Deputy PM, John Prescott, has been given control of a powerful cabinet committee for domestic affairs with an "over-arching" brief to draw up policy and push through reform.

Tony Blair has also set up a crisis management unit to deal with national emergencies following rows about the government's handling of the fuel protests and the foot and mouth epidemic. The civil contingencies secretariat will report to the PM via the cabinet secretary Sir Richard Wilson and will recruit more than 100 civil servants from around Whitehall.