Image source, PA

The Queen’s Speech promises an independent regulator for English football, aimed at ensuring clubs are run in a “more financially sustainable way”.

A new owners' test will be introduced and fans will also be involved when clubs make changes to team names, colours and badges.

The announcement follows recommendations made by a review into the men’s game, chaired by former Sports Minister Tracey Crouch.

Making the case for the change, the government cites the plight of Bury FC, which was expelled from the English Football League in 2019 after a proposed takeover collapsed.

Kevin Peachey
Personal finance correspondent

Image source, Getty Images

People will have access to their own banknotes and coins “with ease”, according to the Treasury, after promised measures were announced in the Queen's Speech.

The problem has been that millions of people who rely on cash have found it increasing difficult to withdraw it, as ATMs and bank branches close – particularly in rural areas. Some small businesses have to shut up shop to travel to bank their takings.

Since 2015, a total of 4,685 branches have shut in the UK.

This planned legislation should ensure consumers and businesses have a legal right to withdraw and deposit cash within "a reasonable distance" of their home or premises.

Campaigners will be watching closely to see what the government and regulators consider a “reasonable distance” to be.

Read more: People reliant on cash risk being cut adrift

Conservative MP and Chief Secretary to the Treasury Simon Clarke tells BBC News that a controversial anti-protest bill - revived in today's Queen's Speech - aims to crackdown on what he describes as "illegitimate forms of protest".

He says the "absolute misery" caused by the disruptive 'locking on' methods used by Extinction Rebellion and other pressure groups, including chaining themselves to buildings or gluing themselves to the road, does not represent his understanding of the right to protest.

"People have the right to go about their business unimpeded" he says.

But Labour's Shadow Secretary for Business Jonathan Reynolds questioned the priority of the move given what he called the "collapse of the justice" system around sexual offences and fraud.

Read more on Extinction Rebellion here.

Image source, Getty Images

Prince Charles said he is looking forward to celebrations to mark the Queen's Platinum Jubilee.

The Queen withdrew from the state opening - for the first time since 1963 - because of mobility issues.

In February, she became the longest-serving British monarch, and the first to reach 70 years on the throne.

To mark the occasion, there will be a special four-day Jubilee bank holiday weekend which starts on Thursday 2 June.

Events include a special Trooping the Colour ceremony, a service of thanksgiving at St Paul's Cathedral and a concert in front of Buckingham Palace.

A Platinum Jubilee Pageant will tell the story of the Queen's reign, featuring military personnel, dancers, and puppets of corgis.

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and other senior royals will tour the UK over the weekend.

Pubs, bars and nightclubs will also be able to stay open until 01:00 BST between 2 and 4 June.

Could new data protection laws be the end of cookies?published at 12:56 British Summer Time 10 May 2022

12:56 BST 10 May 2022

Zoe Kleinman
Technology editor, BBC News

The commitment in the Queen's Speech to reforming data protection laws is going to be an interesting one to watch.

While many businesses have grumbled about the bureaucracy of adhering to the strict rules of the GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) introduced in Europe in 2018 (the UK has its own version), it has helped to set a higher standard for data protection, with large fines for non-compliance.

GDPR often gets blamed for the irritating cookie consent pop-ups that litter the web, even though technically that stems from different legislation.

If they were to go, people would certainly notice and quite possibly breathe a sigh of relief – the question is how we would then know when data is being collected about us, even if there is so much cookie fatigue that many people have decided they no longer care.

In the words of Elon Musk: “Yes, you can have my damn cookie”.

But behind that soundbite lies an enormous debate about individuals’ rights to privacy, what data is collected about us when we click “accept all” in frustration – and crucially, what happens to it after that.

Trade body Tech UK has welcomed the reform and said it could be an opportunity to help tech firms innovate.

But CEO Julian David warned: "Any changes need to maintain the high standards of UK data protection law."

Chris Mason
Political editor

What we heard in the Queen's Speech was the political stage being set for not just the days and months, but the years to come.

The context is clear: a cost of living crunch, prices soaring, an expectation from some that a recession may be around the corner.

And a political argument that focuses on one question: is the government doing enough?

Expect the prime minister later to say plenty is being done, but also manage expectations about what any government could achieve in these circumstances.

And expect opposition parties to say that ministers are simply not acting quickly enough relative to the scale of what is happening.

Image source, PA Media

They’re bitter political rivals, often pitted against each other in rancorous debates in Parliament.

But ahead of the Queen’s Speech, Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Labour leader Keir Starmer seemed at ease in each other’s company as they entered the House of Lords together.

They exchanged a few words, and at times even cracked smiles as they put aside their political differences for the opening of Parliament.

But these are turbulent political times for both leaders, not least because of the controversy over alleged breaches of Covid-19 rules.

Image source, PA Media

Earlier this year Johnson was fined for attending a birthday celebration in Downing Street, and now Sir Keir is under investigation for a potential lockdown breach.

