Home Office and UK immigration legislative programme announced

The repeal of ID cards, locally accountable police, and a cap on UK immigration were among the measures proposed in today’s Queen's Speech.

The Government is committed to introducing an annual limit UK immigration limit on the number of migrants from outside the EU allowed to enter the country to live and work.

Net migration will be brought back to the levels of the 1990s – numbering tens of thousands not hundreds of thousands – and consultation with business and other groups will be undertaken to determine the mechanism for determining the annual limit.

Damian Green, the UK Immigration Minister, has also ordered a review into ending the detention of children for immigration purposes.

Three bills relate to the Home Office: the Identity Documents Bill; Police Reform and Social Responsibility Bill; and the Freedom (Great Repeal) Bill.

The Identity Documents Bill will scrap identity cards, and require the destruction of all personal information gathered from existing cardholders and currently held in the National Identity Register.

The Police Reform and Social Responsibility Bill will increase accountability to the public, create a dedicated border police force to improve and strengthen UK immigration controls, and set out measures to tackle alcohol-related violence and disorder.

The Freedom (Great Repeal) Bill will reduce the influence of government on citizens by providing increased protection for those on the DNA database, a restoration of rights to non-violent protest and enhanced regulation of CCTV use.

The UK Visa Bureau is an independent consulting company specialising in helping people lodging their applications for a UK visa with the British Embassy.