Questions and statements: At 14:30, Education Ministers will respond to MPs’ questions. Topics include special educational needs provision, schools funding, breakfast clubs, curricula and assessments, and mental health education.

Any Urgent Questions or Ministerial Statements will follow.

Main business: Crime and Policing Bill (Second Reading). The 317-page Bill – the largest presented to Parliament so far this Session – will be considered by MPs just 13 calendar days after its introduction to the House of Commons, giving relatively little time for MPs to thoroughly scrutinise its contents.

Divided into 15 parts, the Bill covers a wide range of issues, including violence against women and girls, anti-social behaviour, offensive weapons, retail crime, child exploitation and abuse, sexual offences, fraud, police powers, and terrorism and national security.

The main provisions of the Bill are:

• Anti-social behaviour: Introducing a new civil order – to be known as a Respect Order – for persistent anti-social behaviour and strengthening the use of existing powers held by local authorities and the police.

• Offensive weapons: Creating a new offence of possessing a weapon with intent to cause unlawful violence or serious property damage, increasing the penalties for the sale of offensive weapons, and enabling police to seize knives which are lawfully held on private property where officers have reasonable grounds to suspect the knives will be used for unlawful violence.

• Retail crime: Creating a new offence of assaulting a retail worker and requiring all offences of shop theft to be tried as general theft.

• Exploitation and abuse: Creating a new offence of child criminal exploitation and establishing a new civil preventative order designed to prevent child exploitation, and creating a new offence of ‘cuckooing’ whereby criminals use the homes of vulnerable people to commit criminal activity.

• Child sexual abuse: Implementing the recommendations of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse, by placing a duty on relevant persons such as teachers and healthcare workers to report child sexual abuse and introducing a statutory aggravating factor covering grooming behaviour. The Bill also bans AI-models designed to produce child sexual abuse material (CSAM), criminalises moderators of websites that host CSAM, and enables Border Force officers to search devices of individuals arriving in the UK for CSAM.

• Violence against women and girls: Introducing new offences around the taking of intimate images, creating a standalone offence of administering a harmful substance (including by spiking), giving victims of stalking the right to know the identity of their perpetrator, and restricting the ability of sex offenders to change their name where there is a risk of sexual harm.

• Objects used in crime: Criminalising the possession or supply of electronic devices for use in vehicle theft, criminalising the possession or supply of ‘SIM farms’ (devices that can hold multiple mobile SIM cards for the purpose of sending scam texts and calls), and criminalising the possession or supply of electronic communications technologies that can be used to facilitate online fraud.

• Public order: Creating a new offence of wearing a face-covering in an area designated by police, with areas designated only if a protest is likely to involve the commission of offences; prohibiting the possession of pyrotechnics and fireworks at protests; and creating an offence of climbing on Grade I listed war memorials.

• New police powers: Allowing police to enter and search premises without a warrant where stolen goods have been electronically tracked to those premises; expanding police powers to test arrested persons for drugs; and extending the power to issue a caution requiring foreign national offenders to leave the country to individuals with limited leave to remain.

• Costs protections in civil recovery proceedings: Introducing costs protections for law enforcement agencies in civil recovery proceedings, meaning proceedings intended to take ownership of assets that are derived from, or intended for use in, criminal conduct.

• Counter-terrorism: Implementing recommendations made by the Independent Reviewer of Terrorism Legislation, including by introducing youth diversion orders to divert young people away from terrorism and crime; and allowing the police to seize any article displayed in public if it arouses reasonable suspicion that the individual supports a proscribed organisation.

The Second Reading debate will focus on the principles and purposes of the Bill. Amendments to the text of the Bill are not permitted at this stage. However, opposition parties can table a reasoned amendment setting out their reasons for opposing the Bill at Second Reading.

• House of Commons Library briefing

Presentation of Public Petitions: Labour MP Yuan Yang will present a petition on Reading Football Club. Last week she led a Westminster Hall debate on the financial sustainability and governance of English football during which she highlighted her concerns about the finances and ownership of Reading FC in her constituency.

