source

The Queen’s Speech will contain pledges to introduce 21 bills and other legislation during the next parliamentary year Photo: PA

This is being promoted as a flagship piece of legislation which will enshrine the new coalition government’s commitment to education. It will allow more schools to become academies with freedom from day-to-day Whitehall control, as well as giving more say to teachers to decide what should be in the curriculum.

Ministers believe that “setting rules in Whitehall” is not the way to raise standards in classrooms.

CON POLICY

Local Government (Revocation of Structural Change) Bill. (Dept for Communities and Local Govt).

This will stop the planned creation of single-tier councils serving Exeter and Norwich. Eric Pickles, the Communities Secretary, brands the restructuring plans “wasteful and unnecessary” and claims scrapping them will save £40 million.

It is also likely to stop dozens of Tory and Lib Dem councillors losing their current posts.

CON LIB POLICY

Identity Documents Bill (Home Office).

The imminent scrapping of identity cards and the planned National Identity Register is already being foreshadowed on the Home Office website. This Bill will enact a policy that both coalition partners put forward but the fact it is one of the first three pieces of legislation to be unveiled is a boost for Nick Clegg and the Lib Dems’ civil liberties agenda.

LIB CON POLICY

BILLS TO BE INTRODUCED BEFORE SUMMER RECESS

Office of Budget Responsibility (and National Audit Office Governance) Bill. (Treasury)

This sets up one of the key bodies promoted by George Osborne – the independent OBR which will replace the Treasury as the official “forecaster” for growth and borrowing ahead of the emergency Budget next month.

It is likely also to reform the way the National Audit Office, the state spending watchdog, is run.

CON

The Great Repeals Bill aka The Freedom Bill (Cabinet Office).

This will enact a raft of reforms described by Nick Clegg last week as the most radical redistribution of power from the state to the people in 200 years. It will include the scrapping of universal DNA databases and the placing of restrictions on internet records while the use of CCTV cameras will be reviewed, the ContactPoint children’s database will be shut down. Libel laws will be reviewed while limits on peaceful protest will be removed.

LIB

Equitable Life Payments Scheme Bill. (Treasury)

This is set to offer compensation without means-testing for up to a million savers who lost out when the insurance company Equitable Life came close to collapse a decade ago.

Payouts, which could include families of 30,000 investors who have died since the company got into trouble, could run into hundreds of millions of pounds.

However, this Bill would enact a key Tory pre-election promise.

CON

Terrorist Asset Freezing Bill. (Treasury)

There is already provision for freezing terrorists’ assets in law – however, a new Bill could be the vehicle for expanding the definition of an organisation classed as terrorist, possibly to include Hizb-ut-Tahir, the revolutionary Islamist party, which David Cameron has said he will ban.

CON

National Insurance Contributions Bill. (Treasury)

This is set to be the vehicle for stopping in its tracks Labour’s planned rise in National Insurance Contributions for employers, which was to come into force next year and was dubbed a “jobs tax” by the Tories. However after consultations with the Lib Dems, the rise in NICs for employees will still go ahead.

CON LIB

Parliamentary Reform Bill. (Ministry of Justice).

Ken Clarke will oversee one of the big prizes for the Lib Dems of their coalition deal – a huge political reform package which is likely to include five-year fixed-term parliaments (including the controversial “55 per cent” rule for dissolving parliament), reducing the number of MPs, giving voters the right to recall their MP and possibly reform of the House of Lords to make it wholly or mainly elected.

Its biggest trophy for the Lib Dems would be a paving of the way for a referendum on shifting from first-past-the post to the multi-choice Additional Vote system for general elections.

LIB

BILLS TO BE INTRODUCED AFTER SUMMER RECESS

Decentralisation and Localism Bill. (Department for Communities and Local Government).

Eric Pickles, the Communities secretary, will take charge of the drive to devolve greater powers to councils and local communities.

Communities are to be given much more control over housing and planning decisions. Local government finance is to be “reviewed”.

CON LIB

Welfare Reform Bill (DWP).

The key piece of legislation for Iain Duncan Smith, the Work and Pensions Secretary. This will be “sold” as helping people back into work, partly by scrapping all existing programmes and establishing a single welfare-to-work regime.

However it will also increase sanctions on those who refuse, including reassessing all Incapacity Benefit claimants for “readiness to work” – with the threat of being moved on to Jobseeker’s Allowance.

CON

Pensions and Savings Bill (DWP).

