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ARTICLE · 15 MAY 2012

The Queen's Speech And Infrastructure

Bircham Dyson Bell LLP
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Today is the State Opening of Parliament and the Queen's Speech, marking the first day of a new parliamentary session (i.e. year).

United KingdomGovernment, Public Sector
Angus Walker
Angus Walker

Background

Today is the State Opening of Parliament and the Queen's Speech, marking the first day of a new parliamentary session (i.e. year). When there wasn't an election to interrupt the cycle, the Queen's Speech used to be in November each year, but it has been moved to May to coincide with the now fixed election date that month. This means that there hasn't been a Queen's Speech since 25 May 2010, so the last session of parliament unusually lasted for nearly two years. The new session is officially the second session of the 55th Parliament of the UK, which is dated from 1801 and means there have been 55 general elections since then. This is why Parliamentary bills will have '55/2' on their front pages for the next year.

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