Adjournment: The Labour MP for Hastings and Rye, Helena Dollimore, has the adjournment debate on the closure of Owens Entertainment Centre in Hastings and Town Deal funding. (House of Commons Library briefing)

Westminster Hall: MPs will debate e-petition 700824, which calls on the Government to suspend all immigration for five years. The petition has acquired around 220,000 signatures. (House of Commons Library briefing)

Legislative committees:

• Delegated Legislation Committee meeting today: Grants to the Churches Conservation Trust Order 2025.

Introduction of new Peers: Two new Members will be introduced:

• Steve McCabe, now Lord McCabe, who was a Labour MP from 1997 to 2024 and served as a Government Whip from 2006 to 2010.

• Thangam Debbonaire, now Baroness Debbonaire, who was a Labour MP from 2015 to 2024 and served as Shadow Leader of the House of Commons in the last Parliament.

Oral questions: Peers will begin the day by questioning Ministers for 40 minutes, on supporting people entering the apprenticeship system; ocean protection and plans to ratify the High Seas Treaty; support for women and girls in Sudan, in the light of reports of sexual violence; and the UK Poverty 2025 report published by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation.

Main business: House of Lords (Hereditary Peers) Bill (Committee). Peers will consider the Bill in Committee for a second day, with four days expected in total by the Whips. Progress on the first day of Committee Stage was roughly in line with the Whips’ expectations, with eight of the 46 groups of amendments dispensed with, only slightly less than the nine groups the Whips were targeting.

The groups of amendments set to be debated today include proposals covering the following areas:

• direct election of members of the House of Lords;

• a House of Lords Appointments Commission veto over peerages, and empowering the Commission to nominate new Crossbench Peers once the hereditaries are removed;

• term limits for members of the House of Lords;

• a compulsory retirement age for Peers;

• minimum attendance rates for Peers, with expulsion for those who do not meet the participation requirements; and

• removal of Peers with a criminal conviction for a serious offence.

For a full list of amendments yet to be discussed, see the second marshalled list for Committee on the Bill’s publications page, under the amendment paper section.

• House of Lords Library briefing

Grand Committee: Peers will debate the following five draft Statutory Instruments:

• Flood Reinsurance (Amendment) Regulations 2025

• Food and Feed (Regulated Products) (Amendment, Revocation, Consequential and Transitional Provision) Regulations 2025

• Neonatal Care Leave and Miscellaneous Amendments Regulations 2025

• Statutory Neonatal Care Pay (General) Regulations 2025

• Industrial Training Levy (Construction Industry Training Board) Order 2025

Highlights include:

House of Commons

• Public Accounts Committee (15:30): The Permanent Secretary at the Cabinet Office and several senior civil servants working on digital and cyber will give evidence to the inquiry into Government cyber resilience. The hearing follows a National Audit Office report in January which concluded that progress on cyber resilience “is slow and cyber incidents with a significant impact on government and public services are likely to happen regularly…”. It also stated that “the government’s cyber resilience levels are lower than it previously estimated”.

House of Lords

• Home-based Working Committee (14:15): One of four special inquiry committees appointed by the House at the start of each session to conduct a single, specified inquiry, this Committee will hear from experts and academics on the topic of home-based working.

• Autism Act 2009 Committee (14:45): Another of the special inquiry committees, this one will examine the Autism Act, questioning campaigners and charities about its effectiveness and impact.

• UK Engagement with Space Committee (15:30): The third of the four special inquiry committees, this one will question the Chair and the CEO of the UK Space Agency about the UK’s engagement with space.

A full list of select committee hearings can be found on the What’s On section of the Parliament website.

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Questions and statements: At 11:30, Justice Ministers will face questions from MPs. Topics include the use of technology in the criminal justice system, absconding before trial, the cost of court transcripts, violence against women and girls, knife crime, court and prosecution backlogs, and illegal drug use in prisons.

Any Urgent Questions or Ministerial Statements will follow.

