Questions and statements: At 14:30, Work and Pensions Ministers will respond to MPs’ questions on topics including the impact of the Budget on levels of unemployment, the Get Britain Working white paper, health and disability benefits, Universal Credit, and pensioner poverty. Just two of the 23 questions listed on the Order Paper are duplicates.

Any Urgent Questions or Ministerial Statements will follow. Two of the Written Statements scheduled for publication today could potentially prompt an oral Ministerial Statement. The Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government is set to make a major announcement on “English Devolution”. This announcement is expected to outline significant changes to local government structures, making it highly likely to warrant a statement in the House. Meanwhile, the Chancellor of the Exchequer is also publishing a Written Statement, though its specific subject has not been disclosed. If it pertains to last week’s formal launch of the Comprehensive Spending Review, it too could lead to an oral Ministerial Statement.

Main business: Water (Special Measures) Bill (Lords) (Second Reading). Its core provisions include:

• empowering Ofwat to issue rules about remuneration of senior executives, which must include provisions to prohibit water companies from giving bonuses or other performance-related pay to senior executives if the company fails to meet standards relating to consumers, the environment, financial resilience or criminal liability;

• allowing courts to impose imprisonment in any case where environmental investigations have been obstructed by individuals;

• requiring publication and independent scrutiny of near-real-time data from all emergency overflows; and

• amending the special administrations regime for the water industry.

The Bill was introduced in the House of Lords where the Government was defeated on two amendments which it may seek to remove from the Bill at a later stage:

• an amendment proposed by Crossbench Peer Lord Cromwell will require water companies to report annually on their financial resilience, including debt levels, commercial strategy, and other financial risks, including to their long-term sustainability; and

• an amendment proposed by Conservative Peer Lord Roborough, which will require Ofwat to publish the rules outlined above relating to remuneration and governance within six months of Royal Assent, as well as requiring approval by both Houses of Parliament of the Statutory Instrument giving effect to those rules.

Assuming the Bill is given a Second Reading, it will be committed to a Public Bill Committee. The programme motion for the Bill states that proceedings in this Committee must conclude on or before Thursday 16 January 2025.

Select Committee nominations: Six motions on the Order Paper propose adjustments to Select Committee memberships, reflecting recent appointments and political changes.

• Foreign Affairs Committee: Labour MPs Claire Hazelgrove and Matthew Patrick will step down due to their appointments as Parliamentary Private Secretaries (PPSs) to Defra and to the joint portfolio of Culture, Media and Sport and Science, Innovation and Technology, respectively. Alex Ballinger and Phil Brickell will replace them.

• International Development Committee: James Naish will replaceLabour MP Gordon Mckee.

• Northern Ireland Affairs Committee: Conservative MP Jerome Mayhew, recently appointed as a Shadow Transport Minister, will be succeeded by Simon Hoare (who previously chaired this Committee between 2019 and 2023).

• Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee: Conservative MP John Lamont will join the Committee. He will be the second Conservative representative, alongside Chair, Simon Hoare, addressing the party’s underrepresentation on this Committee.

• Work and Pensions Committee: Labour MP Frank McNally will take the place of Neil Coyle. Media reports suggest Coyle’s departure stems from allegations of unacceptable behaviour toward parliamentary staff, which Coyle denies. He asserts the move is due to his new role as Labour’s political lead for the London region. This Committee remains one member short, with only one Conservative MP nominated thus far.

• Welsh Affairs Committee: Conservative MP Aphra Brandreth will be added to complete the Committee’s membership which currently includes six Labour, three Plaid Cymru and one Liberal Democrat representatives.

Adjournment: The Labour MP Mary Glindon has the adjournment debate on court delays and victims of sexual violence.

Westminster Hall: E-petitions 653509 and 652949 relating to Israel and Palestine. The first petition calls on the Government to immediately recognise the state of Palestine and has received nearly 284,000 signatures. The second petition calls for all licences for arms exports to Israel to be revoked and has received just over 107,000 signatures.

