Queen's speech pledges measures to boost growth

The Queen has unveiled 19 new pieces of legislation in her annual speech to open Parliament, focusing on boosting the UK economy with a raft of business-friendly measures.

The bills, including four in draft form, will “focus on economic growth, justice and constitutional reform”, the Queen told MPs. Constitutional change features in the speech alongside new laws to support families, reform pensions and break up the banks to avoid further failures. The banking reforms put into place some of the recommendations of Sir John Vickers in his report into how to prevent a repeat of the crisis of 2008. Banks will be required to ring-fence off their High Street banking services for households and businesses and the higher risk activities of their investment ar...