CARE : New Challenges

Queens Speech: “I pray that the blessing of Almighty God may rest upon your counsels”

The Queen’s Speech, which officially opened the parliamentary calendar, ended in the traditional Christian prayer asking God to grant parliamentarians blessings while they debate legislation. Prior to that, the Queen laid out the legislative programme for the year.

CARE will be working on several Bills mentioned in the Queen Speech in the coming weeks and months, leading up to the 2010 General Election.

The Equality Bill is carried over from the previous session, and reached its report stage on 2 December. It raises very significant religious liberty concerns. There is an urgent need for people to write to their MPs on this matter. For more information, click HERE.

The Children, Schools and Families Bill will, if past unamended, put sex and relationship education (SRE) on a statutory footing within the national curriculum. Currently school governors, parents and head teachers determine the SRE curriculum within the schools cultural and ethnic context. Sadly, although the Government’s official consultation received a majority of responses against the proposals, Ed Balls announced that they would go ahead without amending the previous plans. We are very concerned and will be monitoring the progress of the Bill carefully. The Bill already received its First Reading on 19 November. To see the text of the Bill and the sections we are concerned about go HERE.

Encouragingly the Digital Economy Bill which seeks among other things to ensure that Dr. Tanya Byron’s recommendations made in her review published last year will become law. The Bills proposals help parents protect their children online, including ensuring that age certifications for computer games from age 12 up are not sold to children for whom the content is inappropriate. CARE will be positively engaging with passage of the Bill and looking for areas to improve it.

The Digital economy Bill was also introduced in the House of Lords on 19 November. You can go to the parliamentary website and read it HERE.

The Crime and Security Bill will include measures to prevent violence against women. We will be monitoring the progress of the Bill and working to make sure that violence against women is adequately tackled within the legislation.