Questions and statements: At 14:30, Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government Ministers will respond to MPs’ questions. Topics include ensuring that new housing developments have access to primary healthcare services; increasing the supply of social housing; ensuring adequate funding for public services through local government; improving building and fire safety; supporting town centre regeneration; and non-domestic ratings for pubs.

Any Urgent Questions or Ministerial Statements will follow. The Prime Minister is expected to deliver a statement updating the House on his recent visit to President Trump in Washington, DC, as well as his subsequent summit with European leaders on Sunday (2 March).

Main business: Finance Bill (Remaining Stages): The Finance Bill enshrines the tax changes announced in last year’s Autumn Budget. During Committee stage a swathe of Government amendments were agreed. Now, as the Bill returns to the Chamber for Report Stage, all MPs will have an opportunity to propose further amendments. Already, several dozen pages of amendments and consequential changes have been tabled, most of them by the Government. Many of these are technical adjustments or clarifications prompted by questions raised during the Committee stage. Following the Report Stage debate a brief Third Reading will take place before the Bill is sent to the House of Lords.

• Hansard Society procedural guide to the Finance Bill

• House of Commons Library briefing

Motions for approval: Once proceedings on the Finance Bill are concluded, the House will be asked to approve a series of motions without debate.

• Two Statutory Instruments: the draft Flood Reinsurance (Amendment) Regulations 2025 and the draft Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Act 2006 (Amendment) (Provision of Information) Order 2025.

• Motions making changes to the membership of six Select Committees.

• A procedural motion, seeking MPs’ agreement to treat a motion on “Financial Assistance to Industry” as if it were a Statutory Instrument requiring approval by the House of Commons. Under Section 8 of the Industrial Development Act 1982 the Government can provide financial assistance where it believes the funding will benefit the UK economy, is in the national interest at the proposed scale, and cannot be provided through other means. For assistance exceeding £30 million in respect of any one project, the Act requires the Secretary of State to obtain approval by a resolution of the House of Commons. In recent practice, successive Governments have tabled a motion that outlines the proposed financial assistance and seeks MPs’ approval to treat the motion as a Statutory Instrument. To facilitate Commons scrutiny, a procedural motion enables the approval motion to be referred to a Delegated Legislation Committee for debate, before returning to the Chamber for final approval. In this case, Secretary of State Peter Kyle is seeking approval to provide between £30 million and £129 million in financial assistance to BioNTech UK Limited. The funding aims to support the company’s planned expansion of research and redevelopment and artificial intelligence activities in the UK over the next 10 years.

Presentation of Public Petitions: Conservative MP Rebecca Smith will present a petition on the potential closure of Newton Ferrers Pharmacy, situated in in her Southwest Devon constituency. In her campaign, Smith has called for Government funding for pharmacies to be increased to match prescription costs.

Adjournment: Luke Myer, Labour MP for Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland, has the adjournment debate on safeguarding in the Church of England.

Westminster Hall: MPs will debate e-petition 701268, calling on the Government not to go ahead with the imposition of VAT and business rates on independent schools. The petition has acquired over 110,000 signatures. The Government’s response to the petition insisted that the measures are expected to raise £1.8 billion a year and that the Government expects fees to increase by about 10% as some schools will not pass on the full VAT charge, and that funding is available for children with special educational needs and disabilities. The debate will be led by Petitions Committee member John Lamont MP.

• House of Commons Library briefings on VAT on private school fees and the Non-Domestic Rating (Multiplier and Private Schools) Bill

Legislative committees: Two Delegated Legislation Committees meet today to consider three draft Statutory Instruments.

• The draft Non-Domestic Rating (Levy and Safety Net) (Amendment) Regulations 2025 make technical updates to the Business Rates Retention rules, whereby councils are given an incentive to allow more local development, by being allowed to keep some of the rates subsequently paid by new businesses. But the Regulations also correct a legislative mistake made three years ago, when the wrong percentage was included in a previous Schedule.

• A pair of related Instruments will be considered together: the draft Immigration (Biometric Information etc) (Amendment) Regulations 2025 and the draft Immigration and Nationality (Fees) (Amendment) Order 2025. The House of Lords Secondary Legislation Scrutiny Committee has raised concerns about the first set of Regulations, which introduce “eVisas” that could cause problem for Irish citizens, who have previously been able to enter the UK without a visa. The Committee has also highlighted the operational risks arising from greater reliance on technological solutions. In relation to the second set of Regulations the Committee has drawn attention to the possibility that the 60% increase in Electronic Travel Authorisation fee could be a particular problem for cross-border tourism on the island of Ireland.

