§ My Government have pursued firm financial policies which have allowed the recovery to broaden and strengthen while reducing inflation to its lowest level for a generation.
§ My Government have brought together tax and expenditure decisions in a Unified Budget. Measures have been introduced to ensure that the budget deficit is brought back towards balance over the medium term. Steps have been taken to help business, to promote investment, and to improve the training and education of the workforce. My Government have successfully implemented a range of substantial measures to help our exporters win in world markets.
§ My Government have put forward proposals in the Green Paper on Resource Accounting and Budgeting for all departments to publish departmental resource accounts drawn up on commercial accounting principles by 1999, and for resource accounting subsequently to form the basis of the Public Expenditure Survey, to improve both the management 1636 of public spending and accountability for taxpayers' money. My Government have published a White Paper on the Civil Service.
§ Legislation has been passed to remove unnecessary regulatory burdens, to facilitate the process of deregulation in the future and to remove obstacles to contracting out in central and local government.
§ An Act has been passed which reforms the laws governing Sunday trading in England and Wales by allowing all small shops to open all day on Sundays and most larger shops to open for six hours.
§ Legislation has been passed to transfer the costs of Statutory Sick Pay to employers, whose National Insurance contributions have been reduced to meet those costs. An Act has also been passed to restructure the long term Incapacity Benefit from April 1995.
§ Legislation has been passed to enable British Coal to be privatised; and to modernise the law on trade marks and improve protection against their misuse.
§ An Act has been passed to improve the organisation and management of the police so that they are better able to combat crime; and to strengthen the administration of magistrates' courts.
§ Legislation has been passed to allow the courts to deal more effectively with young offenders and to make a wide range of other improvements in the criminal law and the criminal justice system.
§ An Act has been passed to enable the establishment of a Teacher Training Agency and to reform student unions.
§ Legislation has been enacted to reform local government in Scotland and Wales.
§ In Northern Ireland my Government have welcomed the ceasefires announced by the IRA and anti-nationalist paramilitaries. They have maintained progress towards a comprehensive political settlement, through discussions with the main constitutional parties, with the Irish Government, and through the Joint Declaration. They have worked to improve social and economic conditions.
§ My Government have made the first use of a new Parliamentary procedure for uncontroversial law reform, introducing measures recommended by the Law Commission to simplify and clarify the law of property.