This is likely to restore the earnings link for the basic state pension – with a guarantee that pensions are raised by at least 2.5 per cent a year. It could also set out a timetable for the review into the date at which the state pension age starts to rise.

LIB

Financial Services Regulation Bill. (Treasury)

Likely to enact various reforms planned by George Osborne, the Chancellor, including putting regulation back in the hands of the Bank of England – a key change from the Labour years. It could also be the vehicle for introducing a banking levy and “cracking down” on what ministers describe as “unacceptable” bonuses.

Significantly, though, Mr Osborne’s Treasury is in the lead here, rather than Vince Cable’s business department.

CON

Energy Security and Green Economy Bill. (Dept for Energy and Climate Change)

A big win for the Liberal Democrats and Chris Huhne, the Energy Secretary, this will seek to improve energy efficiency in homes and businesses and promote low carbon energy production. Energy supplies will also be “secured”.

LIB

Public Bodies Bill. (Cabinet Office)

An assault on quangos is likely to be a key feature of efforts by the new government to find billions of pounds of “efficiency savings” across Whitehall. The drive was promised by the Conservatives in opposition but, significantly, has been handed to Nick Clegg and his team at the Cabinet Office.

LIB CON

Police Reform and Social Responsibility Bill (Home Office).

The vehicle for making police forces more accountable – including oversight by what ministers refer to as a directly elected “individual”. Police must also publish monthly local crime data statistics. This is also likely to include a fresh crackdown on anti-social behaviour and alcohol-related violence.

CON

European Communities (Amendment) Referendum Lock Bill (Foreign Office).

The key Bill for William Hague, the Foreign Secretary, which will enshrine the commitment to hold a referendum if there are any more attempts by the EU to grab significant powers from Britain under the Lisbon Treaty or in any other way.

This is a significant move to reassure Tory activists.

CON

Scotland Bill (Scotland Office)

This will implement the recommendations from the final report of the Calman Commission on Scottish Devolution. These include giving the Scottish Parliament greater powers on raising taxes – as well as new borrowing powers. Some other responsibilities – including over drink-drive limits and speed limits – are also to be devolved.

LIB

Education and Children’s Bill (Dept for Education)

The second big bill for Michael Gove, the Children’s Secretary, this could be the vehicle for his much-anticipated “free schools” drive to allow different groups, including parents, to start and run state schools.

It could also include the Lib Dem-backed “pupil premium” which would see more money being spent on children from a disadvantaged background, as well as focusing on early-years learning.

BLUE YELLOW

Armed Forces Bill (Ministry of Defence).

The big vehicle for Liam Fox, the Defence Secretary. It is not clear what laws will be affected – but the coalition has already promised to rebuild the Military Covenant, including maximising leave periods, helping the children of service personnel, boosting recruitment into professions and providing extra mental health services for veterans.

CON

Health Bill. (Dept of Health)

The main Bill for Andrew Lansley, the Health Secretary. The new government’s main aims are to strengthen the voice of patients and the role of doctors in NHS decision-making, while improving public health. There will also be a big drive to reduce health “inequalities”.

CON LIB

OTHER LEGISLATION

Overseas development aid – a parliamentary motion (Dept for International Development).

The government will commit via a parliamentary motion to spend 0.7 per cent of national income on development aid by 2013. Such a motion, however, is not legally binding – and ministers have already promised to “enshrine this commitment in law.”

Airport Economic Regulation Bill (Department for Transport).

Described as reform to benefit passengers – could be the full-scale break-up of BAA’s monopoly on airport ownership.

Cap on non-EU economic migrants – secondary legislation. (Home Office).

There is likely to be controversy if parliament is not given the chance of a full debate on plans to set an annual “cap” on immigrants from outside the EU and this is simply done by ministerial decree.

“Economic migrants” suggests no curb on student numbers – or spouses.

Draft Bill on Reform of Parliamentary Privilege. (Ministry of Justice).

Likely to block MPs from using privilege as a defence for wrongdoing, for example over expenses.

Broadband Infrastructure – secondary legislation. (Business Innovation and Skills Dept).

This will support investment in new high-speed broadband internet connections.

High speed railway network (Dept for Transport).

A simple Bill to enable the network’s construction. A route between London and Birmingham has already been announced – with plans to expand it to the north of England.

source
Page last updated at 16:00 GMT, Monday, 4 January 2010

Airport body scanners would be “unlikely” to detect many of the explosive devices used by terrorist groups, a Tory MP has warned.

Ben Wallace, who used to work at defence firm QinetiQ, one of the companies making the technology, warned it was not a “big silver bullet”.