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

• Baroness Maclean of Redditch, the former Conservative junior minister Rachel Maclean who was MP for Redditch from 2010 until losing her seat at last year’s General Election and is now Director of Strategy to the Leader of the Opposition, Kemi Badenoch; and

• Baroness Rafferty – who as Dame Anne Marie Rafferty was President of the Royal College of Nursing – joins the Lords as a Labour Peer.

Oral questions: Peers will begin the day by questioning Ministers for 40 minutes, on plans to ensure that UK airports have dedicated lines for British passport holders; how the Government plan to defend the United Kingdom against hypersonic missiles; the Government’s action against climate change internationally following reports that 2024 was the warmest year on record globally; and the Government assessment of the recent advances by the Sudanese armed forces in Khartoum and elsewhere in Sudan.

Delegated Legislation: Peers will be asked to approve two draft Statutory Instruments: the Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Act 2006 (Amendment) (Provision of Information) Order 2025 and the Immigration and Nationality (Fees) (Amendment) Order 2025.

Main business: House of Lords (Hereditary Peers) Bill (Committee stage): This Bill, passed by the House of Commons last year, addresses Labour’s manifesto commitment to remove the right of the remaining hereditary Peers to sit and vote in the House of Lords. As might be expected, this has met strong opposition from some existing hereditary Peers. Over 100 amendments to the Bill have been tabled for consideration in Committee of the Whole House (in the Chamber). Some Labour Peers have in turn accused opponents of behaving unreasonably, given the customary deference of members of the unelected House to the democratic will of the House of Commons.

• House of Lords Library briefing

Grand Committee: Lords are expected to consider seven draft Statutory Instruments this afternoon:

• Non-Domestic Rating (Levy and Safety Net) (Amendment) Regulations 2025 – this updates how the Business Rate Retention scheme allocates money between local authorities and central government.

• Town and Country Planning (Fees for Applications, Deemed Applications, Requests and Site Visits) (England) (Amendment and Transitional Provision) Regulations 2025 – the Secondary Legislation Scrutiny Committee drew attention in a recent report to the significant increases in some planning fees introduced by these Regulations.

• Higher Education (Fee Limits and Fee Limit Condition) (England) (Amendment) Regulations 2025 – the Secondary Legislation Scrutiny Committee drew special attention to these Regulations in a report last month, noting the continuing and in some cases aggravated financial pressures on higher education providers.

The final four Instruments authorise the annual increases in the amounts of various industrial disease compensation payments, National Insurance thresholds and social security benefits:

• Pneumoconiosis etc. (Workers’ Compensation) (Payment of Claims) (Amendment) Regulations 2025;

• Mesothelioma Lump Sum Payments (Conditions and Amounts) (Amendment) Regulations 2025;

• Social Security (Contributions) (Rates, Limits and Thresholds Amendments, National Insurance Funds Payments and Extension of Veteran’s Relief) Regulations 2025; and

• Child Benefit and Guardian’s Allowance Up-rating Order 2025.

Highlights include:

House of Commons

• Public Accounts Committee (15:30): In its inquiry into Government support for biomass, PAC will hear from senior civil servants at Ofgem (the gas and electricity markets regulator) and the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero.

Joint

• Joint Committee on the National Security Strategy (16:30): This committee, formed jointly by the Commons and Lords, will hear evidence from academics and an insurance executive about ransomware and offensive cyber.

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

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Questions and statements: At 11:30, Treasury Ministers will face questions from MPs. Topics include steps to encourage saving; measures to increase economic growth in various regions; supporting economic growth through new transport infrastructure; the impact of the planned increase in employer National Insurance contributions; ensuring value for money in public spending; and the implications of the Government’s borrowing figures.

Any Urgent Questions or Ministerial Statements will follow.

Ten Minute Rule Motion: Alistair Strathern, Labour MP for Hitchin, will seek leave to introduce a Ten Minute Rule Bill titled the Housing Estates Bill. It would make provision for a right to manage for freeholders on unadopted private or mixed-use housing estates; set minimum standards for public amenities on new housing estates; make provision about the enforcement of those standards; and make provision about the adoption by local authorities of public amenities on new housing estates. See our Hansard Society guide for more information about the parliamentary procedure for Ten Minute Rule Bills.