Ten Minute Rule Motion: The Conservative MP Peter Bedford will introduce a Ten-Minute Rule Bill titled the Financial Education Bill. Its purpose is to make financial education a mandatory part of the English National Curriculum for all students aged 5 to 18. See our Hansard Society guide for more information about the parliamentary procedure for Ten Minute Rule Bills.

Main business: Employment Rights Bill (Remaining Stages, Day 1). Two days have been allocated for the Report Stage of this 191-page Bill, with the second day scheduled for Wednesday. In recent years, Report Stage has typically been limited to a single day. Two-day Report Stages have tended to be used only for especially large or controversial bills.

This extended timeframe will enable the House to consider both the numerous substantive provisions introduced by the Government during Committee stage and the significant number of proposed amendments for Report Stage. As of Friday 7 March, 344 amendments, 107 new clauses, and two new schedules had been tabled to the Bill, generating an unusually large 259-page amendment paper. Notably, 65 pages are taken up by just two proposed new schedules tabled by the Government, addressing issues related to agency workers and the recognition of trade unions.

As in Committee, some of the amendments proposed by the Government would introduce significant policy changes to the Bill. Last week (4 March) the Government announced plans to table a series of amendments to implement the results of five consultations – each of which was launched only after the Bill had already been presented to Parliament. These amendments include measures to:

• apply the new right to guaranteed hours and other restrictions on zero hours contracts to agency workers;

• increase the maximum award, where employers do not comply with collective redundancy obligations, from 90 days’ pay to 180 days’ pay;

• amend trade union legislation to reduce the notice periods for industrial action from 14 to 10 days, double the expiry date for industrial action ballots from six months to one year, reduce the information a trade union must provide to employers before industrial action, and strengthen protections against unfair practices by employers during the trade union recognition process;

• make Statutory Sick Pay a legal right for all workers and provide it from the first day of sickness absence;

• ensure rights and protections apply to those working through ‘umbrella companies’; and

• replace the requirement for trade unions to hold a ballot of their members every 10 years on maintaining a political fund, with a new provision requiring unions to remind members every 10 years that they have the right to opt out of contributing to the fund.

The 160 amendments and new clauses that were inserted in the Bill by the Government during Committee stage, along with the swathe of further amendments the Government intends to make at Report Stage, highlight the fact that the Bill initially presented to Parliament was ‘skeleton’ or ‘framework’ legislation. Rather than setting out detailed provisions, the Bill as introduced primarily sought to grant Ministers broad powers to define and implement policies at a later date.

This approach was driven by the Government’s pledge to introduce the Bill within 100 days of the general election – an arbitrary deadline that left insufficient time for thorough consultation and policy development before publication. The practice of introducing legislation in such an incomplete form and then making substantial changes later in the parliamentary process poses a serious challenge to parliamentary scrutiny. The Bill debated at Second Reading and in Committee may end up bearing little resemblance to the version that emerges after Report Stage – not due to amendments refining its original provisions, but because of the late insertion of entirely new policy measures. In this case, many of these new provisions are not direct responses to debates in Committee bur rather the result of external consultations that were only completed after the Bill had already been introduced. Had the Bill been prepared in line with good legislative practice, these consultations would have been conducted and concluded before drafting began, ensuring that key policy decisions were embedded from the outset.

A supplementary programme motion, set to be approved on Tuesday, outlines the structure of debates for the first day of Report Stage. According to the motion, discussions will focus on any amendments and new clauses related to Parts 1 to 3 of the Bill. These parts include the Bill’s provisions on zero hours contracts, flexible working, sick pay, entitlements to leave, collective redundancy (fire and rehire), and pay and conditions for the adult social care workforce.

• For a full list of amendments see the amendment paper section of the Bill’s publications page.

• House of Commons Library briefing

Adjournment: The DUP leader, Gavin Robinson MP, has the adjournment debate on European Remembrance Day for Victims of Terrorism in Northern Ireland.

Westminster Hall: There are five debates, on the governance of English rugby union; the effectiveness of the Nolan Principles in local government; anti-social behaviour in the East of England; gender critical beliefs and the Equality Act 2010; and the potential merits of an international fund for Israeli–Palestinian peace.

