Several major elements of government legislation, including the overhaul of flagship labor rights, will not become the law before at least fall after being taken in the slow parliamentary process.
The bills on employment rules and the reform of the rental market had to make a “final consent” which renders them in law before summer recess, when deputies disappear on vacation from the end of July to the beginning of September.
The ministers had also hoped to publish the draft bill on the reform of the audit “no later than summer recess”, but it is not scheduled later in the year.
The officials insist that the schedules have never been put in stone and blame a “muffled” legislative calendar for their progress which slip into the next parliamentary session. But politicians have also encountered strong opposition on their potential to turn around.
The debates on the bill on employment rights, the redesign of the government of workers' rights, have dragged to the Chamber of Lords because of the concerns that the main provisions – including prohibitions on zero hour contracts and the so -called fire and re -engagement practices – will be impracticable.
The delay means that the bill will not be ready to receive a royal consent by the summer, as the government had planned, and means that companies are faced with a longer expectation before having to implement the changes.
The ministers have promised an in -depth consultation on the regulations to put into force the prohibition of zero hours and the new protections against the unfair dismissal.
“The unions can be disappointed,” said a business lobbyist, who said the ministers had clearly indicated during previous meetings with the stakeholders that their intention was that the bill is on the book of law by July.
Another delayed bills concern the rights of tenants, which was presented by the government in September.
The bill will put an end to the expulsions “without fault” under article 21, which allows owners to throw the tenants for no reason, and will also tighten the standards for the conditions and the maintenance of the rented houses.
The last conservative government promised similar legislation but did not do so by the general elections last July.
The charity refuge highlighted the urgency of changes, saying that around 25,000 households were threatened with homeless due to a section 21 since Sir Keir Starmer was elected almost a year ago.
The director of communications, Mairi Macrae, said that the Labor Party had made a manifest promise to immediately prohibit expulsions without fail if they came to power – but the legislation was still “tangled” in Parliament.
“For each day, the government does not adopt this bill, 70 other households will be threatened with homelessness because no expulsion of fault is maintained on support for life for no valid reason,” she said.
“The government has the power to put an end to this … It must be good on its commitment as a manifesto by adopting the bill on the rights of tenants as soon as possible and by appointing a date of implementation.”
A government official said, “We have never said that we would certainly get one or the other bill to law books by summer.”
Delaying legislation aimed at reforming the audit market was also postponed in the fall, after repeated insurance in the industry that it would be presented in the spring, or by July at the latest, depending on four people knowing the details.
The business secretary, Jonathan Reynolds, told Financial Times in 2023 that a Labor government would have passed through reforms for a long time as “priority” if she was elected.
This is in particular the update of the current regulator to become the most powerful audit, report and governance authority.
However, three people familiar with the ministers' discussions with the industry said that the bill turned out to be difficult to write and that the employment rights bill was a more urgent priority.
One of the collation points in the drafting of the so-called bill on audit reform and corporate governance was a proposal for reclassification of the largest private companies as “public interest entities”, which would force their audits in a stricter regulation system, said the people.
The creation of a new definition of public interest entities is so delicate that ministers plan to open it for consultation, five years after the first promise of the principle by the conservative government.
A second point which caused a wave of lobbying and negotiations, delaying the bill more, was an attempt to make non -accounting directors of companies responsible for failure in financial information, the people said.
A third controversial measure – to force the four large accounting firms to share audits of the largest companies with smaller companies – has been abandoned, two people with knowledge of the added process.
Another legislation which will be introduced before summer recess will include the bill of devolution which will give greater powers to local authorities, in particular through mayors directly elected.
