Questions and statements: At 14:30, Justice Ministers will face questions from MPs. Questions on the Order Paper concern support for female offenders, the effectiveness of the Sentencing Council, prolific offenders, young offenders, legal aid, domestic violence, court backlogs, and early prisoner release.

Any Urgent Questions or Ministerial Statements will follow.

Ten Minute Rule Motion: Labour MP Claire Hughes will ask MPs for permission to introduce a Ten Minute Rule Bill titled the Littering from Vehicles (Offences) Bill. The proposed legislation would raise penalties for civil offences involving littering from vehicles and include measures to allow the use of technology in detecting such offences. See our Hansard Society guide for more information about the parliamentary procedure for Ten Minute Rule Bills.

Main business: Sentencing Guidelines (Pre-sentence Reports) Bill (Second Reading). Introduced before the Easter recess, this Bill is the Government’s legislative response to the proposed new guideline on the imposition of community and custodial sentences drawn up by the Sentencing Council. The guideline would have meant that pre-sentence reports – a report used by the courts to determine the appropriate sentence – would “normally be considered necessary” if the offender belonged to a specified cohort, most controversially including “those from an ethnic minority, cultural minority, and/or faith minority community”. The guideline was due to come into force on 1 April, but the Sentencing Council delayed its implementation after the Government signalled its intention to legislate to prevent the new guideline coming into effect. As explained in a recent episode of our Parliament Matters podcast, while the Justice Select Committee and Ministers are consulted at an earlier stage, the Sentencing Council can make new guidelines without the approval of Parliament or the relevant Minister.

The Bill does not alter how sentencing guidelines are drafted or approved. Instead, its sole substantive clause – Clause 1 – prohibits any sentencing guideline being framed by reference to an offender’s personal characteristics, particularly race, religion and cultural background, when determining the need for a pre-sentence report.

At Second Reading, no amendments to the Bill’s text can be tabled, as this stage is focused solely on debating the Bill’s principles. Opponents may table a ‘reasoned amendment’ – a procedural device to reject the Bill while formally stating why – but at the time of writing none appear on the Order Paper.

Following Second Reading, the Bill will be considered on an expedited timetable, though not in a single day as originally anticipated. Under the proposed programme motion, which the House will be asked to approve after Second Reading, the Committee Stage will take place in Committee of the Whole House (in the Chamber, rather than a Public Bill Committee). This will be followed immediately by the remaining stages (Report Stage and Third Reading), all within a four-hour debate on Wednesday 30 April.

• House of Commons Library briefing

Adjournment: Labour MP Adam Jogee has the adjournment debate on the potential merits of Government support for the Coalfields Regeneration Trust.

Westminster Hall: There are five debates, on:

• residential estate management companies (House of Commons Library briefing);

• the rate of Statutory Sick Pay;

• Government support for retail investment (House of Commons Library briefing);

• the potential merits of automation for the economy (Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology briefing); and

• road safety and supporting active travel to school.

Legislative committees:

Delegated Legislation Committees will meet today to discuss two draft Statutory Instruments. Both instruments are subject to the affirmative procedure, meaning that they must be approved by both Houses of Parliament before the Government may sign them into law. The instruments to be debated are:

• the Fair Dealing Obligations (Pigs) Regulations 2025; and

• the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 (Legal Aid: Domestic Abuse) (Miscellaneous Amendments) Order 2025.

Oral questions: Peers will begin the day by questioning Ministers for 40 minutes, on the cost of temporary accommodation provided by local authorities; the discussions with Network Rail about the provision of car parking spaces at the new Cambridge South station; the availability of electrocardiograms to detect heart problems in young people engaging in sporting activities; and manifesto commitments to introduce the Hillsborough Law.

