Queen's Speech: Police Reform and Social Responsibility Bill and Freedom (Great Repeal) Bill

Police Reform and Social Responsibility Bill

The Police Reform and Social Responsibility Bill is intended to make the police service more accountable to local people, create a dedicated Border Police Force and develop new measures to tackle alcohol-related violence and disorder.

The main details from the Queen's Speech are unchanged from those in the coalition government's policy document published last week and include:

• The creation of new directly-elected roles to hold the police to account and ensure that local policing activities meet the needs of the local community, help build confidence in the system and bring communities and the police together.
• Amendments to health and safety laws so that they do not stand in the way of “common sense” policing.
• The creation of a dedicated Border Police Force, as part of a refocused Serious Organised Crime Agency, to enhance national security, improve immigration controls, and crack down on the trafficking of people, weapons and drugs.
• Increasing the levels of collaboration between police forces to deal with serious crime and deliver better value for money.
• An overhaul of the Licensing Act to give local authorities and the police much stronger powers to remove licenses from, or refuse to grant licenses to, any premises that are causing problems. This will also ban the sale of alcohol below cost price and allow councils to charge more for late-night licenses to pay for additional policing.
• New powers for councils to shut down shops or bars persistently selling to children and an increase in the maximum fine for selling to children to £20,000.

Freedom (Great Repeal) Bill

The Freedom (Great Repeal) Bill will further regulate the use of CCTV and restrict the use of the Regulation of Investigatory Powers (RIPA) Act by councils. It will also amend the Data Protection Act to limit the storage of internet and email records without good reason.