Tony Blair’s final agenda

Philippe Naughton

Tony Blair’s final parliamentary session as Prime Minister began today with the pomp and ceremony of the Queen’s Speech and a pledge, delivered by the monarch herself from her throne in the Lords, to push more than two dozen new Bills onto the statute books.

Mr Blair’s final legislative agenda is a populist package of legislation dominated by crime and security measures on which the running will be made by John Reid, the Home Secretary.

The Prime Minister has already signalled his intention to leave office by next September and most observers expect him to be gone by the summer, but the Government is hoping to push at least 29 Bills through Parliament in this session.

They include five significant Home Office Bills, including one to bolster the rights of the victims of crime and another to make it easier for police to tackle gangsters. There is also a landmark Climate Change Bill that enshrine carbon emission reduction targets in law.

Delivering her annual address on the State Opening of Parliament, the Queen told MPs and peers: “At the heart of my Government’s programme will be further action to provide strong, secure and stable communities, and to address the threat of terrorism.

“My Government will put victims at the heart of the criminal justice system, support the police and all those responsible for the public’s safety and proceed with the development of ID cards.”

The package of measures was dismissed as “repetitive and hollow” by David Cameron, who gave his reaction to his first Queen’s Speech as Leader of the Opposition when MPs returned to the Commons this afternoon.

In a confident performance, Mr Cameron attacked Labour for what he said was its failure to deliver on health and crime despite innumerable initiatives over the past decade.

He also claimed that the highlights of today’s agenda - including the Climate Change Bill - had been stolen from his own party.

“The tragedy of this Prime Minister is that he promised so much and yet has delivered so little,” Mr Cameron told MPs . “And the tragedy of this Queen’s Speech is that all his successor offers is more of the same.

“More laws on crime - yet violent crime up. More laws on health - yet hospitals closed. More laws on immigration - yet our borders still completely out of control. Every year the same promises. Every year the same failures.”

He added: “The paradox of New Labour is that, twelve years on, the Prime Minister is still desperately looking for a legacy.

“After three massive majorities, almost a decade in power, 10 Gracious Speeches, and 370 pieces of legislation, the question they have to answer is why has so little been achieved?

“It’s because they have put headlines above delivery. They believe in centralised power, not social responsibility. And, all too often, they’ve passed laws to score political points, rather than to achieve real change.”

Government officials said that the theme of the package of measures was providing “security in a changing world” - not only physical protection from terrorists and criminals but security against global warming and pensioner poverty.

Thre was immediate speculation in Westminster over how much of Mr Blair’s swansong programme will actually make it onto the statute book as ministers, MPs and civil servants turn their thoughts to the priorities of his expected successor, Gordon Brown.

Nor was the speech all-encompassing. The programme contained no Terrorism Bill, even though the Home Office has made clear that legislation is on the cards following a review by John Reid of current counter-terrorist capacities and resources.

Immigration officers will be given tougher powers in a Border and Immigration Bill, which will make clear an automatic presumption of deportation for foreigners committing serious crimes.

A Criminal Justice Bill will set a new direction for a system of “smarter justice”, with far greater involvement for victims; create new powers to tackle anti-social behaviour; make sentencing clearer and bring compensation for wrongful convictions in line with that for victims of crime.

An Offender Management Bill will allow the Home Secretary to get the private or voluntary sectors to provide probation services.

Perhaps the measure with the most far-reaching impact - and which could see the most heated parliamentary debate - will be the Climate Change Bill to be tabled by David Miliband, the Environment Secretary.

The Bill will set in law the Government’s goal of cutting Britain’s emissions of carbon dioxide, the major greenhouse gas, by 60 per cent by 2050 and will establish an independent Carbon Committee to advise ministers on how to do this. There is, however, no provision for binding annual targets, as demanded by environmentalists, backed by opposition parties and many backbenchers.

The Bill received short shrift from the Green Party, whose spokeswoman, Sian Berry, accused Mr Blair of a “fudging” the issues.

“Almost two-thirds of MPs have called for annual binding targets, reflecting the British public’s desire for urgent action to tackle devastating carbon emissions,” she said.

“The Government’s own Stern review stated that it is better to achieve faster reductions earlier, or greater reductions will be needed later. But Blair is determined to fly in the face of public opinion, of scientific recommendations, of common sense.”

The Pensions Bill to be put forward by John Hutton, the Work and Pensions Secretary, will put into place many of the recommendations of the Turner Commission, including pushing back the state retirement age to as late as 68 and the re-establishment of the link between the state pension and average earnings.

The Department for Work and Pensions said these changes should by 2050 result in a pension worth twice as much as it would have been without reform, but could see people working to 68 by 2046.

Mr Hutton is also bringing forward a bill to replace the Child Support Agency and replace it with a new body “to provide a simple and more effective way of assessing, collecting and enforcing child maintenance”. He will also carry over his Welfare Reform Bill to replace incapacity benefit.

Unlike previous years, there are no major Bills in today’s Speech to reform the public services, though the speech made clear that the programme of modernisation in schools and the NHS would continue.

There was also no Bill to complete reform of the House of Lords. Proposals to remove the last hereditary peers and make the Second Chamber “more effective, legitimate and representative” will be presented in a White Paper by Jack Straw, Leader of the Commons, later this month, with a free vote expected by Christmas.

Reform of party funding, too, will wait until the completion of the review currently being undertaken by Sir Hayden Phillips.

Mr Blair told MPs: “The theme of this Queen’s Speech is taking the long-term decisions necessary to give us security and opportunity in a rapidly changing world. Such a pace of change is transforming the nature of the challenges we face.”