Legislative committees:

• The Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill Committee will continue examining the assisted dying bill all day today.

• Other Commons Public Bill Committees meet today to consider the Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill; the Public Authorities (Fraud, Error and Recovery) Bill; and the Data (Use and Access) Bill.

• Delegated Legislation Committee meeting today: Industrial Training Levy (Construction Industry Training Board) Order 2025.

Introduction of new Peers: One new Peer will be introduced to the House:

• Shaffaq Mohammed, now Lord Mohammed of Tinsley, a former Liberal Democrat Member of the European Parliament and councillor on Sheffield City Council.

Oral questions: Peers will begin the day by questioning Ministers for 40 minutes, on emissions by licensed oil and gas fields; the proposed East Coast Main Line timetable; the intended functions and constitutional role of the Council of Nations and Regions; and recent reports of an autistic woman with learning disabilities being detained in a mental health hospital for 45 years.

Main business:

• Supply and Appropriation (Anticipation and Adjustments) Bill (All Stages): This Bill provides formal statutory authority for the Supplementary Estimates, which are requests for Parliament to authorise the updated spending plans for Government departments for the 2024-25 financial year, and the Vote on Account, which provides advance funding to cover departmental spending for the first four months of the 2025-26 financial year. These were both approved by the House of Commons last Wednesday, with the Bill going through all its stages in the House the following day. The Bill has been certified as a Money Bill by the Speaker and will therefore pass through the House of Lords unamended (in accordance with the Parliament Act 1911).

  • Hansard Society procedural guide to the Estimates process

• Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Bill (Third Reading). This Bill, widely referred to as Martyn’s Law, would require certain public venues and events to take steps to reduce the risk of terrorist attacks. It has already passed through the House of Commons, so if the House of Lords agrees to the Bill’s Third Reading, the Bill will be sent back to the Commons so that MPs can consider any amendments made by the Lords. This ping-pong stage is likely to be short, since the Government suffered no defeats during the Bill’s passage through the Lords; only Government amendments were made to it.

  • House of Lords Library briefing

• Football Governance Bill (Report Stage). This is the first of two scheduled days of consideration. Peers made slower-than-expected progress through the Bill in Committee, amid accusations that opponents were filibustering by tabling a large numbers of amendments and speaking at length on each group. At Committee Stage, Peers often table ‘probing’ amendments, designed to test the Government’s stance and gauge opinion within the House, rather than to force immediate changes. It is at Report Stage – where far fewer amendments are tabled – that support for changes will crystallise.

  • House of Lords Library briefing

Grand Committee: Holocaust Memorial Bill (Committee, Day 2). This Bill amends planning restrictions to allow for the construction of a new Holocaust memorial in Victoria Tower Gardens, adjacent to the Houses of Parliament. As a Hybrid Bill – one that both affects a specific group and has general public effects – it has been subject to a special procedure with extended scrutiny (for further details, see former Commons Clerk Paul Evans’ analysis on our blog).

Progress during the first day of Committee Stage was slower than expected. The Whips had planned to conclude Committee Stage in two days, aiming to dispense with the first six of 11 groups of amendments on the first day. However, the Committee dispensed with only the first two groups of amendments, leaving nine still to be considered. Given this pace, it now appears unlikely that the Committee will complete its work today, as originally intended.

• House of Lords Library briefing

Highlights include:

House of Commons

• Education Committee (10:00): Representatives of charities, and a number of young people with experience of the Special Educational Needs and Disabilities system, will give evidence about solving the SEND crisis.

• Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee (10:00): The chief executives of Northumbrian Water and Welsh Water will give evidence on reforming the water sector.

• Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee (10:00): Local council leaders will address the funding and sustainability of local government finance.

• Treasury Committee (10:00): A pre-appointment hearing will be conducted with two nominees to the Prudential Regulation Committee. This body is responsible for taking the most important decisions of the Prudential Regulation Authority, the regulator of banks and financial institutions.

