King’s Speech

Baroness Crawley Excerpts

Wednesday 20th May 2026 Lords Chamber

Moved on Wednesday 13 May by

[Baroness Crawley]

That an humble Address be presented to His Majesty as follows:

“Most Gracious Sovereign—We, Your Majesty’s most dutiful and loyal subjects, the Lords Spiritual and Temporal in Parliament assembled, beg leave to thank Your Majesty for the most gracious Speech which Your Majesty addressed to both Houses of Parliament”.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Health and Social Care (Baroness Merron) (Lab)]

My Lords, it is a real honour to open today’s debate on behalf of His Majesty’s Government. When it was my privilege to close the last debate on the last gracious Speech, I spoke about the Mental Health Bill and the Tobacco and Vapes Bill. I thank noble Lords across the House for their engagement and thoughtful scrutiny of both those pieces of legislation, which have delivered significant Acts of Parliament and what I would describe as significant acts of change for the better. Those two Acts are among the most important steps for improving public health in decades—cornerstones of the Government’s commitment to reduce inequalities in this Parliament.

This gracious Speech sets out how we will go even further to make our country stronger and fairer through a renewal of our public services. I hope noble Lords will welcome the progress that the Government have made since taking office in respect of the health service, including action on waiting lists, now down by half a million, while the number of people waiting less than 18 weeks for planned care now stands at 65.3%, up from 59%. We see ambulances responding to strokes and heart attacks arriving five crucial minutes faster compared to last year. We have met our manifesto commitment to recruit an additional 8,500 mental health staff three years early.

Underpinning everything, we have set out a new direction for the future of healthcare through the 10-year health plan. We are reforming the NHS to make it fit for the future. We are shifting from sickness to prevention, from analogue to digital and from hospital to community. As noble Lords have regularly observed, we face an uphill battle, which is what the noble Lord, Lord Darzi, found in his independent review. One of the noble Lord’s conclusions was that past legislation was too rigid and overly specific, which had the effect of increasing bureaucracy and diluting accountability over time, and of this we have certainly taken heed.

I welcome, as I hope noble Lords will, the Health Bill outlined in the gracious Speech, which is an important part of the delivery of our 10-year plan. In summary, the Bill will cut bureaucracy; it will improve patient safety through a single patient record; it will ensure that patients receive care that is better tailored to their needs, when and where they need it; and it will help us to make the shift from sickness to prevention, while improving patient safety and patient experience. Importantly, it will put more resources into the front line through the abolition of NHS England.

Noble Lords know only too well that, far too often, patients experience care that is fragmented and inaccessible. Patients and carers find themselves telling their story time and again, every time they meet a new clinician or a new healthcare professional. That is not just an inconvenience; it actually adds to the strain on people when they least need it. It also risks the safety and quality of services.

Alongside this, without integrated data the NHS misses opportunities to diagnose and treat people early, leaving too many seeking urgent care once their health has deteriorated. It is common sense to note that, when clinicians do not have all the facts to hand, they simply cannot make the best decisions to support the interests of patients. Equally, we cannot sensibly expect patients and carers to keep track of all the different documents, from all the different specialists, for all the different appointments in all the different providers. The Health Bill creates the statutory basis for the NHS to bring patients’ health and social care records into one place, enabling people to access their own health record, securely, through the NHS app. We are actively shifting the NHS from analogue to digital, empowering patients to take informed decisions and giving them more choice and control.

Putting patients at the heart of care means devolving decisions to a local level to meet the specific needs of the local population, where different services can better integrate around the needs of the patient. That is why integrated care boards will directly commission a greater proportion of NHS services. However, some aspects must be and are best done nationally. Where that is the case, we need to ensure that arrangements are efficient and have clear and strong accountability to Parliament.

The current system of two national bodies overseeing the NHS—the Department of Health and Social Care and NHS England—fails both those tests. That is why responsibility for all but the most specialised commissioning functions will be transferred to integrated care boards, including primary care, dentistry, ophthalmology and pharmacy commissioning. Integrated care boards are best placed to integrate care as local strategic commissioners, and we are empowering providers through foundation trust reform, giving them more flexibility to design and deliver healthcare around local needs. We will bring the functions of NHS England within the department. In other words, we are abolishing NHS England.

Through and across other departments of government, we are acting to continue to make the country fairer. Through MHCLG, we have already taken decisive action to fix the foundations of the housing system. Through the Renters’ Rights Act, we are strengthening security for 11 million tenants. We have ended the unfair system of no-fault evictions and given people greater stability in their homes. Alongside this, the Planning and Infrastructure Act is making it faster and simpler to build the homes and infrastructure our communities need. The English Devolution and Community Empowerment Act ensures that power moves away from Whitehall, giving people the right to make decisions about the things that matter to them, where they matter. We have made £78 billion available in the latest local government finance settlement, which is a 6.1% increase from the previous year.

