On Thursday morning, 20 lucky MPs will win the legislative lottery to present their own Bills this Session. From 11:30 on Tuesday and Wednesday MPs will be able to sign their names in the ‘Ballot book’ to be included in the ballot. Ballot Bills have the best chance of becoming law because they have priority over other PMBs when time is allocated for debates; the first seven are guaranteed time in the Chamber. The ballot normally takes place on the second Thursday of the Session, but the Government delayed it until after the Summer recess. No reason for the delay was given, but the Government may have wanted more time to draft ‘handout bills’ to offer to MPs selected in the ballot. See the Hansard Society’s guide to Private Members’ Bills for more information.

Two Bills will go through Committees of the Whole House and their remaining stages (Report and Third Reading) in the Commons this week: the Passenger Railway Services (Public Ownership) Bill and the Budget Responsibility Bill. For the new MPs it will be their first experience of the process for amending legislation. Barring any unexpected developments these should be the first Bills in this Parliament to complete their passage through the House of Commons.

This is the final week for aspirant chairs to accumulate support in advance of the deadline for submitting nomination forms (Monday 9 September). Only the three largest political parties are eligible to chair a Select Committee in this Parliament, their share based on the overall political balance in the House. How the parties have carved up the 27 chairs between them was announced just before the Summer recess. All eyes will be on how many of the 2024 intake will make an ambitious bid to chair a Select Committee after just a few weeks in the House. Our Back to Business guide explains how the Select Committee election process works.

Conservative MPs will vote in the first round of their leadership election on Wednesday (4 September). Six candidates will be on the ballot paper. The candidate with the lowest number of votes will be eliminated from the contest, with five candidates moving onto the next round. A further vote will take place on Monday 9 September to narrow it down to the final four candidates.

The Leader of the Opposition, Rishi Sunak, has tabled an Early Day Motion (EDM) calling for the annulment of regulations implementing the Government’s proposals for means-testing the Winter Fuel Allowance (known as a ‘prayer motion’). The text of this motion will be published on Monday (once the House of Commons resumes business it should be published in the EDM Database), alongside the names of any other MPs who have signed the motion, and any similar motions by other parties that may have been tabled. The regulations will only be revoked if the prayer motion is approved by the House before 3 November 2024 (long after the regulations come into force on 16 September).

Whether Rishi Sunak’s prayer motion will be debated is entirely in the gift of the Government because of its command of time in the House under Standing Order No.14 (“government business shall have precedence at every sitting”). Erskine May states that where a prayer motion is signed by Shadow Ministers, the Government “has normally found time for the motion to be debated, though it cannot be compelled to do so.” However, previous Governments have not always found time: for example, the last Government failed to make time for debates on two prayer motions relating to asylum accommodation signed by Keir Starmer as Leader of the Opposition. Sometimes the Government finds time for a debate on a prayer motion only after the expiry of the 40-day scrutiny period prescribed in the Statutory Instruments Act 1946 to revoke the regulations, thereby undermining the principle of parliamentary accountability.

If the Government does not grant time for a debate on the prayer motion, the Conservative Party could use an Opposition Day to hold a debate on the motion. However, no dates have yet been set for Opposition Day debates. The Government could delay allocating any Opposition Days until after the 3 November scrutiny deadline to ensure any debate on the prayer motion has no substantive effect. Again, there is a precedent for this: between November 2018 and April 2019, at the height of the Brexit wars, Theresa May’s minority Government failed to allocate any Opposition Days. But under Standing Orders, 20 Opposition Days much be allocated each Session; the longer the Government takes to set the dates, the less flexibility it will have in setting them later in the Session, which could store up a new set of political problems.

Questions and statements: At 14:30, Ministers from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government will face questions from MPs.

11 out of the 25 MPs on the Order Paper have tabled identically worded questions, often a sign that the questions were handed to the MPs by the Whips or the departmental Parliamentary Private Secretaries (a backbench MP who is appointed to assist a Minister as their “eyes and ears” in the House of Commons). The identically worded questions include:

• four Labour MPs asking “what steps she plans to take to help regenerate high streets”;

• three Labour MPs asking “what steps her Department is taking to help promote community cohesion”;

• two Labour MPs on “what recent discussions she has had with metro mayors and local authorities on further devolution”; and

• two Lib Dem MPs on “what recent assessment she has made of the adequacy of council funding”.

Any Urgent Questions or Ministerial Statements will follow. The Home Secretary or Prime Minister may make a statement to update the House on the rioting and unrest that occurred during the Summer recess. The Prime Minister may also update the House on his talks with the German Government last week.