Debates on e-petitions are typically initiated by a designated member of the Petitions Committee. For this debate, the Committee has asked the Liberal Democrat MP Roz Savage to take the lead. A Government minister will respond to the debate. Last week the Business and Trade Select Committee held an oral evidence session on arms exports to Israel. To enhance the questioning, they invited a member from each of the Foreign Affairs, International Development and Defence Select Committees to join as a ‘guest’. This issue is currently the subject of ongoing court proceedings, which would normally restrict discussion under the House of Commons’ sub judice rule. This rule prevents members from referring to active legal cases during debates, motions or questions to avoid prejudicing court proceedings. However, exceptions can be made. In this instance, the Speaker granted the Committee a sub judice waiver, recognising the national importance of the issue. The sub judice rule does not limit Parliament’s ability to legislate on any matter, but its application in non-legislative debates is ultimately at the discretion of the Speaker who will act on advice from Speaker’s Counsel and the senior clerks. For today’s e-petition debate, the Chair may therefore announce at the outset whether a waiver has been deemed necessary and granted, enabling discussion on these sensitive issues.

Oral questions: Peers will begin the day by questioning Ministers for 40 minutes on: anti-social behaviour and shoplifting; the recommendations of the Older People’s Housing Taskforce; the welfare of domestic animals; and plans for an international anti-corruption court.

Motion to approve the membership of the Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC): the House will be asked to approve the nomination of three Peers to the Committee. The ISC is a joint committee of MPs and Peers established by the 1994 Intelligence Services Act to scrutinise the operations of the security and intelligence services. Last week, six MPs were appointed to the Committee by the House of Commons. Once the Peers have been formally appointed, the ISC will be able to begin its work. The three Peers nominated are:

• Lord Beamish (former MP Kevan Jones), who served on the ISC between 2017 and 2024;

• Lord West of Spithead, who served as an ISC member between 2020 and 2024 and as Minister for Security between 2007 and 2010; and

• Baroness Brown of Cambridge, a Crossbench Peer who also serves as Chair of the Science and Technology Committee.

We discuss the role and work of the Intelligence and Security Committee on the latest episode of our Parliament Matters podcast.

Main business: Football Governance Bill (Committee stage; day five). So far, the Committee has dispensed with around 110 amendments and 10 clauses, but up to 240 amendments to the remaining 89 clauses are yet to be discussed. An additional day has already been allocated to this Bill at Committee stage; more may be needed.

Grand Committee: Data (Use and Access) Bill (Committee stage, day three). The main provisions and concerns were outlined in a previous edition of the Bulletin.

House of Commons Public Accounts Committee (15:30): will take evidence on tax evasion in the retail sector from the Permanent Secretary at HMRC, the Chief Executive of the Insolvency Service, and the Registrar at Companies House.

The Hansard Society is a charity. If you find this Parliament Matters Bulletin useful, especially for your work, please consider donating the price of a cup of coffee to help cover the research and production costs. Your small, regular donation will fuel our ability to keep you and others up-to-date on the issues that matter in our Parliament.

Questions and statements: At 11:30, Energy Security and Net Zero Ministers will face questions from MPs. Questions concern the impact of changes to the Mineworkers’ Pension Scheme, ideas for a warm homes plan, energy security, and the National Wealth Fund. Of the 25 questions listed, 14 are duplicates with one question appearing five times. This question asks the Secretary of State “what assessment he has made of the potential impact of changes to the Mineworkers’ Pension Scheme on the living standards of recipients”. It has been tabled by five Labour MPs. The identical phrasing suggests co-ordination by the Whips and Parliamentary Private Secretaries (PPSs) to highlight the Government’s announcement in the Budget that it would reverse an “historic injustice” by returning £1.5 billion to the pension scheme of 100,000 former mineworkers.

Any Urgent Questions or Ministerial Statements will follow.

Ten Minute Rule Motion: The Labour MP Luke Akehurst will present a Ten Minute Rule Bill titled the Off-Road Bikes (Police Powers) Bill. The Bill would give the police powers to enter a private dwelling for the purpose of seizing an off-road bike that has been driven in an anti-social way or without insurance. See our Hansard Society guide for more information about the parliamentary procedure for Ten Minute Rule Bills.

Main business: National Insurance Contributions (Secondary Class 1 Contributions) Bill (Committee of the Whole House and Remaining Stages). This Bill implements a rise in the rate of employer National Insurance Contributions (NICs), and a decrease in the income threshold above which employer NICs are paid, as announced in the Budget. While most Budget measures are being implemented through the Finance Bill currently progressing through Parliament, changes to NICs require separate legislation, as explained in a previous edition of the Bulletin.

