Boris Johnson’s term in office has begun with the race towards Brexit day on 31^st January, and this drive has been pushing the first couple of weeks in office as Parliament returns to get back to the business of government.

So what are the prospects for consultation under Johnson’s new administration? To find an answer to that we might be best advised to look backwards to the content of the Queen’s Speech on 19^th December last year. Although the text of the speech contained no direct references to public engagement and consultations, the background notes provided by the government are far more revealing. For a two page document, the Speech itself looks as if it is likely to trigger a proliferation of major and minor consultations.

Disregarding, for now, the initial provisions about Brexit, we will start with the specifically identified major consultations. As ever, the government leads with public services where in addition to an annual £1bn funding increase for adults and children’s social care the government has announced a consultation on an extra 2% precept to allow councils to access an additional £500m for adult social care in 2020-2021. This is the sole consultation regarding health and social care to be explicitly mentioned, but as we shall see, it would appear to be far from the be-all and end-all. On education, the government both announced and has already launched a consultation on the removal of the Ofsted ‘oustanding exemption’, a principle which allows English schools that are rated ‘outstanding’ in an Ofsted inspection to be exempt from future routine inspections by the education regulator. The consultation launched on 10^th January and concludes on 24^th February.

In line with their pledge to be a government for the people, the Government has extensive promises oriented towards supporting workers and families. One of the leading pledges for workers is a promise to consult on making flexible working the default, rather than the exception. Rolling this up with a whole host of other employment-related matters in a new Employment Bill, the move is framed as an attempt to encourage economic flexibility and enhance workers’ rights after Brexit.

The Government is also intending to consult on the retention of disabled people and people with other illnesses in employment, though it is not yet clear quite what the full scope of this will be. Employment measures are not the only way that they intend to support young and working families and the shortage of affordable housing will be addressed by a consultation on First Homes, a plan to provide homes in specific localities for key workers with significant discounts on usual asking prices.

For renters, a new Renters Reform Bill is promised, which will no doubt also come under consultation. The Grenfell Tower tragedy is at the forefront of a pledge to consult on changes to the Building Regulations guidance, with particular reference to the height threshold for sprinkler systems, and the launch of a related Social Sector (Building Safety) Engagement Best Practice Group to ensure that residents of social accommodation are better engaged in safety matters, and are equipped to deal with their own safety obligations. It may not be all good for workers, however, as one of the pledges involves consultation on the restriction of strike activity on the rail networks if no minimum service agreement is in place to allow for continued operation. How the government will implement this in a manner which preserves an appropriate balance, as they have promised to do, remains to be seen and may well be informed largely by the views expressed in that consultation. Expect large contributions from trade unions as they might fear that if railway workers are first, many other public services might follow!

Only one consultation is directly proposed in the criminal justice sphere, on the implementation of a new victims’ law to set out the minimum level of service that victims should anticipate from criminal justice organisations. In the briefing notes, the government specifically identifies a desire to consult on both strengthening the victims’ code and enhancing the powers of the Victims’ Commissioner to be better able to hold the Government to account.

As the hot topic global issue, the environment is present with a pledge to consult on the banning of export of polluting plastic waste to non-OECD countries, a move that would ensure that only OECD standard compliant countries would be able to dispose of potentially environmentally harmful waste products. With the environmental pledges also stands a pledge to consult on ending excessively long journeys for slaughter for livestock.

Another pledge mirrors the first paragraph of the speech in its potential constitutional import, promising a consultation on electoral integrity. The specifics of what this will entail have not yet been identified, other than a broad brush indication that it will aim to ‘protect our democracy from foreign interference’ and ‘refresh our laws for the digital age.’ One of the specifically identified policies is a desire to implement a voter ID programme, something that critics deride as being unnecessary and possibly even discriminatory. Given that many deny that there is a problem with electoral integrity, this could well be a consultation that does not return the government’s desired response.

A decent start for consultation under the new administration then. We hope that as they start working through them they will observe best practice and ensure that they are all as watertight as possible.