Main business: Renters’ Rights Bill (Committee). Having completed all its Commons stages and received its Second Reading in the House of Lords on 4 February, the Bill will now be examined by the whole House in Committee. Unlike in the House of Commons, there is no time limit on proceedings in the Lords and all tabled amendments can be debated. However, it is common for Peers not to press their amendments to a vote at this stage because once an amendment is voted on and defeated in Committee, it cannot be re-introduced at Report Stage (Erskine May, paragraph 29.57). As a result, many amendments at Committee Stage are tabled to prompt discussion or to probe the Government’s position, rather than to secure immediate changes to the Bill.

Press reports last month suggested that opponents of the Bill may seek to prolong proceedings in the House of Lords. Delaying tactics in the Lords usually come in one or more of the following forms:

• tabling large numbers of amendments;

• breaking up the groupings of amendments for debate into a greater number of smaller groups;

• encouraging a large number of Peers to speak;

• speaking at length on each group of amendments.

The first day of Committee Stage will focus on the opening clauses of the Bill and any proposed amendments related to them. Clauses 1 to 3 would introduce a single system of periodic tenancies for renters – with a ban on fixed-term tenancies – and repeal section 21 of the Housing Act 1988 (which provides for ‘no-fault evictions’).

The House of Lords Government Whips have indicated that they expect Committee Stage to last six days. The other provisional dates are set out in their Forthcoming Business paper.

• House of Lords Library briefing

Grand Committee: There will be a debate on the One Hundred Year Partnership Agreement between the UK and Ukraine. The House of Lords International Agreements Committee, which scrutinises all agreements laid before Parliament, recently drew the agreement to the special attention of the House. While the Committee expressed support for the underlying aims of the Agreement, it raised concerns about “the lack of substance and detail”.

Under the Constitutional Reform and Governance Act 2010, international agreements must be laid before Parliament for 21 sitting days before they can be ratified. During this period, either House can in theory pass a resolution opposing ratification. However, there is no formal route to ensure a debate or vote within the 21-day period, particularly in the House of Commons where the Government controls the parliamentary timetable. For the UK–Ukraine Agreement, the 21-day scrutiny period expired on 28 March 2025. In its report, the Committee noted it had asked the Government to extend this period to allow time for a debate after its report was published on 26 March. The Government agreed to extend the scrutiny period until 1 May.

• House of Lords Library briefing

Highlights include:

House of Commons

• Foreign Affairs Committee (13:30): A series of witnesses yet to be announced will give evidence on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

• Business and Trade Committee (14:30): Representatives of the manufacturing sector, trade unions, and the energy sector will give evidence on industrial strategy.

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

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

Questions and statements: At 11:30, Scotland Office Ministers will face questions from MPs. Questions on the Order Paper concern higher education in Scotland, cancer strategies, the Barnett formula, North Sea oil and gas licences, Scottish trade with Northern Ireland, the impact of US tariffs, and hospitality and tourism in Scotland.

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: Conservative MP Ben Obese-Jecty will ask MPs for permission to introduce a Ten Minute Rule Bill titled the Interpersonal Abuse and Violence Against Men and Boys (Strategy) Bill. The proposed legislation would require the Government to publish a strategy for tackling interpersonal abuse and violence against men and boys.

Main business: Opposition Day (Liberal Democrats). This will be the sixth of the 20 Opposition Days allocated for this parliamentary Session, during which opposition parties choose the topics for debate. Of those 20 days, three are reserved for the second largest opposition party, currently the Liberal Democrats. The debate topic will be chosen by the Liberal Democrat Leader and may not be publicly confirmed until Wednesday’s Order Paper is published on Tuesday evening.

Adjournment: Liberal Democrat MP Manuela Perteghella has the adjournment debate, on pension funds.

Westminster Hall: There are four debates scheduled, on:

• transitional support for North Sea oil and gas workers (House of Commons Library briefing);

• planning and development in Bedfordshire;

• the impact of AI on intellectual property (House of Commons Library briefing); and

• the impact of Government policy on the hair and beauty sectors.