Several amendments have been tabled, aiming to preserve the existing NICs rate and threshold for particular groups. These include:

• two Liberal Democrat amendments focused on preserving current NICs rates and thresholds for care providers, GP practices, NHS dentists, pharmacists, charitable providers of health and care, and providers of hospice care;

• an SNP amendment which seeks to maintain the existing rates and thresholds for those employed by charities, voluntary organisations, GP practices, universities, and colleges; and

• an amendment from Shockat Adam MP of the ‘Independent Alliance’, which proposes to protect those employed in GP surgeries, optometry or dispensing optician practices, dental surgeries, pharmacies, residential care settings, and charities with fewer than 50 employees.

At this stage, no Conservative amendments have been tabled.

Adjournment: The Democratic Unionist MP Gregory Campbell has the adjournment debate on the BBC Charter Review.

Westminster Hall: There are five Westminster Hall debates, on the impact of Old Oak Common on rail services to the West and Wales; the diagnosis and management of musculoskeletal conditions; public perceptions of trades and apprenticeship completion rates; the future of Aldridge train station; and Government support for community pharmacies in Devon and the South West.

Oral questions: Peers will begin the day by questioning Ministers for 40 minutes, on reducing the cost of energy for businesses in the United Kingdom; timing of the Spring fiscal event and the publication of the Strategic Defence Review and the implications for any plans to spend 2.5% of GDP on defence; access to music and drama in state schools; and attacks on protesters and journalists by authorities in Georgia.

Main business: Great British Energy Bill (Committee stage, day 2). Of the 127 amendments on the marshalled list, 45 were dispensed with on the first day in Committee which covered the first four of the Bill’s eight clauses. Five more amendments have since been tabled, leaving 87 still to be debated in relation to the final four clauses of the Bill.

Grand Committee: Peers will consider seven Statutory Instruments (SIs) which have been grouped together into four thematic debates, regarding adjustments to professional qualifications (one SI); corporate information sharing (two SIs); financial market regulations (three SIs); and bank compensation schemes (one SI).

KEEP UP WITH LEGISLATIVE AND REGULATORY CHANGES Our Statutory Instrument Tracker® is a powerful online tool that delivers daily updates on Statutory Instruments (SIs), including consultations and every stage of an SIs journey through Parliament. With the SI Tracker®, you can customise alerts to fit your specific policy interests and compliance priorities. Subscribing to our SI Tracker® app helps you save time and reduce risk, keeping you fully informed about the latest legislative developments so you can respond swiftly to new statutory requirements and policy changes.

Highlights include:

House of Commons

• Science, Innovation and Technology (9:30): will take evidence from academics, researchers and campaigners on how UK science and research has contributed to the eradication of diseases, with three individual sessions focused on infectious diseases, dementia and cancer.

• Education Committee (10:00): will take evidence on children’s social care from practitioners in local government, social work and the social care sector.

• Treasury Committee (10:00): will take evidence on the acceptance of cash from representatives of the Post Office, the Association of Convenience Stores, the trade union USDAW and the National Association of British Market Authorities.

• Defence Committee (10:30): will hear from senior departmental officials about the Ministry of Defence’s Annual Report and Accounts 2023-24. The Committee has indicated it is likely to raise “the impact of the conflict in Ukraine on the UK’s defence capabilities, in particular how the Department plans to replenish the £2.7 billion of military equipment the UK has provided for Ukraine. Questions are also likely to cover the estimated 10% cuts to the MOD’s civilian workforce.”

• Culture, Media and Sport; Foreign Affairs; and International Development (14:00): these three committees will hold a joint evidence session on the future of the BBC World Service. They will first question the Director General of the BBC, Tim Davie, and the BBC News Global Director, Jonathan Munro, followed by a session involving Foreign Office Minister Baroness (Jenny) Chapman and DCMS Minister Stephanie Peacock MP.

• Home Affairs Committee (14:30): The Home Secretary, Yvette Cooper, will be questioned by the Committee on the work of the Home Office. The Committee has indicated that questions are likely to cover migration and the asylum system, the disorder and rioting this Summer, police funding and standards, and crime and anti-social behaviour.