Main business: Church of Scotland (Lord High Commissioner) Bill (Second Reading, Committee and Remaining Stages): The Government is fast-tracking this legislation through Parliament, with all its Commons stages being taken this afternoon. The Bill is required to end the ban on Roman Catholics being appointed to be the King’s representative as Lord High Commissioner to the annual General Assembly of the Church of Scotland. See our previous Bulletin for further information. The intended appointment of Lady Elish Angiolini, Scotland’s first female Lord Advocate and a Catholic, was announced last December, so this Bill is needed to allow her appointment to be formalised.

• House of Commons Library briefing

Presentation of Public Petitions: Imran Hussain, the Labour MP for Bradford East, will present a petition on the income threshold for partner and family visas.

Adjournment: Traditional Unionist Voice MP Jim Allister has the adjournment debate on trade diversion and Article 16 of the Northern Ireland Protocol under the Windsor Framework.

• House of Commons Library briefing

Westminster Hall: There will be five debates today, on:

• the cultural heritage of market towns (House of Commons Library briefing);

• access to community sports facilities;

• Government support for Palestinian rights (House of Commons Library briefing);

• energy cost support for the ceramics industry in North Staffordshire; and

• bathing water regulations.

Legislative committees:

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

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

• A Delegated Legislation Committee meets to consider the draft Double Taxation Relief and International Tax Enforcement (Belarus) (Revocation) Order 2025 and the draft Double Taxation Relief (Russian Federation) (Revocation) Order 2025. These are required by the UK’s suspension last month of the 1994 Double Taxation Convention with these countries, following Russia’s own unilateral suspension of this and many other double taxation treaties in August 2023.

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

• Anji Hunter, Tony Blair’s Director of Government Relations from 1997-2001, will be introduced as Baroness Hunter of Auchenreoch; and

• Luciana Berger, the former Liverpool Wavertree MP who represented Labour until resigning from the party in 2019 accusing it of being “institutionally anti-Semitic”, will take her seat as a Labour Peer, Baroness Berger.

Oral questions: Peers will begin the day by questioning Ministers for 40 minutes, on guidance on relationship, sex and health education in schools; communications with the governments of Canada, Mexico and other countries about President Trump’s imposition of tariffs; progress in addressing the theft of mobile telephones; and the topical subject of change to aid priorities following the reduction of the Official Development Assistance budget to 0.3% of Gross National Income (GNI) and restoring the commitment of spending 0.7% of GNI.

Main business: Three Bills will be considered:

• National Insurance Contributions (Secondary Class 1 Contributions) Bill (Third Reading): This Bill enacts the significant increases in employers’ payroll taxes announced in Rachel Reeves’ Budget, and has met opposition in the Lords, despite the House’s customary and statutorily limited powers of intervention in financial matters, as discussed in last week’s Bulletin (House of Lords Library briefing).

• Crown Estate Bill (Lords) (Consideration of Commons Amendments): The Lords will be asked to accept revisions to the Bill as it returns from the other House (House of Lords Library briefing).

• Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Bill (Report stage): Known as Martyn’s Law, this Bill nears the end of its parliamentary scrutiny. No amendments were made in Committee and only a few pages of amendments have been tabled for consideration on Report. Information about the Bill was outlined in a previous edition of the Bulletin (House of Lords Library briefing).

Grand Committee: Holocaust Memorial Bill: This Bill, which originated in the Commons in 2023 before being carried over after the General Election, amends planning restrictions to enable a new Holocaust memorial in Victoria Tower Gardens, adjacent to the Houses of Parliament. As a Hybrid Bill because of its specific local private as well as general public effects, it has been subject to extended scrutiny, as discussed in detail by former House of Commons Clerk Paul Evans on our blog.

• House of Lords Library briefing

Highlights include:

House of Commons

• Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee (10:00): Evidence on preparedness for animal disease outbreaks will be given by farming representatives followed by Defra’s Chief Veterinary Officer and the Chief Executive Officer at the Animal and Plant Health Agency.

• Culture, Media and Sport Committee (10:00): The work of the BBC will be considered with Director General Tim Davie and BBC Chair Dr Samir Shah. Discussions will cover the Corporation’s finances, workplace culture, and the role and regulation of public service broadcasters. Additionally, questions are expected on editorial standards, particularly regarding the recent Gaza documentary, which an in-house review found to have “serious flaws” in its production process, leading to its removal from iPlayer.

• Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee (10:00): Is the construction sector able to deliver the Government’s pledge to build 1.5 million new homes before the next General Election? Witnesses include representatives from the construction industry, architects, planners and the Competition and Markets Authority.

• Defence Committee (10:30): Defence industry representatives face questions about the UK’s contribution to European security.