Legislative committees:

The ‘programming sub-committee’ of the Public Bill Committee appointed to consider the Planning and Infrastructure Bill will meet today. Its role is to agree a timetable for consideration of the Bill in Committee and the list of witnesses that will be called to give oral evidence. The witnesses will be giving evidence the following day, on Thursday 24 April, but given that attendees will need to be invited much earlier than this, the Government and Opposition Whips usually agree the list between themselves long in advance of the programming sub-committee meeting.

• Delegated Legislation Committee meeting today: to consider the draft Medical Devices (Amendment) (Great Britain) Regulations 2025.

Oral questions: Peers will begin the day by questioning Ministers for 40 minutes, on peace and the rule of law in Bosnia and Herzegovina; consultations in relation to the new National Centre for Arts and Music Education; the use of resources allocated to the devolved authorities; and the effect of energy emissions from artificial intelligence on the UK’s net zero target.

Main business: Mental Health Bill (Third Reading). The key provisions of this Bill were outlined in a previous edition of the Bulletin. In the earlier amending stages, Peers inserted four groups of amendments into the Bill against the wishes of the Government:

• Persons authorised to detain: Amendments tabled by Conservative Peer Lord Kamall – and signed by former Prime Minister Baroness (Theresa) May of Maidenhead – would create a new category of “authorised persons” permitted to carry out detentions under the Mental Health Act 1983. These would include specially trained medical practitioners and mental health professionals, thereby removing the need for a police presence at mental health incidents.

• Community treatment orders (CTOs): A Liberal Democrat amendment from Lord Scriven proposes changes in relation to CTOs which allow those who might otherwise be detained under the 1983 Act to be discharged into the community subject to certain conditions. The amendment requires CTOs to align with a Government-issued code of practice, limits their default duration to 12 months, mandates regular reviews including a six-month review for extended orders, and strengthens patient consultation and oversight.

• Nominated persons and parental responsibility: The Bill replaces the existing ‘nearest relative’ provision with a new ‘nominated person’ role to represent the interests of someone detained under the 1983 Act. A Government amendment proposed that local authorities with parental responsibility for children under 16 would be appointed as the nominated person, but where the local authority has no such responsibility, it would need to be someone with parental responsibility. Conservative Peer Baroness Berridge amended this latter provision to also allow a guardian or a person with a childcare court order to be appointed instead of someone with parental responsibility, taking into account the child’s wishes where possible.

• De-briefing of patients: An amendment from Conservative Peer Earl Howe would introduce a requirement for mental health patients to be de-briefed following their discharge from hospital.

If the Bill is given a Third Reading, it will be sent to the House of Commons, where the Government is likely to seek to amend or remove these provisions.

• House of Lords Library briefing

Tobacco and Vapes Bill (Second Reading). The central measure in this Bill – already passed by the House of Commons – is a ban on the sale of tobacco products to anyone born in or after 2009. Its other provisions were outlined in a recent edition of the Bulletin.

Second Reading is a debate on the general principles and purpose of a bill. Under the Salisbury–Addison Convention, the House of Lords will not reject a Government bill at Second Reading if it implements a manifesto commitment, as this Bill does. In practice, the House rarely pushes any Bill to a vote at this stage.

• House of Lords Library briefing

Grand Committee: The Pension Protection Fund and Occupational Pension Schemes (Levy Ceiling) Order 2025, which came into force on 1 April, will be debated on a ‘take note’ motion, meaning the debate is non-fatal and cannot stop the Order from remaining in force. The Order is subject to the ‘made negative’ procedure, meaning that it was signed into law before it was laid before Parliament and will remain in law so long as neither House agrees within 40 days a motion to annul the Order (a fatal motion).

The Pension Protection Fund (PPF) provides compensation to pension scheme members whose employer becomes insolvent and whose pension scheme cannot meet its liabilities beyond a certain threshold. The PPF is partly funded through a levy on eligible pension schemes. This Order increases the maximum levy that schemes can be charged, with the ceiling rising annually in line with earnings growth.