• Business and Trade Committee (14:30): will consider the Employment Rights Bill, hearing from representatives of the Trades Union Congress, GMB union, Confederation of British Industry, Amazon, BAE Systems, and Jaguar Land Rover about the Employment Rights Bill.

• Justice Committee (14:30): the Justice Secretary and Lord Chancellor, Shabana Mahmood KC MP, will give evidence about her work.

House of Lords

• Justice and Home Affairs Committee (10:30): will hear from Charles Clarke, the former Home Secretary (2004-6) and Michael Gove, the former Justice Secretary (2015-6) about prison culture, governance, leadership and staffing.

A summary of Wednesday's business continues below!

This section has been amended to reflect a new adjournment debate topic in the House of Commons.

Questions and statements: At 11:30, Women and Equalities Ministers will face questions from MPs. Questions concern measures to tackle violence against women and girls, discrimination against ethnic minority people, legislative proposals to create domestic abuse-aggravated offences, steps to help tackle misogyny on social media platforms, support for disabled people facing food insecurity, trends in the length of paternity leave being taken, and special educational needs provision. Six of the 14 questions listed are duplicates of at least one other. Any Urgent Questions or Ministerial Statements will follow.

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

Ten Minute Rule Motion: Labour MP Gareth Snell will present a Ten Minute Rule Bill titled the Office of the Whistleblower Bill. This proposed legislation would establish an independent Office of the Whistleblower to set and enforce standards for managing whistleblowing cases, direct whistleblowing investigations, order redress for whistleblowers, and provide disclosure and advice services. See our Hansard Society guide for more information about the parliamentary procedure for Ten Minute Rule Bills.

Main business: MPs will wrap up consideration of three relatively short and uncontroversial bills today.

Two bills are scheduled for consideration in Committee of the Whole House followed by any remaining stages. No amendments have yet been tabled to either Bill. If no amendments are made in Committee, then Report stage will be dispensed with and each Bill will be given an immediate Third Reading.

• Lords Spiritual (Women) Act 2015 (Extension) Bill [Lords] (Committee of the Whole House, Report stage and Third Reading): the provisions of this Bill were outlined in a recent edition of the Bulletin. This Bill has already been considered by the House of Lords; if no amendments are made and the Bill is given a Third Reading, it will be sent for Royal Assent.

• Financial Assistance to Ukraine Bill (Committee of the Whole House, Report stage and Third Reading): as outlined in a previous edition of the Bulletin, this Bill makes provision for £2.26 billion in financial support for Ukraine. At the end of proceedings it is expected that the Speaker will certify this as a ‘Money Bill’ as it creates or extends the scope of a charge on public expenditure. Our guide to Money Bills explains the certification process in detail. This Bill has not yet been considered by the House of Lords. If it is certified as a Money Bill, it will likely have an expedited passage. Money Bills are rarely considered in Committee by Peers; the legislative stages on such bills are usually (although not always) treated as a formality in the House of Lords.

The third bill has already been considered in Public Bill Committee and so now faces its remaining stages:

• Commonwealth Parliamentary Association and International Committee of the Red Cross (Status) Bill (Report stage and Third Reading): the key provisions of this Bill were summarised in a recent edition of this Bulletin. At Committee stage only one amendment was moved and agreed: it was tabled by the Government to remove the ‘privilege amendment’ inserted in the Lords. The Shadow Foreign Secretary, Priti Patel MP, acknowledged during the debate that “no one really understands” why such an insertion was made. The reason is constitutional. If a bill starts in the House of Lords and involves spending or taxation which is ‘incidental’ to its purpose, then Peers insert a statement to acknowledge the financial privilege of the House of Commons. This is the principle that control of spending can be exercised only by the elected House. Thus, a new provision – Clause 6(4) – was added to the Bill in the Lords which read: “Nothing in this Act shall impose any charge on the people or on public funds, or vary the amount or incidence of or otherwise alter any such charge in any manner, or affect the assessment, levying, administration or application of any money raised by any such charge.” This provision – which appears in bold text in the Bill as brought from the Lords – was then removed by MPs in Committee, as is customary when MPs accept financial burdens emanating from the Lords. As this is the only amendment to the Bill in the Commons it is expected that Report stage and Third Reading will be perfunctory.

Adjournment: The Independent MP Richard Burgon has the adjournment debate on internet service providers and dangerous online suicide-related content.

