The Government will bring forward a Counter-Extremism and Safeguarding Bill after the Queen announced the plans during the State Opening of Parliament today.

According to the speech, the new bill aims to “tackle extremism in all its forms”. The background notes to the speech also indicate the government is pressing ahead with plans to inspect out of school educational settings, despite fierce opposition.

There is also a commitment to hold a public consultation on controversial plans to introduce Extremism Disruption Orders (EDOs).

CARE is deeply concerned that the new extremism legislation will have severe consequences for free speech and the rights of Christians and Churches to openly speak about the Christian faith.

The Digital Economy Bill was also announced and as part of this legislation, the government says it will introduce age-verification for all online pornographic sites, a move CARE fully supports.

Last year, polling for CARE showed government proposals to age-verify adult content online had huge public support, with 74 per cent agreeing that the age-verification should be applied to all porn sites that stream content into the UK.

Alongside the Government’s legislative agenda of 21 bills, Peers and MPs have the opportunity to bring forward private members bills (PMBs).

The ballot for PMBs in the Lord’s closes tonight (Wednesday, May 18) and the House of Commons ballot will close next week, on May 24^th.

Image taken from Gov website