The Secondary Legislation Scrutiny Committee has flagged the instrument as “of interest” and published an information paragraph on it. The Committee notes that the levy now accounts for a shrinking share of the PPF’s funding, and highlights that for two years the Government has been considering legislation that would enable temporarily suspending the levy altogether.

Highlights include:

House of Commons

• Transport Committee (9:15): Heidi Alexander MP, the Secretary of State for Transport, will give evidence on her Department’s work.

• Northern Ireland Affairs Committee (9:30): Baroness O’Loan, the former Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland, Sir Iain Livingstone, the head of Operation Kenova (a series of historical investigations in relation to the Troubles), and the Chief Constable and Detective Chief Superintendent of the Police Service of Northern Ireland will all give evidence on the Government’s new approach to addressing the legacy of the Troubles in Northern Ireland. This inquiry follows on from the Government’s stated intention to ‘repeal and replace’ the Northern Ireland Troubles (Legacy and Reconciliation) Act 2023, which the courts had declared incompatible with the European Convention on Human Rights.

• Education Committee (10:00): The Chair and Vice Chair of the newly established Skills England will give evidence on further education and skills.

• Treasury Committee (14:15): Emma Reynolds MP, Economic Secretary to the Treasury, will give evidence on the Lifetime ISA.

• Welsh Affairs Committee (14:30): Delyth Evans, the Government’s preferred candidate for the Chair of the Board at the Welsh language public broadcast channel S4C, will be subject to a pre-appointment hearing.

• Procedure Committee (15:00): Five former Deputy Speakers – Natascha Engel, Baroness (Dawn) Primarolo, Nigel Evans, Baroness (Eleanor) Laing of Elderslie, and Baroness (Rosie) Winterton of Doncaster – will give evidence on elections in the House of Commons. The Committee is currently looking into the operation of internal elections to positions within the Commons, including for the chairs of select committees and the Deputy Speakers.

House of Lords

• Constitution Committee (10:30): Dr Ruth Fox, Director of the Hansard Society (and occasional editor of this Bulletin) will give evidence on the rule of law, alongside the Government’s former chief draftsman (First Parliamentary Counsel) Sir Stephen Laws, and another legislative drafter, Dr Ronan Cormacain. The session will focus on rule of law issues in relation to legislative drafting and parliamentary scrutiny.

• International Agreements Committee (14:00): Former parliamentary official Arabella Lang, now head of Public Law at the Law Society, will be one of three experts giving evidence on treaty scrutiny by Parliament. In our recent evidence to the Modernisation Committee we identified Parliament’s role in reviewing international agreements as a strategic scrutiny gap in the House of Commons which needs to be addressed as a matter of priority. We also published a blog last year by academic and legal experts at the Centre for Inclusive Trade Policy, setting out their recommendations for improving parliamentary scrutiny of new treaties.

Joint

• Human Rights Committee (14:15): The Independent Anti-Slavery Commissioner, Eleanor Lyons, as well as representatives of the National Crime Agency and Border Force, will give evidence on forced labour in UK supply chains. The House of Commons and Lords are currently engaged in legislative ping pong over the Great British Energy Bill, where the potential for investment in supply chains featuring forced labour is the only remaining point of dispute between the Houses.

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

Details of Thursday’s business can be found below.

Questions and statements: At 9:30, Cabinet Office Ministers will face questions from MPs. Topics on the Order Paper include the infected blood compensation scheme, public service reform, emergency preparedness, air pollution, the use of data by departments, cooperation with devolved governments, public procurement, and cyber security.

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: Bank Resolution (Recapitalisation) Bill [Lords] (Report Stage and Third Reading). The Bill aims to strengthen the UK’s regime for handling bank failures (the ‘resolution’ regime), following the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and the subsequent failure of its UK subsidiary. It would give the Bank of England powers to recover the cost of recapitalising failing small banks through a levy on the banking sector.

