businesses have financial protection.

Brexit Freedoms Bill

This Bill ensures that retained EU law can be amended, repealed or replaced with legislation which better suits the UK, reducing parliamentary time to achieve changes. We are pleased to see that Private Members’ Bills will not be needed in future to remove unwanted EU legislation, as was required in the Vnuk case.

Steve White, BIBA CEO said: “I am particularly pleased to see the Financial Services and Markets Bill and the inclusion of the Regulatory Framework Review. It is important that Treasury introduce an effective growth and competitiveness objective on the regulator at the earliest possible opportunity”

Graeme Trudgill, BIBA Executive Director: said “ This Queen’s speech contains a lot of relevant issues relating to our 2022 members Manifesto and the five bills mentioned are of particular interest. The BIBA Technical Committees and Advisory Boards will now debate these developments and work with the necessary Government officials and parliamentarians to ensure the best results possible”.