DAVID CAMERON’S coalition Government set out its first legislative programme in the Queen’s Speech today, paving the way for the biggest shake-up in the way the country is run for a generation.

The Conservative and Liberal Democrat administration’s ambitious agenda for the next 18 months was unveiled in 23 parliamentary bills.

Written by ministers, it reflects the compromises reached by the coalition parties when they agreed to share power after the General Election.

The monarch said her new Government’s top priority would be to “reduce the deficit and restore economic growth”.

The main themes would be “freedom, fairness and responsibility”, she said.

The new programme does not include an early chance to legalise fox hunting.

But within days, key Tory policies on education to free thousands of schools from state control and allow teachers more say in setting the curriculum, will get off the ground.

Invited

Parents, businesses and charities will also be invited to set up and run “free schools” funded by the taxpayer.

Five Treasury bills will spell out Chancellor George Osborne’s plans to accelerate the reduction of the £156bn national debt, block the planned rise in National Insurance for employers, return supervisory powers over the City to the Bank of England, and set up an Office of Budget Responsibility to remove the power to make economic forecasts from politicians.

Written into law will also be plans to “restore trust” in politics following the MPs’ expenses scandal, giving people the right to sack corrupt MPs.

A bill to roll back Labour’s “surveillance state” under a Freedom (Great Repeal) Bill will include plans to scrap the introduction of ID cards, regulate the use of CCTV and impose restrictions of the storage of people’s DNA.

The Government confirmed its designs to press ahead with a high speed rail service between London and Birmingham.

It also sets out plans to limit the number of non-EU economic immigrants admitted into the UK to live and work, and a referendum on any treaty proposing more powers for the EU.

By London Reporter Sunita Patel