Implications of the Con-Lib Dem Coalition Agreement

The newly formed Conservative / Liberal Democrats Coalition Government has published an initial Coalition Agreement, which can be found at the Conservative and Liberal Democrats websites.

The initial Coalition Agreement sets out the agreement reached between the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats on 11 key issues that they needed to resolve in order to work together as a strong and stable government.

Chancellor, George Osborne, has confirmed that an emergency Budget will be held on 22 June 2010. A full Spending Review will take place in the Autumn.

Civil liberties

The Civil liberties section of the initial Coalition Agreement sets out the parties’ plans “to implement a full programme of measures to reverse the substantial erosion of civil liberties under the Labour Government and roll back state intrusion” including:

• the introduction of a Freedom or Great Repeal Bill (this will cover a number of issues including those listed below); 
• the scrapping of ID card scheme, the National Identity register, the next generation of biometric passports and the Contact Point Database; 
• the extension of the scope of the Freedom of Information Act to provide greater transparency; 
• the adoption of the protections of the Scottish model for the DNA database; 
• the review of libel laws to protect freedom of speech; 
• the further regulation of CCTV; and 
• termination of storage of internet and email records without good reason.

Next steps

A final Coalition Agreement will follow in due course, covering the full range of policy, including foreign, defence and domestic policy issues not covered in the initial Coalition Agreement. This should set out the detail of the legislative programme which will ultimately be confirmed in the Queen’s speech on 25 May 2010.


Written by Shelley Marshall, a Trainee Solicitor in the Commerce and Technology Team.