Electromagnetic waves are beamed onto passengers to create a 3-D image

Gordon Brown has said the scanners are to be introduced at UK airports.

People stand fully clothed in a scanner while their image is examined

A spokeswoman for QinetiQ said the technology “should be part of a layered approach to security”.

Mr Wallace said the scanners would probably not have detected the failed Detroit plane plot of Christmas Day.

He said the same of the 2006 airliner liquid bomb plot and of explosives used in the 2005 bombings of three Tube trains and a bus in London.

BAA, which runs six UK airports, said it is to install the machines “as soon as is practical” at Heathrow.

Mr Wallace – an ex Army officer – was employed by QinetiQ as their overseas director in the security and intelligence division before being elected to the Lancaster and Wyre seat in 2005.

He said the “passive millimetre wave scanners” – which QinetiQ helped develop – probably would not have detected key plots affecting passengers in the UK in recent years.

QinetiQ is one of a number of companies that manufacture this kind of security scanning equipment.

‘Layered’ approach

Mr Wallace told BBC Radio 4′s Today programme: “The advantage of the millimetre waves are that they can be used at longer range, they can be quicker and they are harmless to travellers.

“But there is a big but, and the but was in all the testing that we undertook, it was unlikely that it would have picked up the current explosive devices being used by al-Qaeda.”

He added: “It probably wouldn’t have picked up the very large plot with the liquids in 2006 at Heathrow or indeed the… bombs that were used on the Tube because it wasn’t very good and it wasn’t that easy to detect liquids and plastics unless they were very solid plastics.

“This is not necessarily the big silver bullet that is somehow being portrayed by Downing Street.”

A spokeswoman for QinetiQ said “no single technology can address every eventuality or security risk”.

“QinetiQ’s passive millimetre wave system, SPO, is a… people-screening system which can identify potential security threats concealed on the human body. It is not a checkpoint security system.

“SPO can effectively shortlist people who may need further investigation, either via other technology such as x-rays, or human intervention such as a pat-down search.”

Staff screening

Simon Davies, director of the human rights watchdog Privacy International, also expressed doubts that the scanners would make air travel more secure.

“These machines can’t tell you what the object is underneath or within the clothing,” he said.

“They can only detect the irregularity. The problem is the way modern clothing is designed, the fact that people take many objects of a non-metallic nature through airports means that the machines are of extremely limited value.”

He said emphasis was needed to continue with “ordinary and quite boring measures that actually do work” such as screening airport staff and conducting vehicle checks.

Aviation security analyst Chris Yates said better training of staff was needed alongside the introduction of new technology.

“I’ve seen some very awful examples of the pat down,” he said.

“If it’s done effectively, yes, you can do a proper examination of somebody and pretty much determine whether they are hiding something.

“But at the end of the shift, on a bad day at work, the security guards just wanting to get home, is he going to want to do that? That’s the big issue and I would prefer to see technology doing the electronic pat down, than a person doing it.”

Norman Shanks, former head of security for BAA, said body scanners can only be part of the solution and that passenger profiles are also vital.

“Profiling takes into account their behaviour patterns, their tickets, how they purchase them, how they’re acting and interacting with people and many times it’s believed this is a security person’s function.”

‘Pat down’

The US is also introducing tougher checks for air passengers from nations deemed to have links with terrorism.

BBC transport correspondent Tom Symonds said that, according to the Department for Transport, the new security measures introduced at UK airports on Monday were not causing serious disruption.

British Airways said it had no delays and the checks were largely being carried out at departure airports around the world in countries on a list published by the US Transportation Security Administration, our correspondent added.

These include Nigeria, Pakistan, Syria, Iran, Sudan and Yemen.

Mr Brown had said travellers to and from British airports would see the “gradual” introduction of the use of full body scanners and hand luggage checks for traces of explosives.

They will initially operate alongside metal detectors, and be used for all flights in and out of the country.

Scanner technology

On Sunday, Mr Brown accepted there was no way to be certain that the devices would be 100% effective, and “we have got to go further”.

The £80,000 full body scanners produce “naked” images of passengers.

They work by beaming electromagnetic waves on to passengers while they stand in a booth. A virtual three-dimensional image is then created from the reflected energy.

The machines are currently being trialled at Manchester airport following tests at Heathrow airport from 2004 to 2008.

They are also being rolled out across the US, with 40 machines used at 19 airports.

The latest decisions came after Nigerian Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, now in custody, was accused of trying to detonate a bomb on a plane bound for the US on 25 December.