The UK King's Speech – what can business expect this year?

King Charles III opened Parliament on Wednesday 13 May 2026 with the announcement of 37 bills his ministers would like to pass in this parliamentary session. Eight of these were bills introduced in the previous session. 

Principal themes included energy and economic security, improving trading relations and stimulating growth, including by updating regulatory frameworks. Despite current turbulence around the Labour Party leadership, we expect to see this agenda substantially pursued in this new session. Osborne Clarke's Knowledge Lawyers take a closer look at what is proposed. 

European Partnership Bill 

In line with the government's manifesto commitment to improve trading and investment relations with the EU, the King's Speech confirmed intentions for a new European Partnership Bill that would provide a framework for ministers to implement agreements with the EU into national law.

The bill follows the UK-EU summit in May 2025, which set the stage for new agreements on food and drink, emissions trading, and electricity. Firstly, the bill would give ministers powers to fulfil treaty obligations in agreements with the EU, meaning that, in effect, certain EU laws could be enacted domestically. The King's Speech lobby pack notes that these powers would still mean that Parliament will "have its say" before EU law is applied in the UK. Secondly, the bill would set out a future-proofing framework to ensure these ministerial powers continue to apply to new treaties with the EU and build in Parliamentary approval of any future treaties.

Building on existing negotiations, initial agreements in scope would include the sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) agrifood agreement, an electricity trading agreement and carbon trading arrangements. The bill could also be used to align with EU rules in other sectors over time. This could mean that other areas of emerging divergence, such as medicines regulation, could be targeted for alignment or mutual recognition in the future.

For food law specifically, the SPS agrifood agreement will see UK rules re-align with a wide range of EU frameworks, including general food law, labelling, hygiene and safety rules, nutrition and health claims, pesticides, biocides and related standards. There have been calls from some parts of industry in the UK to pause English regulatory divergence on precision breeding/the regulation of gene editing in plants, although other parts of industry have welcomed the divergence. It remains to be seen whether dynamic alignment with the more stringent EU rules (which are currently undergoing revision) will be a requirement of any SPS agrifood agreement.

For product regulation, the bill would sit alongside the existing framework provided by the Product Regulation and Metrology Act 2025, which already grants ministers broad powers to align UK product requirements with some EU standards through secondary legislation. Businesses trading with the EU should monitor this bill and the agreement negotiations closely.

This bill would also fill a void left by the expiration of ministerial powers of restatement, revocation and replacement of assimilated law under the Retained EU Law Act 2023, which will cease to have effect on 23 June 2026 (the tenth anniversary of the Brexit vote).

Regulating for Growth Bill

The Regulating for Growth Bill builds on the 2025 Regulation Action Plan to modernise regulation to support growth and innovation across the economy, while maintaining essential safeguards. Firstly, the bill would aim to strengthen the growth duty of certain regulators, such as the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), by elevating the consideration of growth in regulatory decision making and will introduce ministerial powers to give strategic steers. It would be supported by legal measures, such as reporting requirements, to ensure measurable outcomes.

Secondly, the bill would create new cross-economy sandbox powers. These powers would allow existing rules to be temporarily relaxed, under strict controls, to test new products and technologies in real-world settings. Technologies in scope include medicines and medical devices including AI, autonomous maritime and defence technology, and AI and AI-enabled products.

The sandbox powers could be a significant development for the life sciences sector as existing innovation pathways for streamlining new medical treatments are constrained by current legislation, which restricts the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA)'s ability to support novel products and regulatory approaches. The sandbox powers would allow those legislative constraints to be temporarily disapplied in a controlled environment, enabling the MHRA to design genuinely novel approval pathways and demonstrate their safety and efficacy before embedding them permanently in law. For life sciences companies developing breakthrough medicines, medical devices or AI-enabled diagnostics, this represents a materially faster route from clinical validation to market authorisation.

A faster timeline to market would have a direct bearing on the commercially valuable period of patent exclusivity. Accelerated approvals through sandbox-enabled pathways could mean a greater proportion of the patent term is spent generating revenue. This would strengthen the R&D investment case for the UK as a location for first-in-class and breakthrough product development.

Competition

As part of its drive to promote growth, the government is proposing a Competition Reform Bill. The Department for Business and Trade held a consultation on "Refining Our Competition Regime" until 31 March 2026. Consultation responses are still being analysed and will feed into the bill. 

Several of the proposals in the consultation received highly critical feedback including changes to the CMA's decision-making model to make it more politically accountable, speeding up market reviews. It will be interesting to follow the bill as it develops. For more details on the consultation and what this means for corporate deal teams please see Osborne Clarke's Insight and consultation response.

