On the 18th May 2016, the Queen revealed a series of bills in her speech at the 65th state opening of parliament. Among these were the Digital Economy Bill and Modern Transport Bill which might help cement London and the UK as one of the leading digital startup hubs in the world.
The Digital Economy Bill
The Digital Economy Bill aims to make it a legal right to provide every household and business premise with fast broadband. As a main driver in a global 21st century economy, this will allow every UK resident to take advantage of communications on both a national and international level.
In an increasingly connected era, broadband will be provided on the same level as any utility bill. Much like water or gas, customers will get compensation if any problems occur with their connection.
The minimum speed is said to be 10 Mbps by 2020 which Ofcom believes to be sufficient for modern life. However, some argue that by the time this is accomplished, the digital needs of day-to-day life would have drastically changed and this infrastructure might not be able to support new technology.
To improve the infrastructure, there is to be a cut in cost of building phone masts and broadband cables. Other points include fining companies that do not have consent before sending promotional spam emails and placing age verification on any site containing pornographic imagery.
Modern Transport Bill
There will be action to encourage investment in driverless cars, electric cars, commercial space planes and drones in Great Britain. This is meant to help boost business and technology within Great Britain.
Rather than just boosting investment, insurance for the use of driverless cars will become available.
Other Bills
The Queen’s speech covered several other Bills including the Better Markets Bill, Pensions Bill, Small Charitable Donations Bill and Intellectual Property Bill. For more detail on the Bills, click here.