This year’s gracious Speech brings forward reforms that make it easier for people to have a say, to own and stay in their homes, and to see their local areas and local voices improved. As outlined in the gracious Speech, the Representation of the People Bill will protect the integrity of our elections and inject a new vigour into our democracy by tightening the rules on political finance, improving transparency, introducing tougher measures to tackle the intimidation of candidates and electoral staff, and by extending the right to vote to 16 year-olds and 17 year-olds—the biggest expansion of the franchise in over half a century.

We are not just giving young people a greater say in our democracy. Through the commonhold and leasehold reform Bill, we are protecting their rights when they take their first steps on the property ladder, by fixing abuses and ensuring commonhold replaces leasehold by default. This Bill will make owning a home fairer and the provisions more transparent. Far too many leaseholders face unregulated and unaffordable ground rents; they face unjustified permissions and administration fees, unreasonable or extortionate charges, and conditions imposed with little or no consultation. The Bill will cut unfair charges, give people more control over how their buildings are run and ensure that they cannot lose their home for minor disputes or unexpected costs.

Alongside the ongoing implementation of reforms to the leasehold system which are already in statute, the Bill makes progress towards ending the feudal leasehold system so that future homeowners can buy with greater confidence and fewer hidden costs. It will cap ground rents for leaseholders today and will set a decisive path towards eradicating them, ending this exploitative practice of money for nothing.

Many leaseholders, as we know and have debated many times, are also trapped in unsuitable homes that they are unable to sell. It is a disgrace that nearly nine years on from the appalling tragedy at Grenfell Tower, there are still people in this country who live in buildings with unsafe cladding. The building remediation Bill will deliver on our commitment to fix the cladding crisis and, crucially, make those responsible pay towards fixing the problem that they caused, so that residents can feel safe in their homes and are no longer stuck in property that they cannot sell or move on from. There will be clear legal duties to fix buildings and penalties for those who fail.

Everybody deserves to live in a decent, safe, secure and affordable home, yet too many families in need of a social rented home are languishing on local authority waiting lists, being forced to struggle in the private rented sector or in expensive temporary accommodation. We have committed to invest £39 billion in the social and affordable housing programme over the next decade, with a further £3.6 billion to tackle the root causes of homelessness—and we are going further. The Social Housing Bill will help more families to access a safe and affordable home. It will protect the homes we already have and give tenants greater security, particularly those who need extra support, such as victims of domestic violence. It will also keep homes in the social sector through sensible reforms to the right to buy while ensuring that, where they are sold, the public purse is protected. This Government are putting the social housing sector on to a secure and sure footing.

We will also continue to keep our promise to transfer powers out of Westminster. The overnight visitor levy Bill will grant new revenue-raising powers to local leaders, as a step towards a new era of fiscal devolution in England, so that places can raise funding locally and invest it back into the services and spaces that people use every single day. Mayors will have the power to raise money and invest it into projects that improve their areas, to raise living standards and to support economic growth. They will be able to decide for themselves and not rely on central government to do it for them.

If I had to summarise these reforms, I would say that they are about something in some ways simple but also deeply fundamental. They are about ensuring that more people can live in a safe, secure home. They support better health, stronger communities and a growing economy.

To that last point, this growth also depends on world-class infrastructure, and our economic security depends on a strong transport network, whether of roads, rail or runways, so the Department for Transport is driving economic growth and transforming how people travel. It is making journeys greener, safer and healthier for all, as well as making them more available.

We are delivering a more integrated, reliable and future-focused transport system by improving connectivity, strengthening capacity and making travel more affordable. We are doing this by modernising rail, investing in better roads and empowering local areas to shape the transport services that they need. We are also setting a long-term vision for how people and places connect to drive the transition to net zero.

For too long, passengers have had to put up with unreliable services, confusing fares and no single body accountable for delivering a railway that works. I am glad to say that the Railways Bill puts an end to this by establishing Great British Railways, a new publicly owned company with sole responsibility for delivering for passengers and freight operators. Whether it be through simplifying the complex fares and ticketing system, through developing a timetable that actually works or through ensuring the needs of local communities are no longer ignored, GBR will deliver it. The Bill also establishes a powerful passenger watchdog to ensure that passengers are consistently championed at every turn. In addition, Northern Powerhouse Rail will create more reliable and more frequent services between the north of England’s great cities, so that more housing and better access to jobs, services and culture will have opportunities to grow.

As part of our drive to literally move forward, the Civil Aviation (Consumer Protection and Regulatory Reform) Bill strengthens consumer rights and promotes fair treatment of passengers. We are also making sure those rights are properly enforced by equipping the Civil Aviation Authority with direct powers to take action if airlines or airports fail consumers. The Bill will also promote economic growth through better infrastructure and improve aviation safety.

As set out in the gracious Speech, the highways financing Bill will help to unlock private investment in major road schemes. It gives the Government more ways to fund building and to maintain large-scale road infrastructure projects, while reducing the burden on the taxpayer.

The gracious Speech gives us the tools we need to build a stronger and fairer Britain. I and my Front-Bench colleagues look forward to taking these measures through your Lordships’ House and to working with noble Lords on all sides of the House.

It is only fair for patients to expect world-class healthcare that works around their needs; it is only fair for families to expect safe and affordable housing, and it is only fair that young people should never be cut off from opportunities, no matter where they live.