Corporate 

Business may be disappointed not to hear more on the government's plans to modernise the corporate reporting framework, as outlined in October 2025. A consultation and legislative action to greatly simplify the reporting obligations on small and medium-sized companies, as well as those within wholly-owned groups, are still expected. 

Two other significant reforms are in development: a new inward corporate domiciliation regime that would allow overseas companies to redomicile more easily to the UK and a plan for the digitalisation of shares to eliminate paper certificates for traded companies. Both require legislation to take effect. The government had said that it would introduce the corporate domiciliation regime "when parliamentary time allows" and the digitalisation of shares by the end of 2027, but neither were mentioned in the King's Speech.

Consumer law

The government will introduce a new draft bill to crack down on ticket touting by making it illegal to resell tickets for live events above their original cost. This follows last year's consultation, which resulted in the government committing to legislate for caps on resale tickets.

The draft Ticket Tout Ban Bill will also cap the service fees charged by resale platforms and prohibit individuals from reselling more tickets than they were originally entitled to purchase on the primary market. In addition, resale platforms will face strict accountability obligations to ensure compliance with the new rules and the Competition and Markets Authority will be given new powers to impose fines of up to ten per cent of global turnover on those found to be in breach. Essentially, the aim of the measures is to ensure that ticket touting is no longer a profitable business, while still allowing consumers to resell tickets for events they can no longer attend.

The government also intends to improve rail passengers' rights. The Railways and Passenger Benefits Bill will, as promised in the Labour manifesto, establish Great British Railways (GBR), a new publicly owned company that will bring track and train under a single body and ensure that the whole network is considered holistically. A new Passenger Watchdog will also be created, tasked with setting consumer standards for railways, investigating poor service and providing an independent rail ombudsman service to resolve disputes between passengers and operators. On ticketing, GBR will bring together the 14 existing train operator websites into a single, online platform and overhaul the current fares structure to make it simpler for passengers to identify the most affordable option.

Online safety

The government made no commitments to introduce any standalone online safety measures, but this does not mean that this area, particularly in relation to protecting children online, is not still a priority for the government. The primary reason for no mention is, presumably, because the government's consultation on children's online safety, exploring whether to ban social media for under-16s, restrict addictive features or impose curfews on children's use of the platforms, does not close until 26 May. In addition, the new Children's Wellbeing and Schools Act 2026 contains an obligation for the government to take some form of action once the consultation closes. 

There are, however, a number of online safety measures woven into a new National Security Bill. This bill will criminalise the creation and sharing of the most harmful violent material online to stop the spread of content that glorifies, trivialises or normalises serious violence. Law enforcement will gain new powers to disrupt individuals encouraging violence online and reduce the circulation and supply of such material. The aim is to do this in a proportionate way to protect freedom of expression and legitimate public-interest activity.

Technology, data and AI

While there is no mention of any plans for further regulation of AI, including in respect of the continuing debate around AI and copyright, the Regulating for Growth Bill will put regulatory "sandboxes" onto a statutory footing to allow businesses across the economy, through the temporary relaxation of existing rules, to test innovative AI products and other emerging technologies safely, in a real-world setting (see above).

Building on the government's consultation on Digital ID, which closed on 5 May 2026, a new Digital Access to Services Bill will lay the legal groundwork for the creation, issuance and use of Digital ID for anyone who wishes to use it. The aim is to provide people with "a trusted, useful and secure proof of identity for use across public services and the wider economy". (See further in Life sciences below).

The Police Reform Bill will deliver reforms to policing by, among other things, "equipping the police with the technology and skills [they need]". This includes the introduction of a new legal framework governing the use of facial recognition and similar technologies. The framework will set out the situations in which the use of these technologies is justified and create a single, expert independent regulatory body to provide independent oversight and advice.

Advertising 

The Representation of the People Bill, which aims to "renew and protect" democracy, will, among other things, introduce measures to strengthen transparency around the rules for digital imprints: the markers that identify who is responsible for promoting political advertising. 

Currently, third party campaigners who spend under a certain threshold are not required to include imprints on their organic digital campaigning material. The new legislation will close this loophole by extending the digital imprint requirement to any person who is not a recognised third-party campaigner or individual.

The Sporting Events Bill aims to "support and enhance the UK's status as a world-leading host of major sporting events" by establishing a common legislative framework that can be applied to all major sporting events in the UK so that the UK can meet commitments to international sporting event owners "confidently" without having to legislate for each one separately. The framework will, among other things, protect commercial rights by introducing a UK-wide prohibition on unauthorised association with a sporting event and impose restrictions on advertising and trading in the vicinity of event locations.