On Monday, Sir Keir made the biggest gamble of his political career by pledging to resign if he was fined by police for breaking lockdown rules.

Sir Keir repeatedly said no laws had been broken, as he tried to contrast his position with that of Johnson, who refused to resign.

In political terms, the stakes could not be higher for both leaders. But for now, parliamentary life goes on, with Johnson and Sir Keir set to face each in the Commons this afternoon.

Red line drawn between Covid and cost of livingpublished at 12:42 British Summer Time 10 May 2022

12:42 BST 10 May 2022

Faisal Islam
BBC Economics Editor

The thinking expressed in government about the cost of living - that the “pain relief is over”, and as the PM says “we can’t spend our way out of it”, draws a red line between the treatment of the pandemic emergency and the surge in energy prices.

The challenge here on this day of regal ceremony, is that in the days the ink was drying on the goatskin parchment, another august institution, the Bank of England has pointed to both double digit inflation and the clear risk of recession within months.

And millions of homes have just received the sharp end of the energy shock, in the form of unthinkable rises in monthly direct debit charges.

Image source, Getty Images

Trade unions say they are angry at the lack of measures to improve workers' rights in the Queen's Speech.

Plans for an Employment Bill were first announced by the government in 2019 but did not materialise today.

Trades Union Congress (TUC) head Frances O'Grady has accused the government of "turning its back" on workers.

"No Employment Bill means vital rights that ministers had promised - like default flexible working, fair tips and protection from pregnancy discrimination - risk being ditched for good," she says.

Neil Carberry, chief executive of the Recruitment & Employment Confederation, says it is "incredibly disappointing that the government has chosen to kick the Employment Bill into the long grass again".

You can read the full story here.

Actions announced will take time to impact the economypublished at 12:37 British Summer Time 10 May 2022

12:37 BST 10 May 2022

Faisal Islam
BBC Economics Editor

The central mission announced in the Queen’s Speech was about the economy.

A speech about legislative priorities over years is naturally only really about the medium and long-term.

And there are planned bills to help boost transport, regional growth and the government’s infrastructure bank to fund it.

The other economic theme is taking advantage of post-Brexit freedoms to change regulations in high growth areas, such as financial services and n the treatment of data, and to complete new trade deals with Australia and New Zealand.

But all this will take some time to have much material impact on the economy, and exactly such objectives have eluded successive governments.

Sean Coughlan
BBC News, royal correspondent

Image source, Reuters

All the ceremony was there. The crown, the sword of state, the trumpeters, the scratches on the staircase from the soldiers’ spurs.

But there was no Queen. She was said to be at home watching it on television.

Her son Prince Charles was standing in for her, for the first time taking on this fully-fledged constitutional role of opening Parliament.

Wearing an admiral’s uniform, he solemnly read out the plans of “Her Majesty’s government”.

These were the words of politicians, not his own, so his voice maintained an appropriate neutrality, tricky to achieve without becoming borderline funereal.

If it seemed initially strange to see Prince Charles stepping into this role, there were no flaws in the choreography.

A man used to giving his own opinions was now delivering someone else’s, as required when standing in for the head of state.

Flanked by Prince William and Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, he spoke for nine minutes and then processed out again, long enough to start a new parliamentary session and maybe a new stage for the monarchy.

Hazel Shearing
Education correspondent

Put simply, the government wants more children in school. Its bill includes plans for compulsory registers that would help identify pupils who are aren't.

There are two main issues here. The first is that some pupils simply haven't gone back to school after national lockdowns. The second is that there are no reliable figures for children who do not go to school at all

The children's commissioner recently estimated that almost 1.8 million children in England missed at least 10% of school in the autumn term.

The government says its bill will boost Ofsted's powers to crack down on unregistered schools operating illegally.

There's also a focus on bringing schools together in groups of academies, which are state-funded directly by the government.

Under the government's plans, all schools in England will be told they should be part of a group of academy schools, or in the process of joining a multi-academy trust, by 2030.

A ban on “no-fault” evictions is included in a Renters Reform Bill announced in the Queen’s Speech. This relates to tenants being evicted without the landlord having to give a reason.

The government has been promising legislation on this for some time.

Currently people can be evicted without reason at the end of a fixed-term tenancy agreement, or during a tenancy with no fixed end date.

A recent poll suggested 227,000 private renters in England had had their tenancies ended in this way in the past three years.

A temporary eviction ban was put in place during the pandemic, but ended a year ago.

Read more on the eviction rules here.

The Queen's Speech went broadly as expected, with the Princes of Wales emphasising policies on the cost of living and post-Brexit regulation.

But it was also peppered with careful language around the changing political landscape in Northern Ireland, says the BBC's political editor Chris Mason.

"There's been a lot of focus following the elections in Northern Ireland over the weekend on the Northern Ireland protocol - that compromise to ensure that a Brexit deal could be delivered in Northern Ireland with a different relationship with the European Union than the rest of the UK.