Westminster Hall: There are five Westminster Hall debates, on the employment rights of people with a terminal illness; the potential impact of the Gatwick airspace modernisation review on local communities; the future funding of the BBC; immigration and nationality statistics; and creative arts education.

Oral questions: Peers will begin the day by questioning Ministers for 40 minutes, on re-opening Hammersmith Bridge; creating additional housing through permitted development rights; and the work of the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC). The topic of a fourth question will be decided by a ballot drawn at lunchtime on Monday, 16 December.

Motion for new Committee activity: The Senior Deputy Speaker will propose a motion inviting the House of Lords to endorse the Liaison Committee’s report, which recommends the establishment of four new committees for 2025. Each year, the House appoints four special inquiry committees to examine issues that may not fall under the remit of its standing Select Committees. Among these temporary committees, at least one is typically dedicated to post-legislative scrutiny of an Act of Parliament. To determine these inquiries, the Liaison Committee invites members of the House of Lords to submit proposals. From these, a shortlist is compiled, and nominees are invited to hearings where the lead proposer of each topic presents their case. The Committee selects topics based on criteria that prioritise inquiries which:

• make the best use of Members’ knowledge and expertise;

• complement the work of existing Select Committees, including those in the Commons;

• address cross-departmental policy issues; and

• can be completed within 10 months.

In its deliberations, the Committee also considers the balance of topics across recent inquiries, ongoing work in Parliament and Government, and anticipated legislative developments.

This year, the Committee received a record 45 proposals. It now recommends that the House establish special inquiry committees on the following topics:

• the Autism Act 2009;

• home-based working;

• social mobility policy; and

• the UK’s engagement with space.

If the House approves the recommendations, the new committees will commence their work in January and conclude by November 2025.

Main business: Assuming that the House does not conclude consideration of the Football Governance Bill’s Committee stage on Monday, which seems likely given the slow pace so far, the Committee for that bill will continue today.

Grand Committee: It is similarly expected that Peers will continue to debate the Data (Use and Access) Bill in Grand Committee, assuming its Committee stage does not conclude on Monday.

Highlights include:

House of Commons

• Work and Pensions Committee (9:30): will take evidence from economists and campaigners from the Institute for Fiscal Studies, Age UK and others on pensioner poverty.

• Health and Social Care Committee (9:30): will take evidence from the Health Secretary, Wes Streeting MP, about the work of his Department. The Committee has indicated its questioning is likely to cover the Government’s 10 Year Health Plan, its efforts to reduce waiting lists and its plans for social care.

• Welsh Affairs Committee (10:00): representatives of the National Flood Forecasting Centre, Natural Resources Wales and the Met Office will give evidence on flooding in Wales.

• Environmental Audit Committee (14:30): will take evidence from the Minister for Nature Mary Creagh MP and DEFRA officials on what the Government is doing to promote investment in nature (the role of natural capital in the green economy).

• Energy Security and Net Zero Committee (15:00): will hear from the Group CEO at the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority, the CEO at Nuclear Waste Services, and the CEO at Sellafield Ltd which runs the Sellafield nuclear waste processing and storage facility.

House of Lords

• Financial Services Regulation Committee (10:05): will take evidence on the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and Prudential Regulation Authority’s ‘secondary competitiveness and growth objective’ from the Director General at the Association of British Insurers, representatives of financial institutions including the Chief Executive at JP Morgan UK, and the chair of the FCA’s Financial Services Consumer Panel.

• Public Services Committee (11:00): will hear from the new Courts Minister Sarah Sackman MP and officials from HM Courts and Tribunals Service about interpreting and translation services in the courts.

• Built Environment Committee (16:30): will question Angela Rayner MP, the Deputy Prime Minister and Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government and the Housing Minister, Matthew Pennycook MP, about the ‘Grey Belt’.

This section was amended to add details about the Liaison Committee's hearing with the Prime Minister.

Questions and statements: At 9:30, Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Ministers will face questions from MPs. Topics include extending the Rural England Prosperity Fund, the impact of the Budget on family farms and support for the well-being of farmers, steps to improve food security, the reduction of pollution in waterway, improved dredging of rivers, and measures to reduce electronic waste. Three of the 15 questions listed are duplicates of at least one other question: all relate to reforms to funding for flood protection.