Main business: The House of Commons will not be considering any legislation on its first day back from the Summer recess. Most of the day is taken up by a general debate on technology in public services. This debate will likely expand on the announcement made by Peter Kyle MP, the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, on 8 July announcing an expansion in the scope and size of his department’s role in relation to data, digital and artificial intelligence, uniting the Government’s efforts to digitally transform public services under one department.

Adjournment: As the final item of business, Labour MP Joe Morris has the adjournment debate on access to banking services in rural Northumberland.

Westminster Hall: There are no debates in Westminster Hall on Monday.

House of Lords: Two former MPs who were recently awarded life peerages will be introduced to the House: John Spellar, a minister in the last Labour Government and veteran ‘political fixer’, and Dame Rosie Winterton, a former Chief Whip who served as Deputy Speaker in the House of Commons from 2017 until May 2024.

The main business in the Lords will be Second Reading of the Crown Estate Bill, a Government Bill which proposes to widen the borrowing and investment powers of the Crown Estate.

At the end of the day there will also be a short debate on the number of children using vaping products.

Further Private Members’ Bills will be introduced by the Peers selected in the Lords PMB ballot in July. On Monday, Baroness Hamwee will introduce the Refugees (Family Reunion) Bill and Lord Thomas of Gresford will introduce the Statutory Instruments (Amendment) Bill. The latter Bill seeks to reform some of the flawed elements of the system of parliamentary scrutiny for delegated legislation, which the Hansard Society has frequently drawn attention to as part of our Delegated Legislation Review.

Sessional Returns: The House of Commons Sessional Returns for the 2023-24 parliamentary Session – the final Session prior to the General Election – will be published on Tuesday. The Sessional Returns provide information and statistics about sittings of the House, consideration of Bills and delegated legislation, and the work of Select Committees during that Session.

Questions and statements: At 11:30, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rachel Reeves, and her Treasury ministerial team will face questions from MPs.

One of the MPs selected in the ballot for topical questions is the Labour MP Rachael Maskell, who recently called for a re-think of planned changes to Winter Fuel Allowance. She may use her question to ask the Chancellor about the issue.

Relatedly, the Conservative MP Esther McVey said last week that she had been unable to put down a substantive question for Treasury Questions about changes to the Winter Fuel Payment, since all such questions were being transferred to the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP). The procedural basis for this is, as stated in Erskine May, that a question “should be addressed to the Minister who is primarily responsible.” Such transfers between Ministers are relatively common, but are not without controversy. It is the Government that decides which Minister should answer a question, with the Table Office transferring questions between Ministers when it is notified by the relevant Government Department. DWP questions are not scheduled to take place until Monday 7 October.

The means-testing of Winter Fuel Payments was implemented using delegated legislation, a type of legislation ‘made’ (i.e., signed into law) by Ministers using powers granted to them by an Act of Parliament. The Statutory Instrument in question was made by a DWP Minister, not by a Treasury Minister, hence the Government’s position that the DWP is officially responsible for the policy.

However, MPs can usually re-phrase their question so that it more directly applies to the Department they want to question. For example, three Liberal Democrat MPs have submitted a question asking the Chancellor “what fiscal steps she is taking to support pensioners with the cost of living” and when called to ask a supplementary question MPs could therefore refer to changes to the Winter Fuel Payment.

11 of the 25 Treasury questions on the Order Paper are identically worded:

• three Liberal Democrat MPs asking “what fiscal steps she is taking to support pensioners with the cost of living”;

• three Labour MPs asking “what fiscal steps she is taking with Cabinet colleagues to encourage inward investment”;

• three Labour MPs asking “what steps she plans to take to help improve living standards” and

• two Labour MPs asking “what progress she has made on increasing economic growth”.

Any Urgent Questions or Ministerial Statements will follow.

Main business: The Passenger Railway Services (Public Ownership) Bill will go through Committee of the Whole House and all its remaining stages in the House of Commons. This is the first opportunity for MPs to propose amendments to the legislation that will bring railways back into public ownership.

The Conservative Shadow Transport Secretary, Helen Whately, has put down a set of amendments requiring the Secretary of State to: publish a series of regular reports on the expected impact and cost of the Bill’s provisions; impose a duty on the new public sector operators to invest in innovation and to consider the needs of passengers before making changes to service levels; subject the new public sector operators to performance-based assessments; and establish a pay review body for employees of the new public sector companies.

