Home Office officials are confident the government's ID cards plan will be ready for inclusion in the Queen's Speech next month.

Unless there is dissension at Cabinet level, the bill will go before the Commons at the end of November, scotching the suggestion that the potentially controversial issue would be carried over until after the general election.

The draft bill was published in April and the Home Office has been working with PA Consulting since May to decide the parameters of the scheme.

The government is also consulting with the IT industry via a series of workshops, hosted by supplier body Intellect.

At the most recent meeting earlier this month, Home Office officials said they were 'confident' that the bill will be ready for the Queen's speech on 23 November.

If so, it is likely to conform to the original suggested timetable of a second reading in the Commons before Christmas, up to the Lords in the New Year, and passage into law in time for the procurement to start in the early summer of 2005.

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