• Foreign Affairs Committee (10:30): The Minister for the Middle East, Hamish Falconer MP, will be questioned about the Israeli–Palestinian conflict.

• Defence Committee (13:00): The Minister for Veterans and People, Alistair Carns MP, and senior officials from the Ministry of Defence, will be questioned about the Armed Forces Covenant.

• International Development Committee (14:15): Experts and campaigners will give evidence about humanitarian access and adherence to international humanitarian law.

House of Lords

• European Affairs Committee (16:00): Senior law enforcement officials from the National Crime Agency, National Police Chiefs’ Council and the Crown Prosecution Service will give evidence about the reset in UK–EU relations.

• International Agreements Committee (17:00): Experts and academics will give evidence about the Ukraine 100-year partnership agreement.

A full list of select committee hearings can be found on the What’s On section of the Parliament website.

Details of Wednesday’s business can be found below.

Questions and statements: At 11:30, Wales Office Ministers will face questions from MPs. Topics include the impact of National Insurance rise in Wales, changes to inheritance tax for agricultural land, devolving the Crown Estate to Wales, cancer strategies in Wales, and the Welsh tourism industry.

Prime Minister’s Questions: At 12:00, Sir Keir Starmer will face the Leader of the Opposition, Kemi Badenoch, at PMQs.

Any Urgent Questions or Ministerial Statements will follow.

Ten Minute Rule Motion: The Labour MP Liam Conlon will introduce a Ten Minute Rule Bill titled the Mother and Baby Institutions Payment Scheme (Report) Bill. It would require the Secretary of State to report to Parliament on the potential merits of disregarding payments received under the Mother and Baby Institutions Payment Scheme operated by the Government of Ireland for the purposes of taxation, means-tested social security payments and social care capital limits.

Main business: Employment Rights Bill (Remaining Stages, Day 2). The supplementary programme motion indicates that today’s debate will focus on amendments to Parts 4 to 6 of the Bill, which include the provisions in relation to trade unions and industrial action, including the recognition process, ballots, trade union finances, and the repeal of minimum service levels legislation, as well as the provisions about labour market enforcement. For more information about the Bill see Tuesday’s main business.

Adjournment: The Labour MP Kim Johnson has the adjournment debate on the 40th anniversary of the Swann Report into racism in education.

Westminster Hall: There will be five debates today on:

• the use of stop and search (House of Commons Library briefing);

• Government support for community theatre;

• the role of water companies in new housing development planning (House of Commons Library briefing);

• Government support for human rights and peace in Kashmir; and

• Government support for rural communities.

Legislative committees:

• The Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill Committee will continue examining the assisted dying bill all day today.

• Delegated Legislation Committee meeting today: The Civil Proceedings and Magistrates’ Courts Fees (Amendment) Order 2025.

Oral questions: Peers will begin the day by questioning Ministers for 40 minutes, on EU proposals to exempt eligible EU companies from carbon border taxes and about plans to ensure UK businesses are treated similarly; antisemitism in UK universities; and the closure of Apricity Fertility. The topic of a fourth question will be decided by a ballot drawn at lunchtime on Monday 10 March.

Main business:

• Product Regulation and Metrology Bill (Third Reading). This controversial legislation grants Ministers a swathe of new powers to amend the UK’s product regulations, including a power to specify that product requirements in the UK align with those set out in EU law. The breadth of the Bill’s delegated powers generated significant criticism from both the House of Lords Delegated Powers and Regulatory Reform Committee and the House of Lords Constitution Committee, as outlined in a recent edition of the Bulletin. As a result of this criticism, the Government has made several concessions during the Bill’s passage through the Lords, including amendments to introduce consultation requirements before Ministers make any regulations under the Act and to provide for the greater use of the affirmative procedure, which requires regulations to be approved following a debate and then a vote in both Houses. If Peers agree to give the Bill a Third Reading, it will be sent to the House of Commons for consideration by MPs.

