ID cards for all as Blunkett out-bids Howard

Queen's Speech: Drugs and security Bills top agenda; rebuff for unions as Blair back-tracks over deaths at work

Of all the 36 Bills or draft Bills trailed in this week's Queen's Speech, the one that will directly affect the greatest number of people will be David Blunkett's scheme for a national, compulsory identity card scheme.

Of all the 36 Bills or draft Bills trailed in this week's Queen's Speech, the one that will directly affect the greatest number of people will be David Blunkett's scheme for a national, compulsory identity card scheme.

This will be the first time since just after the war that law-abiding citizens will be expected to carry a card that proves they are who they say they are. While it will not be an offence to be without an ID card, in practice no one will be able to drive a car, travel, or do much else unless they have one.

When Michael Howard was Home Secretary in the 1990s, he was under pressure from the Tory rank and file to introduce ID cards, but refused. The ID Card Bill is an example of how far Tony Blair and Mr Blunkett will go to trump Mr Howard in the field of law and order.

Some people object to the cards on civil liberties grounds, but after the horror stories that emerged last week about the computer system at the Child Support Agency, the bigger question may be what system will the National Identity Register use?

ID cards will produce a clash between the Government and the Liberal Democrats, whom Labour MPs are anxious to accuse of being soft on crime. But their tough new Shadow Home Secretary, Mark Oaten, will probably avoid falling into this trap by not voicing opposition to Labour's new measures against litter and other forms of social nuisance.

Of all the law and order Bills, the one we know least about is the one that will deal with terrorism, but we know that Mr Blunkett will want to renew those powers, which allow him to hold foreign terrorist suspects in Belmarsh prison without charge.

His critics, like Mr Oaten, will say that he should change the law to allow him to use evidence from phone taps in court, if necessary in closed hearings, so that the Belmarsh detainees can be charged.

Away from law and order, there will be Bills dealing with school transport, discrimination against the disabled, the National Lottery, and constitutional reform. The Gambling Bill, which allows more casinos to be opened in the UK, was deliberately published early, so that the controversy it was sure to generate did not detract from the message the Government wants to convey this week.

But, for many trade unions, the most controversial aspect of the speech will be something that it lacks. Mr Blair has already broken a promise that he made to them only two months ago. This week, the unions will discover that the Government is not going to meet one of the undertakings in its 2001 election manifesto.

On average, six people die in accidents on building sites in Britain every month. Some of these deaths are attributable to managers who play fast and loose with safety regulations. Unions such as Ucatt, which represents construction workers, claim that the only way to lower the death toll is for bosses to be hauled into the courts and charged with corporate manslaughter.

"If six police officers or six schoolteachers were being killed at work every month, and no appropriate action was being taken, there would be uproar," Ucatt's General Secretary, Alan Ritchie, said yesterday.

"If there is no law on corporate killing in place before the next general election, it will be a massive disappointment for working people and their families."

Labour's last election manifesto acknowledged that law reform is "necessary" and implied that Labour would deliver reform by the year 2004. Mr Blair added a promise to the unions that proposed legislation would be published during the parliamentary session that ended on Thursday. That did not happen.

Mr Blunkett, whose father died in a ghastly industrial accident, has been pushing for the new law, backed by cabinet colleagues such as Ian McCartney and Peter Hain. But the Foreign Secretary, Jack Straw, is opposed to a measure that might make the Foreign Office criminally responsible for British tourists and diplomatic staff killed overseas.

The Government will eventually produce a watered-down draft Bill, but not soon enough for it to become law before the next election. This may prompt union leaders to think that this week's Queen's Speech is tough on every kind of lawbreaker except for managers who carelessly kill off their employees.