During the Bill’s passage through the House of Lords, the Government was defeated on a Conservative amendment to limit the Bank of England’s new powers to small and medium-sized banks. The Government subsequently removed that change during Committee stage in the House of Commons. The Conservatives have now tabled an amendment to restore their Lords amendment in the Bill. If the Bill passes Third Reading it will then be sent back to the House of Lords for Peers to consider the amendments MPs have made (legislative ping-pong).

Other amendments tabled by the Conservatives would require:

• the minimum requirement for own funds and eligible liabilities (MREL) – which ensures banks can absorb losses and avoid the need for taxpayer-funded bailouts – to increase annually in line with inflation;

• the maximum compensation limit for consumer deposits protected under the Financial Services Compensation Scheme to increase annually with inflation;

• the Government to report on the impact of the Act on credit unions; and

• that, where the Bank of England’s selection of a purchaser could lead to demutualisation, preference is given to a purchaser from the mutuals sector.

No other amendments have yet been tabled. Not all of the amendments will necessarily be selected for debate or subject to a division.

Adjournment: Labour MP Julie Minns has the adjournment debate on flood preparedness in Carlisle.

Westminster Hall: There are two debates today, on:

• Lesbian Visibility Week (House of Commons Library briefing); and

• the UK’s trading relationship with the EU (House of Commons Library briefing).

Legislative committees:

• Crime and Policing Bill (Public Bill Committee): The Committee has so far completed consideration of the first 55 of the Bill’s 137 clauses. The next clauses the Committee will debate relate to sexual offences, the management of sex offenders, including notifying police of name changes and changes of residence, new stalking protection orders, and new offences relating to spiking and encouraging or assisting self-harm. The programme order agreed by the House states that the Committee must conclude its proceedings by Tuesday 13 May.

• Planning and Infrastructure Bill (Public Bill Committee): In two sittings today, the Committee will receive oral evidence from a slate of expert witnesses agreed between the Government and Opposition Whips. See above, in the legislative committee section for Wednesday’s business, for information regarding the selection of witnesses for today’s sittings.

Oral questions: Peers will begin the day by questioning Ministers for 40 minutes, on modern slavery in government supply chains, particularly in relation to China; the Government’s target of 1.5 million new homes by 2029; and the transport decarbonisation plan. The topic of a fourth question will be decided by a ballot drawn at lunchtime on Tuesday 22 April.

Main business: Renters’ Rights Bill (Committee): The House will continue the Committee Stage debate on the Bill, which will have begun on Tuesday.

Question for Short Debate: Consideration of the Renters’ Rights Bill will be interrupted for a one-hour debate – known as lunch break business – to ask the Government what steps they are taking, as a member of the Media Freedom Coalition, to ensure the safety and security of journalists and media workers worldwide. The debate is to be led by Conservative Peer Baroness Mobarik.

• House of Lords Library briefing

Highlights include:

House of Commons

• Public Accounts Committee (10:00): The Permanent Secretary at the Department for Education will give evidence alongside other senior civil servants, on the introduction of T Levels, which was the subject of a recent National Audit Office report.

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 eighth of 13 Fridays this Session on which PMBs have precedence over Government business.

It was originally expected that the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill (the assisted dying bill) would return to the Chamber for its Report Stage today. However, just before the Easter recess, the Bill’s sponsor, Kim Leadbeater MP, announced that this would be postponed until Friday 16 May to allow MPs more time to consider the amendments agreed in Public Bill Committee.

As a result, today’s proceedings are procedurally unusual for the eighth sitting Friday of the Session. On the first seven Fridays allocated to Private Members’ Bills, the House gives priority to Second Readings. On the remaining six Fridays, however, priority is normally given to PMBs that have made the most progress – such as those at Report Stage or Third Reading. These later-stage debates typically dominate the final Fridays of the Session.