  • House of Lords Library briefing

• House of Lords (Hereditary Peers) Bill (Committee). Once consideration of the Product Regulation Bill is complete, Peers will resume scrutiny of this legislation. For more information about this Bill see Monday’s main business.

Highlights include:

House of Commons

• Northern Ireland Affairs Committee (9:30): Representatives of Northern Ireland retailers and consumers will give evidence about the operation of the Windsor Framework.

• Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee (9:30): The chief executives of Wessex Water and Anglian Water will be questioned about reforming the water sector.

• Health and Social Care Committee (9:30): Sir Norman Lamb, the former Health Minister and now chair of South London and Maudsley NHS Trust, will give evidence alongside other senior healthcare officials and practitioners about community mental health services.

House of Lords

• International Relations and Defence Committee (10:30): Representatives of Republicans Overseas UK, the American Enterprise Institute and Chatham House will give evidence as part of the inquiry into the UK’s future relationship with the United States.

• International Agreements Committee (12:30): Minister for Europe, Stephen Doughty MP, will give evidence about the Ukraine 100-year partnership agreement.

A full list of select committee hearings can be found on the What’s On section of the Parliament website.

Questions and statements: At 9:30, Business and Trade Ministers will face questions from MPs. Topics include businesses in rural areas, high street businesses, the regulatory environment, the minimum wage, stolen vehicle trading, the hospitality sector and trade union recognition.

Any Urgent Questions will follow.

The Leader of the House of Commons, Lucy Powell, will present her weekly Business Statement, setting out the business in the House for the next couple of weeks. Any other Ministerial Statements will follow.

Main business: There will be two debates nominated by the Backbench Business Committee on:

• the future of farming led by Alistair Carmichael MP, Chair of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee. Although there will no doubt be discussion of the inheritance tax changes in the Budget, Mr Carmichael made clear in his application to the Backbench Business Committee that he wishes the debate to range more widely, including addressing food security and reliance on imported food, the depletion agenda, and flooding and climate change mitigation.

• mental health support in educational settings led by Chris Bloore MP. The intention is for this debate to go beyond how mental health issues are addressed in the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill by engaging with the wider issues related to tackling child poverty in anticipation of the forthcoming report of the Child Poverty Taskforce. In his application to the Backbench Business Committee, Mr Bloor stated that he hoped the debate would provide an opportunity “to share the current state of mental health support in education settings, and to raise examples of effective interventions, such as anti-bullying programmes and public mental health support, as well as opening the discussion on whole-school approaches.” (House of Commons Library statistics / Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology POSTnotes on mental health support for young people in schools and children’s wellbeing in schools.)

Adjournment: The Labour MP Dr Zubir Ahmed has the adjournment debate on the contribution of Muslims to communities.

Westminster Hall: There is one debate today, on educational opportunities for young carers (House of Commons Library briefings on young carers in education and local authority support for informal carers).

Legislative committees:

• Public Bill Committees meeting today: Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill; Public Authorities (Fraud, Error and Recovery) Bill; Data (Use and Access) Bill; Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education (Transfer of Functions etc) Bill.

Oral questions: Peers will begin the day by questioning Ministers for 40 minutes, on plans for an updated public–private partnership model to attract investment; reducing the number of underpayments of National Insurance spouse’s pensions caused by “official error” by the Department for Work and Pensions; and the impact of imposing VAT on private school fees. The topic of a fourth question will be decided by a ballot drawn at lunchtime on Tuesday 11 March.

Main business: There will be two backbench debates today:

• on the UK’s global position, led by former Foreign Office minister and current member of the International Agreements Committee, Lord Howell of Guildford (House of Lords Library briefing); and

• on the role of integration in reducing barriers to community cohesion in the United Kingdom, led by Baroness Verma (House of Lords Library briefing).

Grand Committee: Peers will take part in four one-hour questions for short debate (QSD), on:

• plans for open access operators following the creation of Great British Railways (House of Lords Library briefing);

• progress in developing a National Youth Strategy (House of Lords Library briefing);

• the offence caused to indigenous peoples by the sale of human body parts in public auctions and their display in public collections; and

• the Government’s strategy for biodiversity and conservation (House of Lords Library briefing).