Cyber security 

The Cyber Security and Resilience Bill, carried over from the previous parliamentary session, will continue its passage through the legislative process (see further in the Life sciences section below).

Complementing these efforts, the National Security Bill will reform the cyber landscape by providing law enforcement with modernised powers designed to tackle cybercrime in the digital age.

Leasehold and commonhold reform

The King's Speech reiterated the government's intention to press ahead with plans to overhaul the legal framework of flat ownership in England and Wales. While a draft Commonhold and Leasehold Reform Bill was published in January 2026 for pre-legislative scrutiny alongside a public consultation, it is yet to be formally introduced to Parliament, and is expected later this year.

The bill proposes a major shift away from leasehold towards commonhold as the default tenure for most new flats. Under commonhold, flat owners will own the freehold of their unit and collectively own and manage the common parts through a commonhold association, removing the need for lease extensions and enhancing occupier control over building management. 

As commonhold is phased in, the creation of new leasehold flats is to be banned (subject to some exceptions which are exempt). Existing leasehold blocks will be able to convert to commonhold on a voluntary basis, subject to a leaseholder consent threshold. 

Alongside these structural reforms, the bill seeks to reform enfranchisement rules, and to cap ground rents in most existing long residential leases at £250 per year, reducing to a peppercorn after 40 years. The plans to abolish marriage value in enfranchisement compensation calculations, are already facing legal challenge on human rights grounds, which may delay implementation. 

The bill also proposes to abolish forfeiture and replace it with a new, court‑led enforcement regime designed to deliver more proportionate and transparent remedies for tenant breaches.

Social housing

The Social Housing Renewal Bill will be introduced to increase long term investment in social housing, to protect existing social housing stock and incentivise the development of new social homes, forming a key element in delivering the government's 1.5 million homes target. 

It will reform the Right to Buy scheme by increasing the eligibility requirement to ten years, adjusting discounts, exempting newly built social housing for 35 years, and requiring pre-sale notification to councils. The intention is to safeguard existing social housing stock and prevent further significant depletion of stock at a time of increasing demand. The bill will apply to England only.

Remediation and building safety

The Remediation Bill proposes to accelerate progress in resolving the unsafe cladding crisis. It will introduce a new legal duty on freeholders and other responsible parties to identify, assess, and remediate buildings with unsafe cladding, with possible criminal prosecution for non-compliance. A new remediation backstop will also enable third parties, such as Homes England, to carry out works where those responsible continue to fail to act.

New measures will also enable developers, contractors and others to pursue the manufacturers of unsafe construction products that have caused building safety issues, which will be a welcome development for those currently unable to recover remediation costs arising from faulty materials due to legal barriers. A new register of medium-rise buildings in England is to be created to support the identification of buildings in need of remediation work. Enforcement powers for regulators are also to be strengthened to sanction those who continue to block remediation efforts.

Visitor levy

As trailed in the 2025 Autumn Budget, the Overnight Visitor Levy Bill will enable mayors and local leaders to impose a levy on overnight accommodation, with the revenue to be reinvested locally and support local economies. A response to the government's prior consultation is anticipated shortly, which is expected to provide further details of how the levy is expected to work in practice. It applies to England only.

Energy and infrastructure

The government is to introduce the Energy Independence Bill to help deliver its clean energy and net zero commitments. The bill will reform existing legal frameworks to support the deployment of more energy infrastructure, including offshore wind, hydrogen and smart grid technologies, and to support the development of grid infrastructure. It also is intended to meet the manifesto commitment of turning Britain into a "clean energy superpower" by 2030 by not issuing new licences to explore new oil and gas fields and ban fracking. Measures on minimum energy efficiency standards for the domestic and non-domestic private rented sectors are also to be included, which will hopefully put an end to the ongoing uncertainty of future requirements, particularly for commercial lettings.

The Northern Powerhouse Rail Bill proposes to enhance the transport network between key cities in the north of England in multiple phases. England's road network, including the Lower Thames Crossing, will also receive a boost through the new funding model to be introduced by the Highways (Financing) Bill.  

Through the Clean Water Bill, the government will establish a new independent water regulator to oversee operators, replacing the current fragmented system of multiple regulatory bodies, aiming to improve oversight, accountability and enforcement. Existing frameworks are also to be updated to tackle pollution, safeguard environmental standards and to support the delivery of water infrastructure for new housing developments. New customer protection measures will also be included.

