The Queen will open a new session of Parliament next week, on 9^th of May. According to press reports the contents of the Queen’s Speech were agreed at a meeting of the Cabinet on 31^st January.  This is possible, as permission would be required to allow Parliamentary Counsel to draft new Bills which will be introduced in the early part of the next session. However, this is unlikely to have been the only and definitive Cabinet meeting on the subject. Not only because this is a Coalition Government where the legislative programme will be subject to negotiation between the two governing parties, but also the legislative programme and the Queen’s Speech often reflects the changing political mood. Indeed, that mood has significantly changed in the last two to three months.

David Cameron is said to have urged his Cabinet colleagues to ensure that in this Queen’s Speech there is less, but better legislation. He is particularly keen to avoid being accused of further u-turns after difficulties over the NHS reforms, elected police commissioners, forest sales and benefit changes. Peers inflicted eleven defeats on the Government during the passage of the Legal Aid Bill alone, more than any other legislation in recent times. Though, there has been some criticism in and around the House of Commons that Government business managers, in managing its legislative business, have not kept the House fully occupied.