Liberal Democrat amendments would establish an independent body to advise the Secretary of State on new public sector contracts and require an annual report on the impact of public sector contracts on ticketing arrangements. The Greens have also put down amendments to enable public sector contracts to be owned by local elected public bodies.

The Conservative amendments are those most likely to be selected by the Speaker.

Adjournment: Liberal Democrat MP Wendy Chamberlain has the adjournment debate on the potential merits of a cross-Government strategy on unpaid carers, an issue on which her party focused so much during the general election campaign.

Westminster Hall: There are five Westminster Hall debates today:

• 9:30-11:00: Healthcare provision in the East of England (Clive Lewis, Labour)

• 11:00-11:30: The legacy of Team GB’s performance at the Paris 2024 Olympics (Tonia Antoniazzi, Labour)

• 14:30-16:00: The potential merits of an international special tribunal on crimes of aggression in Ukraine (Richard Foord, Liberal Democrat)

• 16:00-16:30: SEND services in Somerset (Sarah Dyke, Liberal Democrat)

• 16:30-17:30: Fly-tipping (Deirdre Costigan, Labour)

House of Lords: Former MP Barbara Keeley will be introduced to the House of Lords. Caroline Pidgeon, a Liberal Democrat member of the London Assembly from 2008 to 2024, will also be introduced.

The main business is a debate on the first report of the COVID-19 Inquiry. While Parliament was not the focus of the first report, it nonetheless drew attention to the importance of parliamentary scrutiny for good policymaking, stating that “one of the most effective forms of public scrutiny is parliamentary scrutiny”. Indeed, it recommended “greater oversight of the ministers, institutions and officials… by Parliament and the devolved legislatures” and suggested this will “help to solve the problems of inadequate action identified in this Report.” Improvement to parliamentary scrutiny could include, for example, reform of the procedures for public health emergency powers, as suggested by the Bingham Commission in its recent report (our Director was one of the Commissioners).

Questions and statements: At 11:30, Scotland Office Ministers will face questions from MPs.

Seven out of the 15 questions on the Order Paper are identically worded:

• three Labour MPs ask “what discussions he has had with the Scottish Government on a new industrial strategy”;

• three Labour MPs ask “what steps he is taking to support the energy industry in Scotland”; and

• two SNP MPs ask “if he will make an assessment with Cabinet colleagues of the potential merits of devolving the power to introduce a Scottish work visa scheme to the Scottish Government”.

At 12:00, Keir Starmer will face his second Prime Minister’s Questions as Prime Minister. Their first post-election PMQs exchange before the recess was relatively cordial and consensual, focused largely on Britain’s support for Ukraine, but the Leader of the Opposition may opt for a more critical line of questioning this week.

Any Urgent Questions or Ministerial Statements will follow. The Phase Two Report of the Grenfell Tower Inquiry will be published at 11am today and it is expected that there will be a Ministerial response in the House later in the afternoon. The Report is expected to focus on the cause of the fire and the role and decisions made by the local authority and companies involved which led to the disaster.

Main business: The Budget Responsibility Bill will go through Committee of the Whole House and its other remaining stages. As with the Passenger Railway Services Bill on Tuesday, this is also the first opportunity for MPs to propose amendments to the legislation, which requires an OBR assessment to be carried out before any ‘fiscally significant’ announcements.

An amendment put down by Shadow Chancellor Jeremy Hunt would expand the requirement for an OBR assessment to cover any changes to fiscal rules.

Labour backbencher Stella Creasy has also put down amendments to extend the definition of ‘fiscally significant’ measures to include a series of measures in the same category of spending which have a cumulative impact on public debt, and to cover fiscally significant changes to the UK’s trading relationships.

Liberal Democrat amendments would widen the definition of ‘fiscally significant’ to cover measures which have an indirect fiscal effect through their impact on interest rates and growth and to allow the OBR to notify the Adviser on Ministerial Interests if it believes a failure to request an OBR assessment raises concerns about compliance with the Ministerial Code. The Green Party proposes that OBR assessments should also be required to consider the impact on the UK’s net zero target.

Adjournment: Conservative MP and Shadow Foreign Secretary Andrew Mitchell has the adjournment debate on the closure of the police station in Royal Sutton Coldfield in his constituency.

