Having waved goodbye to the Truss government, many of us hoped that 2023 would be a more moderate year in which rampant deregulation was off the political agenda. Unfortunately, things weren’t quite so easy. Once again the hard work of campaigners, politicians and parts of the private sector were needed to save key public and environmental protections from the chopping block.
Fortunately, the public stands behind these efforts. Whether it’s in Stevenage or Hastings, we know voters care about rules and want to see them properly enforced. And we know that up and down the country the public never had any desire for the ‘bonfire of regulation’ we spent so much of this year resisting.
With the general election in sight, we need to continue to make that case so that any party hoping to win the next election is in no doubt that strong protections are the vote winner that will deliver them the keys to Number 10.
But for now, here’s our recap of the very best and very worst of 2023 – those who have stood up for strong public protections and those who tried to slash and burn them.
Arsonists of the Year
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The year got off to a bad start in January when the then Secretary of State for BEIS, Grant Shapps, introduced the ‘anti-strike’ Bill which led to the UK being downgraded in a global rating of worker protections. Earlier this month, a coalition of businesses, unions and civil society groups in the EU and UK issued a joint statement warning that the laws could put the UK on a collision course with the EU.
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No list of arsonists is complete without a mention of the water companies that have continued to pollute our waterways. This year alone, Surfers Against Sewage reported over 18,000 real-time sewage alerts and pollution risk forecasts for the UK. With the Environment Agency’s budget slashed by 70% over the last 10 years, it is no surprise that water companies have faced such little scrutiny and have been able to get away with this national scandal.
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The Online Safety Act was finally passed this year after spending a year and a half making its way through Parliament. This left ample time for large tech companies to make their opposition to the bill felt with numerous attempts to water down measures intended to protect users from harmful online content. Thanks to the brave work of families with direct experience of online abuse, efforts to ensure that social media companies take responsibility for the wellbeing of young users continue.
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Environmental Secretary, Michael Gove, left many scratching their heads with his decision to allow more pollution in our rivers by scrapping rules governing pollution from new developments. Gove was eventually forced to row back on the policy after a furious response from environmental campaigners who warned that UK rivers could face ‘near ecological collapse’.
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Despite the huge backlash from civil society groups and members of the House of Lords, Jacob Rees-Mogg continued to spearhead plans to remove 4,000 EU-derived laws through the Retained EU Law Bill. Thankfully his momentum was eventually thwarted and the bill was watered down – but 600 pieces of regulation still made it onto the chopping block.
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In the wake of the Uxbridge by-election victory, the Government U-turned on a host of net zero commitments in the hope that this could be made into a wedge issue amongst voters. But Sunak soon faced fierce public and industry backlash including from the likes of Ford UK, who chastised the government saying, ‘our business needs three things from the UK government: ambition, commitment and consistency. A relaxation of 2030 [net zero goals] would undermine all three.’
Protectors of the Year
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The new director of the Serious Fraud Office, Nick Ephgrave, has promised a new approach to investigations under his leadership. Ephgrave marked this approach with a dawn raid in November in which seven individuals were arrested and nine sites were raided as part of a formal investigation into allegations of fraud at Axiom.
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Rishi Sunak hardly enamoured himself with the public this year, but one thing of note was his promise to phase out the sale of tobacco in the UK. The policy is expected to mean up to 1.7 million fewer people smoke by 2075, saving millions of lives and boosting the economy by up to £85 billion.
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Keir Starmer underlined the Labour Party’s commitment to transforming the lives of working people with a string of new worker protections aimed at dealing with low pay, insecurity and disempowerment at work. As well as scrapping the minimum service laws introduced by Grant Shapps, Labour’s reforms include the establishment of a fully funded single enforcement body to protect workers’ rights.