Her Majesty may not have previously mentioned a specific commitment to a consultation in the speech from the throne – but it is by no means unusual for a Queen’s Speech to herald a number of formal public consultations.

When the Coalition assumed office in 2010, its Programme for Government contained 407 items. It was full of commitments to consult. It didn’t always use the word ‘consult’. But the document said it would ‘review’ something on 31 occasions. It would ‘consider’ proposals 11 times, it would ‘investigate’ 10 times, and it would ‘explore’ 6 times. Add 4 more issues they would ‘examine, and 3 things they wanted to ‘look at’ and you get the picture. Little of this appeared in the Queen’s Speech. That was, as usual, a collection of bland promises to legislate, or to pursue some vague policy aspirations.

In 2010, however, it did commit to one major nationwide constitutional consultation – a referendum on the alternative vote system. It also promised proposals for an elected House of Lords, but nothing came of that – not even a consultation! Five years later, in 2015, came a historic sentence – ‘early legislation will be introduced to provide for an in-out referendum on membership of the European Union before the end of 2017’.

So, this year, the novelty is that Theresa May announced a major policy proposal that proved instantly controversial, and had to rely on a commitment to consult as a way out of the uncertainty it created. In one way, it is an admirable use of public consultation to refine the details of policy. On the other hand, the public is likely to be suspicious of Ministers turning to them to try to dig themselves out of a hole of their own making. On something as emotive as social care, and with the policy already scarred by the use of the term ‘dementia tax’ and the spectre of the PM’s ‘U-turn’, the consultation will hardly be low-profile.

It will all therefore depend upon the integrity of the exercise. Any flaws in the consultation, and critics will have a field day. Only the most legally watertight, procedurally perfect and impeccably implemented exercise will work.

Oh dear – it sounds as if this is a sales pitch for the Institute’s Quality Assurance!

… but then the Queen might approve!