• International Development Committee (14:00): In the wake of the Government’s announcement of cuts to the aid budget, representatives from development organisations give evidence on the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office’s approach to displaced people.

House of Lords

• Science and Technology Committee (10:15): Teacher Bobby Seagull is among witnesses discussing maths education.

• European Affairs Committee (16:00): Former Cabinet Secretary and National Security Adviser Lord Sedwill is joined by former senior service personnel to give evidence on the UK–EU reset.

For a full list of select committee hearings, see Tuesday’s What’s On section of the Parliament website.

Details of Wednesday’s business can be found below.

Questions and statements: At 11:30, Scotland Office Ministers will face questions from MPs. Topics include the impact of defence spending plans on Scotland; implementation of the Make Work Pay plan; steps to support economic growth in Scotland; and the impact of changes to employer National Insurance contributions on employment and businesses 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: Chris Vince, Labour MP for Harlow, will seek leave to introduce a Ten Minute Rule Bill titled the Dentists (Indemnity Arrangements) Bill which would amend the Dentists Act 1984. See our Hansard Society guide for more information about the parliamentary procedure for Ten Minute Rule Bills.

Main business: Estimates Day (1st Allotted Day): MPs will be asked to approve the Government’s updated departmental spending plans – known as the Supplementary Estimates – for this 2024-25 financial year. These are the first spending plans introduced by the Labour Government; the Main Estimates approved in July 2024 were inherited from the previous Conservative administration. Chancellor Rachel Reeves pointed to those inherited plans as the source of the financial “black hole” that she claims Labour has been left to manage.

The Supplementary Estimates allow the Government to seek parliamentary approval for new funding requests, changes to existing allocations, and adjustments to how funds are used by departments. Typically published in February, they must be approved by the House of Commons by mid-March to ensure funding can be spent before the financial year ends.

The approval of Supplementary Estimates is a two-step process. MPs must first approve the spending changes through Supply resolutions. These have political force, but they are not law. To give legal authority to the spending plans, Parliament must therefore pass a Supply and Appropriation (Anticipation and Adjustments) Bill. This Bill – covering the revised spending – will be introduced in Parliament tomorrow.

Each parliamentary session, three days are set aside for debates on departmental Estimates. MPs can request a debate through the Backbench Business Committee, which reviews proposals and makes recommendations to the Liaison Committee. The Liaison Committee then seeks the agreement of the House.

The Backbench Business Committee has recommended debates on the Supplementary Estimates for the Department of Health and Social Care, the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, and the Department for Business and Trade. These debates, approved by the House of Commons last Wednesday, will take place today. MPs can propose reducing the funding for a department under discussion by amending its Supply motion. However, they cannot propose an increase – only the Government can set the upper spending limit. This rule reflects the constitutional principle that only the Crown can initiate public expenditure.

Parliamentary approval for the departmental Estimates not selected for debate will be granted through MPs’ approval of non-amendable ‘roll-up’ motions.

See our Hansard Society procedural guide for more information about the Estimates process.

House of Commons Library briefings on:

• revised Government spending plans for 2024-25;

• spending of the Department for Business and Trade; and

• spending of the Department of Health and Social Care.

Adjournment: Josh Newbury MP has the adjournment debate on type 1 diabetes with disordered eating services.

Westminster Hall: There will be five debates today, on:

• Government support for human rights in Jammu and Kashmir (House of Commons Library briefing);

• the potential merits of free-to-air coverage of professional cycling;

• the Renewable Obligation Certificate scheme (POSTnote from the Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology);

• pollution in the River Wandle; and

• anti-social behaviour and illegal use of off-road bikes (House of Commons Library briefing).

Legislative committees:

• The Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill Public Bill Committee sits again today.

Conduct: Proceedings in the Chamber will begin earlier than usual at 11:00 to allow time for a debate on the Review of the House of Lords Code of Conduct, ahead of the main business and oral questions at 15:00. Baroness Manningham-Buller, former Director-General of MI5 and current Chair of the House of Lords Conduct Committee, will ask the House to approve the Committee’s recent review. One key proposal is to remove the requirement for Peers to register and declare non-financial interests, a rule in place since 2000, which the Committee now considers “disproportionately burdensome” and difficult to define. Two amendments have been tabled. Viscount Hailsham’s amendment seeks to introduce an independent tribunal to determine the facts and recommended sanctions in disciplinary cases. It also proposes allowing Peers to have legal representation, cross-examine witnesses, and make formal submissions. Lord Hamilton of Epsom’s amendment proposes that MPs and Peers should not be permitted to bring harassment complaints against members of the House of Lords.