Highlights include:

House of Commons

• Public Accounts Committee (10:00): Sir Chris Whitty, Chief Medical Officer and Acting Permanent Secretary at the Department of Health and Social Care, will give evidence alongside other senior officials about the Department’s Annual Report and Accounts 2023-24.

House of Lords

• Social Mobility Policy Committee (10:00): One of the House’s four special inquiry committees, it will hear from the Chair and two Deputy Chairs of the Social Mobility Commission.

A full list of select committee hearings can be found on the What’s On section of the Parliament website.

Private Members’ Bills (PMBs): Today is the sixth of 13 Fridays this session where backbench legislation is given precedence over other business.

The Future Business Paper lists 29 Private Members’ Bills. The first two of these were presented by MPs who were successful in the Private Members’ Bill ballot. The Hansard Society’s guide to Private Members’ Bills explains in more detail the various types of PMB and how the legislative process differs from that for Government bills.

Only the first bill on the list is guaranteed a debate. If discussion on this bill concludes before 14:30, MPs may have the opportunity to debate the second and any subsequent bills in the remaining time. After 14:30, only unopposed bills can proceed. This means that while a bill might not be debated, it could still pass its Second Reading if no objection is raised by any MP present (including any Whips objecting on behalf of their party).

The first two bills listed and therefore the most likely to be debated, are:

• Rare Cancers Bill: this makes provision to incentivise research and investment into the treatment of rare types of cancer.

• Free School Meals (Automatic Registration of Eligible Children) Bill: this would provide for the automatic registration of all children who are eligible for free school meals. (House of Commons Library briefing / Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology POSTnote)

Both bills are yet to be published, but they will not be able to proceed to Second Reading unless the full legislative text is published before Friday.

Adjournment: The Conservative MP Greg Smith has the adjournment debate on the impact of inflation on HS2 mitigation projects. (House of Commons Library briefing)

Private Members’ Bills (PMBs): Four Private Members’ Bills are listed on the Future Business Paper for debate today.

• Universal Credit (Standard Allowance Entitlement of Care Leavers) Bill (Third Reading): This legislation would equalise the standard allowance included in Universal Credit awards for care leavers with the amount received by claimants aged 25 or over. At Second Reading, the Government clarified that it does not support the Bill but may still allow it to proceed. However, it is unlikely to overcome the significant procedural hurdles that PMBs from the House of Lords typically face in the House of Commons.

• House of Lords (Peerage Nominations) Bill (Second Reading): This Bill, introduced by Professor the Lord Norton of Louth, a Hansard Society member, seeks to reform the process of appointing members to the House of Lords by placing the House of Lords Appointments Commission on a statutory footing. It would prevent the Prime Minister from nominating individuals for life peerages until the Commission has reported, and would raise the appointment threshold to a standard of ‘conspicuous merit’. Additionally, the Bill would require the Commission to have regard to the diversity of the UK population when making recommendations and would impose a duty on the party leaders to inform the Commission of the procedure and criteria used to select nominees.

• Palestine Statehood (Recognition) Bill (Second Reading): This would require the Government to formally recognise Palestine as a sovereign and independent state on the basis of its pre-1967 borders.

• Statutory Instruments (Amendment) Bill (Committee): This Bill proposes to introduce a new “think again” procedure for Statutory Instruments (SIs), giving the House of Lords the power to formally request that the House of Commons reconsider specific concerns before deciding whether to approve or reject an SI. The Hansard Society has a particular interest in this Bill, having proposed a “think again” mechanism as part of our Delegated Legislation Review. While the Society supports the principle behind this Bill, we believe it would be better implemented through the Standing Orders of both Houses, rather than being enshrined in legislation.

The Hansard Society is a charity. If you find this Bulletin useful please help us cover the research and production costs. A small donation of just £3 per month – less than the cost of a cup of coffee – will help us keep you up-to-date on the issues that matter in Parliament. Donate here