THE King’s Speech last week contained 40 bills including two carried over from the previous parliamentary session.

It was the highest number of law reform bills since 2005 – with 24 new bills affecting people in Scotland to varying degrees.

Some of the initiatives will be a game changer for less well-off citizens.

The Employment Rights Bill will be introduced in the first 100 days of the new Labour Government – by 12 October 2024.

This bill was previously outlined in Labour’s New Deal for Working People and is focused on workers in the gig economy, typically people who regularly work long hours for lower pay with little job security.

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The Employment Rights Bill will ban exploitative zero-hours contracts and ensure people have a right to a contract that reflects the number of hours they generally work.

The UK minimum wage will be increased to provide a genuine living wage. “Discriminatory age bands” on earnings will be removed.

A survey in June 2024 from the job site Indeed revealed that one in five workers had not seen a pay rise since the cost of living crisis in 2021; with one in seven saying their pay had reduced.

The bill will stop “fire and rehire” practices, where employers dismiss workers and rehire them on less favourable terms. This is a common tactic of multinational employers.

The current two-year qualifying period before an employee can claim unfair dismissal or redundancy will become a “day one right” for all workers.

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Probationary periods will still be permissible and the current general three-month time limit to raise tribunal proceedings will be extended by the bill.

Parental leave and sick pay will be beefed up. The right to seek flexible working will be made a day one right for all workers.

The bill will make it unlawful to dismiss a woman who has had a baby for six months after her return, other than in exceptional circumstances.

Trade union rights will be improved and enhanced. Employees and trade union members will have a reasonable right to access a union within the workplace.

Another bill with potentially far reaching consequences is the Great British Energy Bill. This is a publicly owned national energy company that will be headquartered in Scotland and backed with £8.3billion.

Its mission is to work with the private sector to “develop, own and operate energy projects”.

The King’s Speech said the new company “will help us take back control of the country’s energy, achieve energy independence, create new jobs, save money for households and tackle climate change”.

With any legislation the devil is always in the detail and the time frame for when news laws are brought into force. For example, consider the Domestic Abuse (Protection) (Scotland) Act 2021.

This Act was passed by the Scottish Parliament over three years ago to protect women and children against domestic violence and abuse. However, not one single operative provision is in force.

Domestic abuse is the leading cause of homelessness for women in Scotland and the failure to bring this legislation into force three years after it was passed is truly shocking and unforgivable.

Let’s hope Labour’s transformational law reform bills do not languish in abeyance and are fast-tracked to have an immediate impact for the people they are designed to help.