Westminster Hall: There are five Westminster Hall debates today:

• 9:30-11:00: Baby loss (Lee Anderson, Reform UK)

• 11:00-11:30: Government support for the space sector (Alistair Carmichael, Liberal Democrat)

• 14:30-16:00: The future of sheep farming (Joe Morris, Labour)

• 16:00-16:30: SEND provision in Hertfordshire and Central Bedfordshire (Alistair Strathern, Labour)

• 16:30-17:30: Security in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (Jeremy Corbyn, Independent)

House of Lords: Long-serving former Labour MPs Dame Margaret Hodge and Dame Margaret Beckett will both be introduced to the House on Wednesday.

The main business will be Second Reading of the Holocaust Memorial Bill. This ‘hybrid Bill’ has been carried over from the last Parliament and has already completed all its Commons stages. The Bill would amend planning restrictions to enable a new Holocaust memorial in Victoria Tower Gardens, adjacent to the Houses of Parliament. If the Bill passes Second Reading, it will be committed to a ‘Hybrid Bill Select Committee’; these committees can take an especially long time to examine a Bill compared with non-hybrid bills (as shown in the case of the High-Speed Rail Bill committees).

The House of Lords will also vote to dispense with its Standing Order preventing Second and Third Reading from taking place on the same day with respect to the Budget Responsibility Bill. As a Money Bill, the Bill is not substantively considered by the House of Lords.

Private Members’ Bills: At 9:00, the Private Members’ Bill (PMB) ballot will take place.

Balls with numbers corresponding to the names of Members' who signed the Ballot Book on Tuesday and Wednesday are placed in a bowl.

The new Chair of Ways and Means, Nusrat Ghani MP – the most senior of the Deputy Speakers – will preside over the ballot for the first time, aided by the Clerk Assistant. She will draw the 20 numbers from the bowl in reverse order (from 20th place to 1st place). You can watch the ballot draw live on parliamentlive.tv. The 20 MPs selected will present their Bills to the House on Wednesday 16 October.

Questions and statements: At 9:30, Ministers from the Department for Business and Trade will face questions from MPs.

14 of the 25 questions on the Order Paper are identically worded:

• three Labour MPs ask “what assessment he has made of the potential contribution of small businesses to the Government’s growth mission”;

• seven Labour MPs ask “what recent progress his Department has made on introducing an industrial strategy”;

• two Labour MPs ask “what steps his Department is taking to improve the UK’s trading relationship with the EU”; and

• two Labour MPs ask “when his Department plans to bring forward the Employment Rights Bill”.

Any Urgent Questions accepted by the Speaker will follow.

The Leader of the House, Lucy Powell, will answer Business Questions at 10:30 (it will be later if there are any Urgent Questions beforehand). She will set out the forthcoming business for the week commencing Monday 9 September and the provisional business for the week commencing Monday 7 October, the first sitting week after the party conference recess. Any other Ministerial Statements will follow.

Main business: Second Reading of the Great British Energy Bill, which will create a new publicly-owned company – Great British Energy – whose object will be to encourage and participate in the production and supply of clean energy, the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, improvements in energy efficiency, and measures to improve energy security. The purpose of Second Reading is to debate the underlying principles of the Bill; no amendments can be made to it at this stage.

Adjournment: Labour MP, Melanie Onn, has the adjournment debate on rail and road connectivity in northern Lincolnshire.

Westminster Hall: There are two Westminster Hall debates today:

• 13:30-15:00: Waste crime in Staffordshire (Adam Jogee, Labour)

• 15:00-16:30: SEND provision (Richard Burgon, Independent)

House of Lords: Former Conservative MP and chair of the 1922 Committee of backbench Conservative MPs, Sir Graham Brady, will be introduced to the House of Lords. Tom Elliott, an Ulster Unionist Party member of the Northern Ireland Assembly since 2022 (and from 2003 to 2015), will also be introduced.

The main business will be two balloted debates (similar to Backbench Business Committee debates in the House of Commons) on modern methods of construction in the housing sector and on the potential effects of changes to the VAT exemption for independent schools.

The debate on VAT for private school fees is led by Lord Lexden, a Conservative Peer, official historian of the Conservative Party and former trustee of the Hansard Society. This debate may provide insight into what approach the Conservative Party and the wider membership of the House of Lords may take to the Government’s plans to remove the VAT exemption.

House of Lords: Only the House of Lords is sitting on Friday. Three of the Private Members’ Bills introduced before the Summer recess will have their Second Reading in the Lords:

• Lord Farmer’s Support for Infants and Parents etc. (Information) Bill

• Lord Redesdale’s Lithium-ion Battery Safety Bill

• Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick’s Marine Protected Areas (Bottom Trawling) Bill

The procedures for PMBs in the House of Lords are different from those in the Commons, as explained in our procedural guide.