King's Speech 2026: Constitution

Approximate read time: 15 minutes.

The Representation of the People Bill is expected to be reintroduced as a carry-over bill. This bill would lower the voting age to 16 for all UK elections. It would also tighten rules on party finance, for example by requiring parties to undertake risk assessments on donations above a certain threshold and by requiring companies making donations to have a genuine and substantive connection to the UK (or Ireland for donations to Northern Ireland parties). The government also intends to use the bill to implement some of the recommendations from the Rycroft review into foreign financial influence and interference in UK politics.

The government intends to pass a bill by the end of 2026 to enable a sanitary and phytosanitary agreement with the EU to come into force by the middle of 2027 as part of the ‘reset’ in UK-EU relations. This bill is expected to create a mechanism to enable the UK to align dynamically with certain areas of EU law.

The government has said it intends to bring forward legislation to remove peerages from disgraced peers. There have also been suggestions it may legislate to remove Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor from the line of succession to the throne.

A House of Lords committee is currently looking at legislative and non-legislative options for introducing a retirement age and a participation requirement for members of the House of Lords. The committee was set up following a government proposal. It is due to report by the end of July 2026.

This briefing has been prepared to assist members of the House of Lords in the debates on the King’s Speech. It draws upon material from the public domain and does not constitute official information about the government’s intentions or provide a complete list of bills to be announced.