• House of Lords Library briefing

Oral questions: Peers will question Ministers for 40 minutes, on marking International Women’s Day on 8 March; implementation of section 106 of the Equality Act 2010 to require information to be published on the diversity of political candidates; and ensuring that youth work and adult education organisations can access international exchange opportunities following withdrawal from the EU’s Erasmus programme. The topic of a fourth question will be decided by a ballot drawn at lunchtime on Monday 4 March.

Main business:

• Business of the House motions: Peers will be asked to approve two motions in the name of the Leader of the House of Lords to dispense with Standing Order 44 (that no two stages of a Bill should be taken on one day) to enable the Finance Bill to be taken through its remaining stages on 19 March and the Church of Scotland (Lord High Commissioner) Bill its remaining stages on 24 March, providing the Bills have been brought from the Commons by those dates.

• Motions to approve draft Orders: Peers will be asked to approve the draft Social Security Benefits Up-rating Order 2025, and the draft Guaranteed Minimum Pensions Increase Order 2025. These Statutory Instruments were debated in Grand Committee last month.

• Product Regulation and Metrology Bill (Lords) (Report stage day 2): In the continuing fall-out from Brexit, this Bill has been criticised for its potential to give the Government a free hand in how it aligns with EU regulations and more generally for its broad use of delegated powers allowing Ministers to legislate on product regulation without the full parliamentary scrutiny attached to passing new Acts, which has led the Lords Delegated Powers and Regulatory Reform Committee to repeatedly criticise the Bill’s evolving contents. Further details are included in last week’s Bulletin (House of Lords Library briefing).

• Armed Forces Commissioner Bill (Second Reading): Brought from the House of Commons, this Bill will establish an independent Armed Forces Commissioner, abolish the Office of the Service Complaints Ombudsman and transfer its functions to the new Commissioner, as described more fully in a previous Bulletin. The Government says its proposal is inspired by the German Parliamentary Commissioner for the Armed Forces. We looked at how the roles compare in a January episode of our Parliament Matters podcast (House of Lords Library briefing).

Grand Committee: Non-Domestic Rating (Multipliers and Private Schools) Bill(Committee stage, day 3). This legislation will allow the Government to reduce business rates for retail and hospitality properties and remove the charitable rate relief from private schools.

• House of Lords Library briefing

Highlights include:

House of Commons

• Health and Social Care Committee (09:30): Senior social services and NHS executives give evidence on “adult social care reform: the cost of inaction”.

• Treasury Committee (14:30): MPs will question the Governor of the Bank of England and other members of the Monetary Policy Committee on changes to interest rates.

• Women and Equalities Committee (14:40): Midwives and charity representatives give evidence in the Committee’s inquiry into female genital mutilation.

House of Lords

• International Relations and Defence Committee (10:30): Questions on the UK’s future relationship with the United States will be put to four former British ambassadors to the US: Dame Karen Pierce, Sir Peter Westmacott, Sir Nigel Sheinwald and Sir David Manning.

Joint

• Joint Committee on Human Rights (14:15): Evidence on forced labour in UK supply chains will be given by Professor Olga Martin-Ortega, Leader of the Business, Human Rights and Environment Research Group at the University of Greenwich, and from representatives of Leigh Day solicitors, the Institute of Directors, the British Standards Institution and techUK.

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

Questions and statements: At 9:30, Cabinet Office Ministers will face questions from MPs. Topics include assessing the effectiveness of the emergency alert system; the resilience of local government against cyber-attacks; steps being taken to support small businesses in public procurement; progress on establishing the infected blood compensation scheme; improving relations with the EU; and whether the Cabinet Secretary has issued guidance on ministerial appointments.

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: Supply and Appropriation (Anticipation and Adjustments) Bill (Second and Third Reading). Assuming that yesterday’s Supply motions are approved by MPs and become resolutions of the House then these will be the foundation for this Supply Bill which, when passed, will provide formal statutory authority for all the Supplementary Estimates. Only once this Bill receives Royal Assent will the spending set out in the Supplementary Estimates have legal effect.

As the House will have already agreed the earlier Supply resolutions, a Supply and Appropriation Bill is not subject to debate or amendment at any stage. There is no Committee stage, and thus no Report stage, and under Standing Order No. 56 the questions on Second and Third Reading are put ‘forthwith’ (that is, without debate). The Bill will be certified as a Money Bill by the Speaker and will then go to the House of Lords, where it will be passed unamended (in accordance with the Parliament Act 1911).

