The King's Speech
Everything startups need to know about the Government's plans.
In case you haven’t noticed, politics just hasn’t stopped whirling.
Today we bring you a short interruption to Labour leadership uncertainty to update you on today’s King’s Speech - the plans of the Government for the next year.
We count 37 bills and draft bills across a huge range of areas, from railways and taxis to financial services and the NHS. Below are the ones founders need to care about - as well as our take on them.
And on the Labour leadership crisis? Tomorrow is looking like a big day, with rumours Wes Streeting will resign from the Government and launch his long-awaited leadership bid.
We’ll update you once we know more…
Best wishes,
Dom
Dom Hallas
Executive Director, Startup Coalition
Regulating for Growth Bill
The Regulating for Growth Bill is the legislative vehicle for the Government’s “Growth Duty” agenda, designed to ensure that the UK’s regulatory environment stops acting as a drag on GDP.
The Bill gives a clear, statutory mandate to a wide range of regulators—including Natural England, the Environment Agency, and the Health and Safety Executive—to prioritise economic growth and innovation alongside their core objectives. This is very welcome, and we’ll be engaging with how this will be measured in practice.
For the tech sector, the most significant provision is the creation of a new “Regulatory Pilot” framework. This allows for the fast-tracked rollout of sandboxes and pilot schemes specifically for high-growth sectors like AI and defence, enabling startups to test frontier technologies in real-world conditions under a “pro-innovation” supervision model. Having pushed for this in our work on AI Growth Zones and with regulatory sandboxes across the economy, we’re very pleased to see this lined up.
Enhancing Financial Services Bill
The Bill delivers the Chancellor’s Leeds Reforms announced last year and intends to make the UK more globally competitive by consolidating the regulatory framework. The Bill will consolidate the Payment Systems Regulator (PSR) within the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) so firms have less regulators to deal with.
To address long-standing concerns over regulatory unpredictability, the Bill also introduces structural reforms to the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS). Most notably, it imposes a 10-year limit on legacy cases and redefines the “fair and reasonable” test to align directly with FCA standards.
Digital Access to Services Bill - The Digital ID Bill
The Digital Access to Services Bill provides the legal basis for a new, voluntary Digital ID scheme for accessing public services.
While the Government has stopped short of a mandatory system, which is welcome, the Bill creates the “trust framework” necessary for private-sector identity providers to interoperate with government systems. Its intended to grant the Government power to codify data-sharing standards between the public and private sectors, aiming to reduce the friction of identity verification for everything from right-to-work checks to accessing local authority services.
If done correctly, where existing verification and identity startups can be part of the solution, this could be a big step forwards. However, we have concerns that the Government is potentially displacing the innovative digital identity and digital verification services sector in their ambitions for a government monopoly. All eyes on what this looks like in practice, and we welcome thoughts from the sector.
Energy Independence Bill
The Energy Independence Bill will aim to cut bills and accelerate energy production in the UK. It will underpin the new Warm Homes Agency, introduce new landlord obligations, and finally regulated cowboy energy brokers. The bigger story for ClimateTech sits on the supply side though.
The Bill takes aim at the “first-come, first-served” connection queue with planning and networks consenting reform, and new powers for a more strategic approach to building and operating the system. And in a major win for energy flex and storage, the bill will remove charges on consumer electricity exports and enable discounted energy at times of excess generation. These supply-side reforms have long been on Startup Coalition’s policy agenda; the details will matter as the Bill moves through Parliament, and we want to hear your views.
Nuclear Regulation Bill
The Bill takes forward all 47 recommendations of the Fingleton Nuclear Regulatory Review - this is critical to energy security in the UK. A new Commission for Nuclear Regulation will provide a single forum to resolve regulatory disagreements, alongside a shift from exhaustive process to a “proportionate, outcomes-focused” regime. For ClimateTech, the most consequential signals are around standardisation and replication for SMRs, and greater alignment with international regulators.
Competition Reform Bill
The Competition Reform Bill will support the CMA’s operational transformation, making competition investigations faster and more predictable. The government will also give the CMA new powers to speed up market reviews and merger decisions. The Bill will also give the CMA Board a formal role in decisions on mergers and market investigations, improving accountability to Parliament, businesses and the public. Moves to speed up these investigations are very welcome.
NHS Modernisation Bill
Representing a fundamental shift in health tech architecture, the NHS Modernisation Bill abolishes NHS England (NHSE) as a standalone body, folding its functions directly into the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) to provide clearer ministerial accountability.
The centerpiece for HealthTech though is the statutory mandate for a “Single Patient Record.” This joined-up data system, accessible via the NHS App, will initially focus on maternity and frailty care before a wider rollout. The Bill aims to create a more integrated, data-driven market for digital health solutions while removing the complicated mix of patient safety and oversight bodies.
Our Take
The success or failure of the legislation in today’s King’s Speech will be marked on whether the concluding Acts facilitate radical change in their areas of focus, instead of mere incremental improvements.
In some specific areas - notably in health, nuclear and on regulation - a clear radical endstate is possible. But this could very easily be undone throughout the legislative process as difficult trade-offs between growth and other factors play out.
We will always lean on the side of radical growth and play our role in stewarding each bill through both houses to that end.