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The Cabinet met on Tuesday to discuss the contents of today's Queen's Speech, the third of Gordon Brown's premiership.
It is unclear how many Bills will be included, as this session of Parliament must end by June 2010, with May 6 the favoured election date among pundits.
The government is likely to produce a range of proposed Bills, many of which will not complete their parliamentary process before the general election.
Almost certain to be included in the legislative programme is a constitutional renewal bill.
It will remove all hereditary peers from the Lords and allow peers to be disqualified if they commit a series criminal offence.
The Bill also removes the prime minister from judicial appointments and allows peers to resign their seats in the Lords, paving the way for any return to the Commons by Lord Mandelson.
A financial services bill is also almost certain to be included.
It is expected to strengthen the regulatory role of the Financial Services Authority, allowing it to suspend individuals as well as firms for misconduct.
There will also be new penalties for individuals who should have sought approval to perform a controlled function but did not do so.
Another likely bill is one to create four commercial scale demonstration power stations using carbon capture and storage, so called 'clean coal' technology.
A bill to improve schools and safeguard children is expected in the Queen's Speech, with a new set of guarantees to an individually tailored education for each child and their parents.
Anti-social behaviour among minors will be tackled through powers of intervention with Youth Offending Teams that are considered to be failing.
The media will be allowed to report from the family courts for the first time, "whilst protecting the identities of families and providing the courts with discretion to disapply this safeguard where it is in the public interest and safe to do so".
There will be a new 'school report card' for parents, supported by improvement strategies for schools.
The Equality Bill has already received huge publicity.
The government is expected to press on with plans to require by 2012 reporting on the gender pay gap by private sector employers with more than 250 employees.
A new equality duty on public bodies which would require them to consider the needs of diverse groups in the community when designing and delivering public services and use public procurement to help achieve the government's objectives on equality.
Legislation to enshrine in law the government's commitment to eradicate child poverty by 2020 is expected in the Queen's Speech.
In a similar vein a bill on fiscal responsibility may be included – it would enshrine in law another government commitment to halve the UK's budget deficit over four years.
The heavily-trailed social care bill will introduce free personal care at home for people in England with critical care needs.
It will abolish means-testing for 350,000 people and those with serious conditions such as dementia and Alzheimer's disease will no longer have to sell their home to pay for care home bills.
A bill on the UK's digital economy may also be included in the Queen's Speech. It will create a legal and regulatory framework to combat illegal file sharing and other forms of online copyright infringement.
It may also implement the recommendations of the Byron Review published in June 2008, to put age ratings of computer games on a statutory footing for ratings of 12 years and above.
There could also be a new bribery bill in the speech.
It would create an offence of bribery of foreign public officials in order to obtain or retain business.
There may also be a new corporate offence where a business fails to prevent bribery being committed by those working on its behalf.
The Queen's Speech may also contain legislation implementing the recommendations of Sir Michael Pitt's report 'Learning Lessons from the 2007 Floods'.
It may place a duty on all relevant bodies to co-operate and share information in support of flood risk management and update existing protection against drought.
There could be new legislation on policing to reduce reporting requirements on stop and search forms and cut bureaucracy.
A compulsory licensing requirement for private wheel clamping businesses may be introduced.
People convicted of serious violent or sexual offences before the 2004 could be added to DNA database under new legislation.
Sexual and violent offenders who have been convicted and imprisoned abroad may be compelled to provide a DNA sample on their return to the UK.
A new Scotland bill implementing the proposals of the Calman devolution review, which included reforms to the tax system, may form part of the Queen's Speech or be held over until the Labour election manifesto.
Other possible bills in tomorrow's Queen's Speech include:
A health bill creating maximum waiting times for some surgery and consultations and the right to private care after a certain waiting period.
A bill banning the use, development, production, acquisition, retention, transfer and stockpiling of cluster munitions.
An Antarctica bill to implement a new annex to the Environmental Protocol to the Antarctic Treaty to enhance the environmental protection of Antarctica and establish a liability regime for environmental emergencies.
As the session must end in June, and is likely to end at the start of April, much of the legislation in the Queen's Speech may not make it onto the statute book.
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