List of bills in the Queen's Speech

Electronic Communications - Designed to "promote electronic commerce and electronic government" it will give legal underpinning to the greater use of electronic signatures.

Electronic Communications - Designed to "promote electronic commerce and electronic government" it will give legal underpinning to the greater use of electronic signatures.

Financial services Authority - Carried over from the last session, it will equip the giant financial services watchdog with powers to regulate the industry in Britain.

Regulatory Authority - Will give ministers powers to make legally binding deregulation orders where they felt rules were hampering business or public services.

Postal Services - Intended to give the Post Office greater commercial freedom in return for the loss of its monopoly by converting it from a public corporation to a public limited company wholly owned by the Government. A share sell-off will be specifically prohibited except by a further Act of Parliament. A price and services regulator, the Postal Services Commission, will also be established.

Utility Regulation - Aimed at cutting prices by tightening regulation of gas, water and electricity companies, and will introduce a requirement to publish links between directors' pay and service levels.

Insolvency - The Government wants to encourage risk-taking by entrepreneurs by creating a moratorium for viable companies in difficulty, protecting them from creditors while they assemble a rescue plan. Will also give the Trade and Industry Secretary the power - previously only available to the courts - to disqualify unfit directors to speed up the process.

Post 16 Education and Training - A new Learning and Skills Council will be given responsibility for planning and funding all post-16 education and training with the exception of higher education.

Care Leavers - To help young people leaving local authority care by giving them a Pathway Plan mapping their route to independence. It will also compel councils to assess and meet their needs.

Welfare Reform - Will reform child support by simplifying the method of calculating payments. Introducing new powers to take away benefits from people who fail to comply with certain community sentences. Will also include provisions to establish a State Second Pension, the replacement for the State Earnings Related Pension Scheme.

Special Educational Needs - To improve schooling for children with special educational needs, it will oblige Local Education Authorities to offer a "parent partnership service" including an independent parental supporter, and extend civil rights for disabled children.

Care Standards - Aimed at stamping out child abuse in social services, child care and private and voluntary care homes by tightening regulation of providers.

Crime and Probation - Will bring in mandatory drug testing across the English and Welsh criminal justice system and restructure the Probation Service, giving it greater enforcement powers and extend the use of electronic tags. It will also establish the Children and Family Court Advisory Service and improve checks on people unsuitable for working with children.

Criminal Justice (Mode of Trial) - Courts themselves will get the power to decide whether a certain defendants should be tried by jury or magistrates.

Sexual Offences (Amendment) (reintroduction) - After it was defeated by the House of Lords in April, this will renew the attempt to equalise the age of consent for both homosexual and heterosexual people at 16.

Prevention of Terrorism - To replace all such existing legislation with permanent, UK-wide laws - although some parts relating specifically to Northern Ireland will be still subject to annual renewal. Will bring "domestic" terrorists including animal rights activists under the law.

Regulation of Investigatory Powers - Intended to update the law on intercepting communications, giving Government and the police the power to decode encrypted computer data where it was "lawfully acquired".

Race Relations (Amendment) - Making it unlawful for public services - including the police - to discriminate on racial grounds, as recommended by the Macpherson Inquiry into the death of Stephen Lawrence.

Countryside - Conferring new access rights to the countryside but landowners will get the right to close their property without approval for 28 days a year.

Transport - Will establish the Strategic Rail Authority and give local authorities power to introduce road user and work place car park charges. Will also pave the way for creating the Public-Private Partnership for National Air Traffic Service.

Government resource and accounting - Will introduce modern accounting methods to Whitehall.

Limited liability - To create limited liability partnerships, giving firms the flexibility of partnerships and the protection of limited liability.

Trustee - Aimed at modernising the powers and duties of trustees, including those responsible for charities.

Ulster policing - Implementing the proposals of the Patten Commission on the future of policing in the province, subject to further consultation.

Political party reforms and funding - An Electoral Commission will be set up to oversee the funding and spending of political parties. The Bill will also outlaw foreign donations and allocate some public money to opposing sides while limiting total expenditure in future referendums.

Representation of the people - Designed to make it easier for people to vote by, for example, allowing them to get on the electoral roll at any time of the year. Will also give people the right to ask that their details not be given out to commercial organisations. And the homeless, people on remand and in mental institutions will be given the vote.

Local government - Intended to give councils power to have directly elected mayors and Cabinet-style executive bodies.

Freedom of information - It will give everyone the right to access information from across the public sector, subject to certain exemptions and conditions.

Armed forces discipline - Under the legislation, military personnel charged with offences will be given similar legal rights to civilians.

The Queen's Speech also makes reference to "other measures" but does not specify what they will be. However, the Government has said they will include -

Fur farming - To ban fur farms and make provision for compensating existing fur farmers.

Prosecutions inspectorate - Will establish an independent watchdog to oversee the Crown Prosecution Service.

Nuclear safeguards - Will strengthen the powers of the International Atomic Energy Agency to detect or deter secret nuclear weapons programmes.

In addition, at least three Bills will be published in draft form for pre-legislative scrutiny, including:

International criminal court - Will put the Court's powers to try genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity cases on a UK legal footing.

Water - Will overhaul the licensing system for taking water out of rivers and other natural sources and force water companies to draw up drought plans and conserve water as well as increase competition.

Commonhold/leasehold - Will reform leasehold law to prevent exploitation by landlords and introduce commonhold, a new form of land tenure giving people living in multi-occupier buildings such as blocks of flats the freehold interest in their own.