At 10:10, the newly appointed Solicitor General, Lucy Rigby MP, will take the spotlight as she answers questions from MPs. This marks her debut at the Despatch Box following her recent appointment, succeeding Sarah Sackman MP in the ministerial reshuffle triggered by the resignation of Transport Secretary Louise Haigh. Topics to be covered include the effective prosecution of perpetrators of misdemeanours, support for the Serious Fraud Office in tackling fraud and economic crime, steps being taken by the Crown Prosecution Service to improve support for victims of crime, measures to increase prosecution rates in cases of violence against women and girls, people smuggling and rural crime. Five of the 11 questions listed are duplicates of at least one other question: three relate to the prosecution of knife offences and two to increasing prosecution rates for rural crime.

Any Urgent Questions will follow.

The Leader of the House of Commons, Lucy Powell, will then give her weekly Business Statement, setting out the business in the House for the first week or two of the New Year. Any other Ministerial Statements will follow.

Select Committee Statement: The Chair of the Defence Committee, Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi MP, will make a 15-minute statement about his Committee’s first report of this Session on ‘Service Accommodation’. Select Committees can apply to the Backbench Business Committee for time to make a statement about the start of an inquiry or the publication of a report. Time for a statement may be granted provided it can be held no more than five sitting days after the day an inquiry is launched or a report published. These statements are made in the Chamber: typically, the Chair of the Committee makes a 10-minute speech (although it could be made by another member of the Committee) and then responds to questions from MPs for up to a further 10 minutes.

The Defence Committee’s inquiry into ‘Service Accommodation’ began in the last Parliament. Its report, published last week, concludes that poor decision-making and inadequate maintenance over several decades leave a significant share of service accommodation in a sub-standard state and in need of extensive refurbishment or rebuilding. However, the Committee concludes that in the economic climate, with competing pressures on public funds it is “not confident that the sustained investment required will be forthcoming in future Defence budgets.” It makes clear that both the MOD and the Treasury “must make substantial and ongoing funding commitments to improve the Defence estate before it deteriorates beyond repair – and before greater numbers of personnel decide to leave the military because of poor accommodation.”

Main business: Matters to be raised before the forthcoming adjournment. This debate allows MPs to raise any issue they like and is usually taken up by speeches about constituency issues.

Adjournment: Reform Party MP Rupert Lowe has the adjournment debate on the safety of MV Ruby in Great Yarmouth. The vessel was damaged in bad weather in September and after a month at anchor it docked in Great Yarmouth harbour for repairs in October. However, the case has attracted local concern as the boat is carrying 20,000 tonnes of “potentially explosive” fertiliser (ammonium nitrate) raising fears about the safety of the cargo.

Oral questions: Peers will begin the day by questioning Ministers for 40 minutes, on progress in settling unpaid claims under the Windrush Compensation Scheme; revising legislation around the use of e-scooters and bikes; and the impact of the increase in National Insurance Contributions for employers on economic growth. The topic of a fourth question will be decided by a ballot drawn at lunchtime on Tuesday, 17 December.

Main business: Two backbench debates take up the rest of the day:

• on the importance of growing the rural economy; and

• on government policy towards China, especially in relation to human rights and security issues arising from China’s actions in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Tibet and the South China Sea, and against the Uyghurs in Xinjiang.

• House of Commons Public Accounts Committee (10:00): The Committee will question the Department for Transport’s Permanent Secretary and the Chief Executive of HS2 about the status of HS2 following the cancellation of the Northern leg of the line.

• House of Commons Liaison Committee (14:30): The Committee, which is made up of the chairs of 31 other select committees, has its first hearing with the Prime Minister, Sir Keir Starmer. Eleven members of the committee, as well as its new chair Meg Hillier MP, will put questions to the Prime Minister across three themes: growth and the economy; public services and plan for change; global affairs and security.

Both Houses rise at the close of business on Thursday 19 December for the Christmas recess and will sit next on Monday 6 January 2025.

This Bulletin will also be taking a short break for the Christmas recess. Our next edition will be published on Sunday 5 January 2025 in advance of Parliament's return from recess the following day.

The Hansard Society is a charity. If you find this Parliament Matters Bulletin useful, especially for your work, please consider donating the price of a cup of coffee to help cover the research and production costs. Your small, regular donation will fuel our ability to keep you and others up-to-date on the issues that matter in our Parliament.