The centuries-old tradition of the State Opening of Parliament doesn’t just bring with it the pomp and circumstance customary of Westminster – it’s an opportunity to set out the Government’s legislative agenda for the year.
Delivered via the King’s Speech, this year’s list of bills will, as ever, be scrutinised closely. But the timing – arriving in the midst of Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s leadership crisis – is particularly charged this year. Following heavy Labour losses in the UK local elections and four ministerial resignations over Starmer’s future, the King’s Speech now carries the added weight of a Government trying to prove itself.
For small businesses, the more pressing question is a practical one: which of these bills will affect how they hire, pay and run their business.
1. Late Payment Fines For Large Companies
The Government will introduce legislation to penalise large companies that persistently fail to pay their suppliers within 60 days. The full package was set out in March: a 60-day maximum on payment terms, mandatory interest at 8% above the Bank of England base rate on overdue invoices, and financial penalties for persistent offenders enforced by the Small Business Commissioner. It is a measure aimed squarely at the cash flow damage that late payment causes for smaller businesses further down the chain.
2. Public Procurement And Uk Small Businesses
The Public Procurement (British Goods and Services) Bill will require public bodies to report on how they have considered UK small businesses when awarding contracts and to demonstrate SME spending. For any small business that tenders for public contracts, or has considered it but assumed the odds were stacked against them, this is worth watching closely as it progresses through Parliament.
3. Regulation Reform Aimed at Growth
The Government has signalled a deliberate push to reduce regulatory friction, describing “reforms to regulation to drive growth and innovation” and measures designed to give businesses more confidence to invest and grow. The specifics are light at this stage, but the stated intent is to cut compliance burdens rather than add to them, a notable shift in tone from a Government whose first year in office was largely defined by the Employment Rights Act.
4. Energy Costs and the Independence Bill
Energy Secretary Ed Miliband is pushing ahead with the Energy Independence Bill, which is expected to give the Government broader powers to tackle energy affordability and accelerate clean energy infrastructure. The windfall tax on electricity generators is expected to rise from 45% to 55%, and the bill is also expected to make it easier to install EV charging points without planning permission. For small businesses with significant energy overheads, the affordability measures in this bill are the ones to track.
5. EU Alignment – What It Means For Trade and Supply Chains
Legislation is expected to allow the UK to adopt EU single market rules in certain areas, including food standards, as part of the Government’s effort to reset post-Brexit trade relations. For small businesses importing or exporting to Europe, closer alignment could simplify cross-border transactions over time, though the practical effects will depend on which sectors the rules cover and how quickly the legislation moves.
6. Cyber Security Obligations Across Supply Chains
The Cyber Security and Resilience Bill, currently making its way through Parliament, is expected to be confirmed in the King’s Speech. Designed to harden protections for critical national infrastructure and the supply chains connected to it, it will bring new compliance requirements for businesses operating as suppliers, contractors or service providers to larger organisations. It is worth getting ahead of them now.
7. Mandatory Ethnicity And Disability Pay Gap Reporting
The Draft Equality (Race and Disability) Bill will require employers with 250 or more staff to report on their ethnicity and disability pay gaps, extending the framework that already exists for gender pay gap reporting. For businesses at or approaching that threshold, a new reporting obligation is coming, and the groundwork of collecting the right data needs to start well before any legal deadline lands.
What Happens Next
It’s worth remembering that the King’s Speech, while significant, sets out the Government’s legislative intentions, not guaranteed outcomes, and these bills will each need to pass through Parliament in full before they take effect. The ones to treat with more caution are those still at draft stage or tied to contested domestic politics.
In Starmer’s words, the Speech is built around “cutting the cost of living, bringing down hospital waiting lists and keeping our country safe in an increasingly dangerous world.” Following a recent commitment to put apprenticeships “on equal footing” with university degrees, the speech also laid out plans for the Government to “continue to invest in apprenticeships and measures that tackle youth unemployment” and “respond to the Milburn Review and the Timms Review and continue to reform the welfare system to support both young and disabled people to flourish in work as the basis for long-term economic security.”
For the UK’s small business community, already navigating rising costs and a shifting compliance landscape, the pace at which those words translate into law will be what matters.
