Queen's Speech: New prison governor powers expected
Queen's Speech: Prison shake-up at heart of new laws
(35 minutes later)
"Unprecedented" new powers for prison governors in England and Wales will be outlined in the Queen's Speech.
The government's planned new laws have been set out by the Queen - including the biggest prison shake-up in England and Wales "since Victorian times".
Billed as the biggest shake-up of the service since Victorian times, governors of six prisons will get control over budgets and daily regimes.
Satellite-tagged inmates could be sent home on weekdays and re-offending league tables will be published.
Critics say the changes fail to tackle overcrowding problems and suicide.
The 21-Bill agenda also includes support for a spaceport and driverless cars - but a planned British Bill of Rights has been put on hold.
Measures on extremism, driverless cars and unmanned drones are also expected among the 21 bills as the government sets out its legislative agenda.
David Cameron said: "This a One Nation speech from a One Nation government."
The Queen's Speech, which is due to begin shortly after 11:30 BST, is the centrepiece of the State Opening of Parliament, a tradition that can be traced back to 1536.
The Speech is seen as aimed at securing a legacy of social reform for Prime Minister David Cameron but critics say it will be overshadowed by 23 June's referendum on whether Britain should remain in the EU, which has split the Cabinet.
The government hopes the proposals will be approved over the next 12 months but critics believe the speech is being overshadowed by the upcoming EU referendum.
Announcing Mr Cameron's programme from her throne in the House of Lords, the Queen said: "My government will use the opportunity of a strengthening economy to deliver security for working people, to increase life chances for the most disadvantaged and to strengthen national defences."
Mr Cameron has promised a "clear programme of social reform" in the measures to be announced.
The Queen's Speech is the centrepiece of the State Opening of Parliament, a tradition that can be traced back to 1536.
Plans to replace the Human Rights Act with a British Bill of Rights are expected to be mentioned, but with major detail on the plans yet to come.
Other measures in the Speech include:
Controversial plans to encourage schools to become academies, which were watered down following a Tory backlash, will reportedly feature, along with changes to the care and adoption system.
The government is also pushing ahead with controversial plans to monitor internet use through its Investigatory Powers Bill and crack down on extremism, including stronger powers to disrupt radicals' activities and to intervene in unregulated schools which are "teaching hate".
Writing in the Sunday Times earlier this month, Mr Cameron said the government would legislate to encourage permanent adoption - even if it meant children were not placed with relatives.
But the planned prison reforms, drawn up by Justice Secretary Michael Gove, are being billed as the centrepiece of the Speech.
Analysis
Mr Cameron said: "Because this government sees the potential in everyone, we finally undertake the long-overdue change that our prisons need.
By Chris Mason, BBC political correspondent
"No longer will they be warehouses for criminals, we want them to be incubators of changed and reformed lives."
This morning, for the 65th time of her reign, the Queen will read out the government's proposed new laws.
One of Europe's biggest jails, HMP Wandsworth, is among six institutions where governors will be given new powers over budgets and setting the daily regime.
But as the sovereign's carriage is polished and the roads closed, this moment, so often a pivotal one in the political calendar, is instead an island of respite in an EU referendum campaign tearing the Conservative Party apart.
Satellite tracking tags which monitor the movements of offenders using GPS technology will be piloted in eight police areas from September, in a move which could see prisoners become weekend inmates and spend the rest of the week at home as they hold down jobs.
So for the prime minister, a chance to emphasise that his horizons extend beyond next month's vote. The emphasis: improving the life chances of the least fortunate; plans to improve social care and speed up adoption are expected, as is a shake-up of prisons in England and Wales.
Prisons will also be forced to publish statistics on education, reoffending and inmates' employment on release.
Today, the Conservatives will seek to remind us about the range of ideas that won them last year's election. But it will also remind David Cameron that, with a slender majority, actually turning those ideas into laws won't be easy.
According the The Guardian, the government will also adopt the findings of a review of education in prisons, which will recommend allowing inmates to use iPads in their cells to "learn independently" and stay in touch with friends and family via Skype.
A former leader of the Commons, Lord Lansley, said he believed the speech was being overshadowed by the EU referendum.
The Queen made only the briefest of direct references to her government holding "a referendum on membership of the European Union".
He said it was creating "a very large uncertainty" for the parliamentary programme.
But - in a move that may be seen as an attempt to reassure voters ahead of the EU referendum - she added: "My ministers will uphold the sovereignty of Parliament and the primacy of the House of Commons."
"If there were a Brexit vote, not immediately but certainly in the latter part of the parliament, we would be completely absorbed with trying to manage the legislative consequences of that which would be monstrous to think about," he said.
But former minister and Leave campaigner Iain Duncan Smith accused the the government for abandoning plans for a Sovereignty Bill, promised earlier this year, to re-assert the supremacy of the UK Parliament.
In the bill to be announced later, the governors of six jails will be given control over budgets, decide which rehabilitation and education services to use and be able to change the prison regime and the rules over family visits.
The former Work and Pensions Secretary accused David Cameron of "jettisoning or watering down" key elements of legislation in a "helter-skelter pursuit" to win the EU referendum.
The prisons will be able to enter into contracts and to generate and retain income, the government said, adding that governors would be held accountable by "a new regime of transparency".
He said: "It appears the much vaunted Sovereignty Bill, key to the argument that the PM had secured a reform of the EU, has been tossed aside.
By the end of the year, 5,000 prisoners will be held in the first six "autonomous" prisons, which will be:
"The fear in government must be that as no one in Britain buys the idea that the EU has been reformed, the Sovereignty Bill would draw the public's attention back to that failure."
Inspectors have warned that Ranby prison is at risk of being overwhelmed by the supply of so-called legal highs, and last month a prisoner was murdered at Coldingley.
The legislative programme includes a British Bill of Rights to replace the Human Rights Act - but ministers will "consult fully before bringing forward proposals".
The PM first outlined plans to give prison governors "complete control" over their prisons in February, saying it would reduce reoffending and allow prisoners to be treated as "potential assets to be harnessed".
Eoin McLennan-Murray, the former governor of Coldingley Prison in Surrey, said autonomy was welcome.
But he told BBC Radio 4's Today Programme that change risked being "dwarfed" by the problems of overcrowding and the fact prison governors had no control over how many prisoners they had and for how long they were sentenced.
"The real issue is the size of the prison population, the length of time we keep people in prison for. Both of these things are beyond a governor's control," he said.
Richard Garside, director of the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies, described the changes as a "superficially attractive idea" but said it needed to be part of a nationwide policy.
"Prisons are incredibly overcrowded. Budgets have been cut by about a third since 2010, far fewer staff, far more inmates," he said.
"We're seeing this in the rise in suicides, self-harm and assaults."
'Festering' prisons
Outlining the plans, Mr Cameron said: "For too long, we have left our prisons to fester.
"Not only does that reinforce the cycle of crime, increasing the bills of social failure that taxpayers must pick up. It writes off thousands of people.
"So today, we start the long overdue, long-needed change that our prisons need. No longer will they be warehouses for criminals; they will now be places where lives are changed."
The government will also publish a review of education in prisons and announce pilot areas chosen for satellite tracking of offenders.
In February a contract to develop the system was cancelled after the government had already spent £21m on the project.
