The controversial respect bill is being secretly drafted by Downing Street officials. The prime minister has told his officials that the bill is a top priority as he seeks to demonstrate that his mind is fully focused on the domestic agenda once more.

Unusually, the bill is being drafted by No 10 with the intention of putting it straight into law, rather than the usual Home Office consultation paper.

But Blair wants immediate action; he recently appointed his favourite civil servant Louise Casey to head the respect unit and report directly to him. She wants to see practical measures “which work” brought in speedily.

Some of the measures in the bill were inspired by a trial project in Dundee, where problem families were sent to “sin bins” and monitored and advised by social services. Although opposed by locals when it was first set up, it has since been recognised as a powerful social tool.

Recently Blair backed Casey in a clash with John Prescott, the deputy prime minister, after she requested a £90m fund for the respect agenda.

Casey came to public notice when she was recorded during an after-dinner speech defending binge drinking, boasting of getting “hammered” and mocking ministers, saying they would work better drunk.

The prime minister saved her job and has backed her views on ways to tackle antisocial behaviour. He is said to have sided with her against Charles Clarke, the home secretary, when she criticised “evidence-based” policy built on statistics, recently telling Clarke at a private meeting that he needed “a sense of conviction” about the antisocial behaviour agenda.