INTRODUCTION

This is the third year that the Government has published its legislative programme in draft for consultation in advance of the Queen's Speech. This year it is being published as part of the Government's broader plan for Building Britain's Future. This provides an opportunity for both the public and Parliament to see how the Draft Legislative Programme forms part of the action the Government is taking to build a more prosperous, stronger and fairer country.

The aim of publishing the Draft Legislative Programme is to be transparent about what the Government is planning to achieve through legislation. This provides an opportunity to look across the programme as a whole and take a view as to whether the balance of priorities is right, whether there are important areas that have been missed out or areas of the programme that should be given lower priority. This, in turn, enables views to be fed into the development of the programme before the final programme is announced in the Queen's Speech towards the end of the year.

As a draft programme, the Government expects it to develop and change over the course of the year, as a result both of consultation and as new issues arise. For example, on 10 June the Prime Minister announced the start of public engagement on further democratic reform, some parts of which could require primary legislation - this exercise will be running in parallel with consultation on the Draft Legislative Programme.

We are publishing this year's Draft Legislative Programme as part of Building Britain's Future because the Government's plans for legislation are subject to the same key priorities as activity across government at this critical time: cleaning up politics and reforming our democracy; taking Britain out of recession into recovery; and reforming Britain's public services. This means that this year's Draft Legislative Programme should be considered with two particular points in mind. First, although the legislative programme has a central part to play in Building Britain's Future, the work of Government is about a great deal more than legislation - as the rest of this document sets out, most Government action can and should be delivered through other means. We will only legislate where necessary and appropriate: although where we need to legislate we will do so, much of the action we are taking to Build Britain's Future is rightly being taken forward outside the legislative process.

Secondly, the next session of Parliament, which will begin in the autumn, is the final session of this Parliament. It is likely to be, at most, around half the length of a normal session and the time available for legislation will therefore be significantly reduced. This year's DLP is therefore necessarily slim and the Government is sticking rigorously to its priorities for Building Britain's Future.

To implement the proposals in this document, the Government is proposing to introduce 11 bills in key areas in the next session of Parliament (two of which, the Equality and Child Poverty Bills, have recently been introduced but will be largely considered in the next session and one, the Constitutional renewal bill, is intended for introduction before the end of this session).

The Government has also recently introduced the Parliamentary Standards Bill, intended for Royal Assent before the summer recess, to create an Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority to revise, monitor and administer the system of MPs' allowances; to set and enforce the rules relating to the registration of MPs' financial interests; to create new criminal offences for MPs of making false or misleading claims for allowances, failing to register a financial interest, and engaging in paid advocacy and to provide for the Code of Conduct for Members to be placed on a statutory footing.

Many of these bills are referred to throughout Building Britain's Future but, for clarity, their key contents are drawn together here. The list of proposed contents of bills is not exhaustive as departments are still consulting and developing policy in many areas.

It is also of crucial importance that the United Kingdom Government works together with the devolved administrations to ensure that the law not only respects the devolution settlements but also serves the best interests of all the citizens of the UK. To this end, all Government departments work closely with their devolved counterparts when preparing legislation. The Government will continue to work closely with the Welsh Assembly Government, the Scottish Executive and the Northern Ireland Executive to identify if areas of the UK legislative programme require the consent of the devolved legislatures.

The Government is keen to receive your views on the Draft Legislative Programme in answer to the following question:

Do you think the Draft Legislative Programme reflects the right priorities for the United Kingdom and, if not, what other issues do you think the Government should be addressing?

To be taken into account, all responses must be received by the deadline of 21 September 2009.

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