Following the written ministerial statement on 21 April 2026, the King's Speech confirms that a bill will be introduced to increase the Electricity Generator Levy (EGL) from 45% to 55% from 1 July 2026. The increase will apply to receipts attributable to electricity generated from that date. HMRC has also published a short technical note to confirm that receipts for accounting periods that straddle 1 July 2026 will be time-apportioned so that the higher rate applies only to revenues arising after that date.

The government will also legislate (at a later date) to extend the EGL beyond its current scheduled end date of April 2028. 

The EGL was introduced in 2023 as a temporary measure to tax windfall profits on energy companies as a result of large price increases. The confirmation that the EGL will be increased and extended will be disappointing for the wider energy sector but not unexpected given the wider economic outlook and the high prices due to the continued tensions in the Middle East. 

Planning

The government's plans on energy, infrastructure and housing all bring with them the need for planning consent. This raises the perennial question of whether, even with the recent additional funding for planning officers and amendments to the scope of the expedited written representation appeals procedure, there will be enough capacity at local planning authorities and the Planning Inspectorate to avoid consenting becoming more of a bottleneck on the route to delivery.

The Public Office Accountability Bill proposes placing public officials under new duties of candour relating to their day-to-day work, with potential consequences for those found to be in breach up to and including gross misconduct. If this duty is applied to planning officers there would be a question as to whether its existence could encourage additional administrative work and risk aversion or cut against the government's attempts to reduce the review of planning decisions in the courts by forming the legal basis for additional court challenges. This measure would apply to the whole of the UK.

Many of the proposed bills would provide statutory support or implementation to approaches trailed in advance. The Regulating for Growth Bill builds on the 2025 Regulation Action Plan, and more recent announcements, to propose modernising regulation through strengthening "the Growth Duty" placed on regulators. Specifically, in relation to Natural England and the Environment Agency, the government is looking to provide a clear statutory mandate "to prioritise growth without undermining their important core functions". 

The Nuclear Regulation Bill looks to take forward measures outlined in the government's March response to the Nuclear Regulatory Review 2025. While those proposals are focused on nuclear, the government has been clear that the bill will look to provide general support to major infrastructure projects. General measures announced in March include legislating so that mitigation can be taken into account at an earlier stage in the habitats assessment process, amending the Protected Landscapes Duty to clarify that developers of nationally significant infrastructure projects are not required to pay financial compensation to comply with that duty, and further reforms to the judicial review costs regime. 

Responding to the Cunliffe Review, the Clean Water Bill aims to tackle pollution at source and get critical water infrastructure built faster. The housing industry in particular will be hoping that this leads to more capacity in the sewerage system where issues are currently hampering development. The Energy Independence Bill aims to "scale up homegrown renewable energy" including through planning reform and related measures to accelerate the deployment of clean power and speed up the build out of grid infrastructure, echoing proposals from the government's April consultation response on consents, land access and rights.

Banking and financial services

Enhancing Financial Services Bill

The King's Speech announced an Enhancing Financial Services Bill to implement key elements of the Leeds Reforms set out by the chancellor in 2025.

The bill is intended to modernise the UK's regulatory framework for financial services and boost the competitiveness of the sector, with stated objectives of supporting sector growth, facilitating lending to businesses and aligning consumer protections with increasingly digital markets.

Key features include proposed changes to the ring‑fencing regime, which requires major banks to separate UK retail banking from investment banking activities. The reforms are designed to unlock more finance for UK businesses and support greater competition in lending to small and medium-sized enterprises.

The bill also aims to balance compliance burdens, with an update of the Senior Managers and Certification Regime (SMCR). The government has signalled that it wants to cut the administrative burden of SMCR by around 50 per cent, while maintaining its core objective of ensuring individual accountability at senior management level.

There will be modernised consumer protection and redress: reforming the Financial Ombudsman Service with a view to clearer, more consistent decision-making. Regulatory consolidation is also planned: the Payment Systems Regulator will be abolished and its functions absorbed into the Financial Conduct Authority, in a move towards a more efficient regulatory framework.

Credit unions are to be expanded, with a revision of membership rules to widen access to affordable finance.

Investments

Investments were a central theme of the speech, raising the prospect of using public investment to shape markets and attract further private investment. The government's aim is to "deploy the power of an active State in partnership with business and enable reforms that support higher growth and a fair deal for working people".

For financial services, the Enhancing Financial Services Bill will support lending and investment, including by updating the statutory framework underpinning the current ring-fencing regime (see above), which may be helpful for small and medium-sized enterprises' access to finance.

For infrastructure, the Highways (Financing) Bill will introduce a new funding model, called the "Regulated Asset Base", to unlock greater levels of private capital investment in road infrastructure. The Lower Thames Crossing is expected to be the first road scheme to use this model.

