The Queen will announce the government's agenda for the upcoming year at the State Opening of Parliament on Wednesday.
An "unprecedented" shake up of prisons and a bill to tackle extremism will be the central focus of what is expected to be a rather thin outline, given the uncertainty around the referendum.
This could be David Cameron's last Queen's Speech as Prime Minister given that many expect him to resign in the event of a vote to leave the European Union on June 23. He has promised a "clear programme of social reform" in the 21 bills to be announced as he seeks to ensure his legacy as a moderniser within the Conservative party.
It is likely the speech will be used to restart Cameron's "life chances" agenda which has taken a back seat in the heat of the referendum debate.
Prison reform
The power to control the budgets, regime and educational services in jails will be given to prison governors in what Cameron said was the start of "long overdue, long-needed change".
However critics have said it will not change the challenges of overcrowding and high suicide rates in prisons. Richard Garside, director of the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies, told the BBC the plans were "superficially attractive" but did not change the fact prisons were "incredibly overcrowded" and budgets had been "cut by about a third since 2010".
Adoption overhaul
Cameron has also promised to tackle the adoption system and the fact the number of adoptions has halved in the past two years. The changes will force courts to favour permanent families over distant relatives in an effort to give "all children need a loving, permanent and stable home".
Cameron said: "For me, a child's happiness and future life chances will always come above everything else. So we will legislate to tip the balance in favour of permanent adoption where that is the right thing for the child — even when that means overriding family ties."
The adoption charity Home for Good said it welcomed the decision to invest more in adoption. A spokesperson said the charity agreed that "decisions made by government should be child-centred and focused on achieving permanence for each child at the earliest possible stage".
However the charity added that for some children, the best option is foster care.
The spokesperson said: "Home for Good would strongly support the government investing more into foster care alongside adoption, recognising that both offer love and care to vulnerable children."
The government will also introduce a new care leavers contract to ensure those leaving the care system have access to housing support, health care and jobs.
Who are 'extremists'?
One of the central focuses of the Queen's Speech will be a bill to tackle extremism. Cameron will announce measure to ban organisations, silence individuals and close down groups that "promote hatred".
The problem is who will be defined as an extremist.
The Christian Institute told Christian Today the "root of concern is a complete lack of definition".
Spokesperson Ciarán Kelly said: "We don't know who could be caught up in the legislation but certainly it seems if you have an issue with same-sex marriage you could be classed as an extremist".
Kelly said the worry surrounded what the threshold would be for defining an extremist. David Cameron has made clear he wants to tackle the ideology behind extremism. When he announced his counter-extremism strategy last year he said "extremism is really a symptom; ideology is the root cause". The concern for some is what other non-violent ideologies will be targeted by the government's crack down. Kelly said the threshold should be when violence is committed or advocated.
"The government seems to be setting an extremely low threshold. The solution we want to see is a higher threshold where you are labelled an extremist if you advocate violence," he told Christian Today.
The bill has already been delayed a number of times and was expected to have been announced by now. It is understood the delay has been caused by the struggle to define "extremism". One suggestion was "vocal or active opposition to fundamental British values", according to the Telegraph. But this was considered too loose a definition to stand up against a legal challenge.
A Home Office source has admitted: "Getting agreement about the thresholds for what constitutes extremism and what needs to be protected as free speech is not going to be easy or straightforward."
Will we have to wait and see whether the Queen's Speech sheds any light on what definition the government has decided upon.
Christian Today will be live blogging the State Opening so keep an eye on the site for rolling updates.