Unusually, however, all the PMBs listed on today’s Order Paper are scheduled for Second Reading. This is because no PMB other than the assisted dying bill has completed – or even started – its Committee Stage. The rules allow only one PMB to be considered in a Public Bill Committee at a time, unless a Minister brings forward a motion to allow multiple Committees to sit concurrently. No such motion was made, and the Committee considering the assisted dying bill met 29 times over two months. As a result, nine other PMBs that have passed Second Reading have remain stalled, unable to begin their committee stages until the assisted dying bill Committee completed its work a few days before the House rose for the Easter recess.

Another unusual feature of today’s Order Paper is that the PMBs listed for debate are Presentation Bills, not Ballot Bills. Presentation Bills can be introduced by any MP simply by giving notice of their intention to do so. Normally, Ballot Bills – introduced by MPs who secured a slot in the annual PMB ballot – occupy the top of the Order Paper on PMB Fridays. But of the 20 MPs who won a ballot slot this Session, only two have yet to schedule Second Reading debates for their Bills, and both have chosen dates in June.

For a more detailed explanation of the different types of PMBs and how their legislative journey differs from that of Government Bills, see our Hansard Society Guide to Private Members’ Bills.

Although several Private Members’ Bills have been scheduled for Second Reading today by their sponsoring MPs, only the first bill on the list is guaranteed time for debate. If discussion on that bill concludes before 14:30, MPs may have the opportunity to debate the second and any subsequent bills in the time remaining. After 14:30, however, only unopposed bills can proceed. This means a bill doesn’t have to be debated to pass its Second Reading – it can still progress as long as no MP present, including any party Whips, voices an objection.

The first two bills on the Order Paper – the ones likely to be debated – are:

• Devolution (Immigration) (Scotland) Bill (Stephen Gethins, SNP): This Bill would amend the Scotland Act 1998 to grant legislative competence to the Scottish Parliament in respect of immigration. It has not yet been published. A Bill cannot receive a Second Reading unless it has been published.

• Plant Protection Products (Prohibition on Public Sector Use) Bill (Siân Berry, Green Party): This Bill would prohibit the use of professional plant protection products by local authorities and other public authorities for amenity purposes. The Bill is also yet to be published.

Given the limited progress of Ballot Bills so far this Session – and the likelihood that some of the Presentation Bills listed for debate today may not yet be fully drafted – it is possible that a decision could be made this week to cancel today’s sitting and reschedule it for later in the Session. Since Kim Leadbeater’s announcement came just as the House rose for the Easter recess, MPs bringing forward Presentation Bills today may not have had the time or support needed to draft their bills. Rescheduling would not only help Ballot Bills that remain stalled in the queue but could also support the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill, which faces a tight timetable to complete all its Commons stages – and those in the Lords – before the 13th and final PMB Friday, currently set for 11 July. If the Bill is amended in the House of Lords, there is a risk that, unless the Government intervenes, the Bill may run out of parliamentary time. If the Leader of the Commons wishes to reschedule the Friday sitting, she must table a motion in the House, and MPs would need to agree to it.

Adjournment: The Conservative MP Mark Francois has the adjournment debate, on Government support for regeneration in Wickford town centre.

Main business: There will be debates on three select committee reports:

• National debt: it’s time for tough decisions, a report by the Economic Affairs Committee (House of Lords Library briefing).

• The future of news, a report from the Communications and Digital Committee (House of Lords Library briefing).

• Enhancing public trust, a report from the Statutory Inquiries Committee. Aside from its recommendations on the format, length and resourcing of inquiries, the Committee also proposed the establishment of a new joint committee of Parliament to see that inquiry recommendations are followed up and implemented (House of Lords Library briefing). A recent episode of our Hansard Society Parliament Matters podcast discussed Parliament’s role in establishing inquiries and following up on their recommendations.

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