In the energy sector, the government has attracted over £90 billion in private sector investment in renewable projects, and the Energy Independence Bill is intended to accelerate further investment in clean energy infrastructure.

In addition to addressing pollution incidents, in the water sector the government has already unlocked £104 billion of private investment to rebuild vital infrastructure. The Clean Water Bill is designed to give investors the stability to back long-term upgrades and the clarity to support economic growth (see further in Planning, and Energy and Infrastructure sections above).

Life sciences

NHS Modernisation Bill

Through the NHS Modernisation Bill, the government intends to introduce significant reforms to the NHS and deliver on the objectives set out in its 10 Year Plan for the NHS published last year. The reforms aim to improve patient care through investment, modernisation and innovation as well as ensuring that patients have a say not only in relation to the services they receive but also broader policy proposals. 

The bill proposes several structural changes to the NHS, including:

• Abolishing NHS England by transferring it to the Department of Health and Social Care or the wider system, enabling resources to be invested into frontline services.
• Streamlining services to benefit patients and staff. The Health Services Safety and Investigations Body functions will be transferred to the Care Quality Commission and Healthwatch England will be transferred to the Department of Health and Social Care. A new Patient Experience Directorate will also be established to ensure that patients are more directly involved in policy making. 
• Expanding the function of Integrated Care Boards by transferring to them all but the most specialised commissioning functions, including primary care, dentistry, ophthalmology and pharmacy, whilst streamlining governance and taking on new democratic accountability functions.
• The creation of a Single Patient Record to be available on the NHS App, enabling patients to view their own health records securely. It will be targeted first at those receiving maternity and frailty care by 2028 before a wider roll out. 

Although not mentioned in the NHS bill, these proposals sit against other structural changes set out in the 10 Year Plan, including the government's intention to transfer the Patient Safety Commissioner (PSC) function to the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), which has regulatory responsibility for monitoring the safety of medicines and medical devices in the UK. In contrast, the PSC is the independent body responsible for ensuring that patient concerns relating to medicines and medical devices are heard and addressed. While the transfer should streamline these functions, it also raises an important question as to whether the PSC can preserve the independence necessary to advocate effectively for patients within the confines of the regulator itself. 

The bill also commits to ensuring that the NHS harnesses digital technologies and unlocks the value of health data. This reflects the ambition for the NHS to become the world's leading AI-enabled health system by 2035. The briefing notes for the Regulating for Growth Bill underline the transformative potential of AI around healthcare capacity and productivity, citing that AI could outperform 78–90% of radiologists on certain prediction tasks. 

Looking ahead, the NHS reforms are expected to pave the way for greater AI adoption in clinical settings. For medtech and diagnostics companies, this is likely to generate commercial opportunities as the regulatory landscape for deploying AI-driven technologies within the healthcare system continue to develop (and see further in Technology, data and AI above).

Cyber Security and Resilience Bill

The Cyber Security and Resilience Bill would impose new obligations on key service providers to protect public sector organisations, including the NHS, from cyber attacks. NHS trusts and health data infrastructure are among the most targeted sectors for ransomware and hostile state actors, making this bill directly relevant to the operational security of health systems and the protection of clinical trial and patient data held by life sciences organisations.

Regulators will receive new powers to designate certain suppliers as critical to the UK's essential services, such as those providing healthcare diagnostics to the NHS, where relevant criteria are met. These powers aim to address vulnerabilities in supply chains that could otherwise be exploited by criminal actors to cause wider disruption to essential health services.

Digital Access to Services Bill

Building on the government's roadmap for modern digital government, the Digital Access to Services Bill will establish a legal framework for government to create, issue and use digital ID. For life sciences and healthcare, this digital infrastructure supports the development of the proposed Single Patient Record as well as simplifying patient consent mechanisms for research and clinical trials.

For more on the Cyber Security and Resilience Bill and Digital Access to Services Bill, see Technology, data and AI section above.

Modern slavery

The Immigration and Asylum Bill was announced with the primary purpose of increasing confidence in the security of the immigration and asylum systems. It includes proposals to reform the modern slavery legislative framework, enabling the government to address potential misuse of the immigration system "while maintaining essential protections". 

Notably absent, however, is any indication of a move towards increasing proactive corporate obligations. The speech did not address calls for reform of corporate reporting on modern slavery, the introduction of mandatory due diligence and forced labour frameworks highlighted in the Independent Anti-Slavery Commissioner's report as necessary to hold businesses accountable throughout their supply chains. Businesses will have to wait to see if the government takes any action based on the report's recommendations, but there is currently no indication of changes to the corporate obligations coming in the near future.