"[The speech promised] that the government 'would be minded of the internal economic problems' - some very careful language, nodding to the sensitivities, with an absolute commitment to delivering new legislation [but] with the prospect that may happen."

Thursday's historic election saw Sinn Féin become Stormont's largest party, but the The Democratic Unionist Party, who may have to work in coalition to form a functioning government, says it will not join a power-sharing government without action on the protocol.

The government has set out its legislative agenda in the Queen’s Speech, which was delivered by Prince Charles.

The speech highlighted some of the 38 laws that ministers intend to pass in the coming year.

We’ve picked out some of the key bills:

• Levelling up and Regeneration Bill will give councils new planning powers, including to force landlords in England to let out empty shops to rejuvenate high streets
• A new state-run agency to regulate railway services across the UK, Great British Railways, will be established by a Transport Bill
• The Online Safety Bill is a mammoth piece of legislation to deliver a government pledge to better regulate content appearing on the internet
• A Public Order Bill will introduce new police powers over disruptive protests, which were blocked by the House of Lords earlier this year
• A Brexit Freedoms Bill will give ministers new powers to overhaul EU laws they copied over after the UK left the bloc
• A new Schools Bill will give the schools regulator powers to crack down on unregistered schools in England, and introduce attendance registers
• An Energy Security Bill will contain new powers aimed at boosting renewable energy, and promote a market in electric heat pumps
• An Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Bill will beef up the investigatory powers of Companies House and aim to increase corporate transparency

You can read about other bills included here.

Nick Eardley
Political correspondent

The government is promising new legislation aimed at improving animal welfare.

Ministers say the Kept Animals Bill will ban exports of live animals for slaughter, crack down on puppy smuggling and ban the keeping of primates as pets without a licence.

But other previous commitments on animal welfare are missing.

We reported earlier this year that the government was dropping plans to ban the import of fur and foie gras after cabinet resistance. As expected, that’s not in today’s plans.

The Queen’s Speech doesn’t include specific legislation to ban imports of trophy hunting trophies either.

This is something the Conservatives committed to in their 2019 manifesto.

The government says it’s still committed to a ban - but the time frame is not clear.

An option could be to support a Private Members Bill from a Conservative backbencher.

But some Conservative animal rights activists have raised fears Number 10 is bowing to pressure from more traditional wings of the party, who oppose the idea of bans in general.

Image source, Channel 4

A new Media Bill mentioned in the Queen’s Speech includes the privatisation of Channel 4, a move the government says will “unleash the potential of the UK’s creative sector”.

Channel 4, which broadcasts shows including Gogglebox (above), is a government-owned TV broadcasting company. But instead of receiving public funding, like the BBC, it gets its money through advertising.

Ministers say that because TV advertising revenues are declining, along with traditional TV viewing, and programme budgets are rising, Channel 4 is being held back from competing with other TV services.

But critics say some of its less commercial output - such as drama or news and current affairs - might suffer.

You can read more about the proposed changes to Channel 4 here.

Nick Eardley
Political correspondent

The government has dropped plans for a new and separate bill to reform planning rules in England. Instead changes will be part of the Levelling up and Regeneration Bill.

The original plans were parked after a significant Tory backlash.

Backbenchers - and some ministers - feared the plans would lead to new developments being imposed on local communities.

Levelling Up Secretary Michael Gove has spent months looking at what changes could be made to win over sceptics while simplifying the planning system.

The government is promising its new proposals will give communities a “louder voice”. But Tory MPs will want to see the specifics before deciding if enough changes have been made.

Hazel Shearing
Education correspondent

The government says its Schools Bill for England will "help every child fulfil their potential wherever they live".

In some places, there's some serious catching up to do.

The amount of learning lost during the pandemic varies significantly across England.

Take the North East, North West and Yorkshire and Humber, for example. In the autumn term, secondary pupils in these areas were, on average, three months behind the level they might have previously achieved, according a recent report for the government, external by the Education Policy Institute (EPI) and Renaissance.

The report also suggested that the poorest pupils have fallen further behind than those who are better off.

And there are concerns about the amount of funding for the government's pledges, which were laid out in its White Paper in March.

The money being put into education recovery in England - just under £5bn - is only a third of what was called for by those advising the government.

Vicki Young
Deputy Political Editor

Boris Johnson has two audiences in mind with this programme for government, as outlined in the Queen's Speech - voters and his own Parliamentary party.

After the scandal over his Covid rule-breaking, his leadership has been under huge pressure - keeping his MPs happy is more important than ever.

An ambitious relaxation of planning law and a ban on the import of fur and fois gras have been ditched.

But the Human Rights Act will be replaced and ministers will find it easier to scrap EU laws so hated by many MPs.

After huge state intervention during the pandemic, ministers say more spending can’t continue to be the answer.

But it comes as households see their own budgets squeezed and demands for more government help are sure to grow.