Once the Bill receives Royal Assent, the Government has the legislative approval necessary for the monies sought by each department to be released from the Consolidated Fund (this is the public bank account created in 1787 at the Bank of England for the purpose of having a single fund into which all public revenue would be paid, and from which all payments for public services would be made). Once enacted, the Supply and Appropriation (Anticipation and Adjustments) Act is used by the National Audit Office to audit the Government’s accounts.

• See our Hansard Society procedural guide for more information about the Estimates process, particularly the sections “How does Parliament approve Government spending plans?” and “What is a Money Bill?”

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

• A debate to mark International Women’s Day (8 March), led by Labour MP Dawn Butler.

• A debate on political finance rules led by Labour MP Lloyd Hatton. His motion calls on the House to recognise that “loopholes in regulation allow for opaque funding of political parties”, to express concern “over the prevalence of substantial financial contributions from corrupt individuals and foreign governments”, to acknowledge the risk these opaque funds pose to national security and the health of our democracy, to strengthen the powers and independence of the regulators in relation to political donations, and to tighten the law on permissible donations (House of Commons Library briefing on foreign political donations).

Adjournment: Dr Kieran Mullan, Conservative MP for Bexhill and Battle, has the adjournment debate on geothermal energy. In 2023, he launched Dig Deep, a report into “opportunities to level up through deep geothermal heat and energy on the way to Net Zero”, originally commissioned by Boris Johnson when he was Prime Minister.

Westminster Hall: There are two debates chosen by the Backbench Business Committee today, on:

• financial sustainability and governance of English football, led by Labour’s Yuan Yang who is particularly concerned about the finances and ownership of Reading Football Club in her constituency (House of Commons Library briefing); and

• ambulance service response times led by the Liberal Democrat MP for Glastonbury Sarah Dyke whose constituents were recently affected when the local ambulance service declared a critical incident due to sustained pressure on services (House of Commons Library briefing).

Legislative committees:

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

Oral questions: Peers will begin the day by questioning Ministers for 40 minutes, on introducing admission charges to museums and galleries for non-UK residents; legislation to address ‘strategic lawsuits against public participation’; and the number and cost of migrants expected to apply for indefinite leave to remain over the course of the Parliament. The topic of a fourth question will be decided by a ballot drawn at lunchtime on Tuesday 4 March.

Main business: The House will debate International Women’s Day and the steps being taken to promote women’s participation and leadership in science and technology in the United Kingdom and internationally (House of Lords Library briefing).

Question for Short Debate: Baroness Anelay of St Johns will ask the Government what progress they have made in securing free-trade agreements with India and countries in Southeast Asia.

Grand Committee: Peers will debate Ukraine: A Wake-up Call, published last September by the House of Lords International Relations and Defence Committee (House of Lords Library updated briefing).

Highlights include:

House of Commons

• Public Accounts Committee (10:00): HMRC executives answer questions about the cost of the tax system, following the National Audit Office report last month which concluded that the increasing complexity of taxation is burdening the Government and business with administrative costs.

House of Lords

• International Relations and Defence Committee (11:00): A Ukrainian delegation discusses President Zelensky’s “Bring Kids Back” initiative to return children forcefully deported from Ukraine following the Russian invasion.

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

Private Members’ Bills (PMBs): Today is the fifth Friday of the current session that is reserved to give priority to backbench legislation, though procedural hurdles mean that Bills are unlikely to progress unless they have very strong support, or no opposition, or are tacitly backed by the Government.

The Future Business Paper lists 36 Private Members’ Bills tabled for Second Reading today.

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 subsequent bills in the remaining time. After 14:30, only unopposed bills can make progress. This means that while a bill might not be debated, it could still pass its Second Reading – provided no objection is raised by any MP present (including any Whips objecting on behalf of their party).

Among the PMBs listed, the first two (detailed below) are Ballot Bills, while all but two of the remainder are Presentation Bills, Ten Minute Rule Bills or, in one case, initiated in the House of Lords (see the Hansard Society’s guide to Private Members’ Bills for details of the different types of bill and how the legislative process differs from that for Government bills).

• Protection of Children (Digital Safety and Data Protection) Bill: This Bill has not yet been printed. It is sponsored by Labour MP Josh MacAlister who came fifth in the PMB ballot for this Session.

• Space Industry (Indemnities) Bill: This Bill’s sponsor is John Grady, the Labour MP who came 14th in the PMB ballot.

The House is not sitting today.

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