Parliament Matters Bulletin: What's coming up in Parliament this week? (7-11 October)
6 Oct 2024
It's a busy first week back following the party conferences, and the Government is expected to make a number of statements on events that happened during the recess. The first legislative committees of this Parliament will also be convened this week. However, some questions about future business remain uncertain. Will the process to nominate Select Committee members begin this week? Will we learn the dates for the 13 Private Members' Bill Friday sittings? And will more legislation be presented to Parliament before Saturday (12 October), which marks Labour's 100th day in power?
Domestic and international crises do not pause while Parliament is in recess. So, as is customary on the first day back, Ministers are expected to make a series of statements addressing the events and announcements that took place while Parliament was not sitting. Top of the agenda are likely to be the crisis in the Middle East, the agreement with Mauritius over the Chagos Islands, and the controversy over ‘freebies’ and changes to the Ministerial Code.
The Labour Party pledged during the election campaign that it would make a number of changes ‘within 100 days’ of taking office. With the deadline approaching on Saturday 12 October, media reports suggest the Employment Rights Bill will be presented on the last sitting day before that deadline, namely Thursday (10 October).
Before the party conference recess, MPs elected 27 new chairs of House of Commons select committees. However, those committees are still without their members, who will need to be appointed very soon (the Treasury Committee, for example, needs to be up and running in time for the Budget at the end of the month).
Each party’s MPs are responsible for selecting who will sit on each committee; the full process is set out in our Back to Business guide on setting up select committees. Once they are chosen, the final names will be presented in a motion put before the House. That process may begin this week?
With the 20 MPs selected in the Private Members’ Bill ballot set to formally present their bills on Wednesday 16 October, the Government has only a few days to table a motion allocating the 13 Fridays across this Session for consideration of Private Members’ Bills. As explained in our Hansard Society guide to Private Members’ Bills, ballot bills have precedence on the first seven of these Fridays, and MPs selected in the ballot can choose on which Friday they want their Second Reading debate to take place.
Typically, the person selected first in the ballot picks the earliest available Friday, so we may have an indication this week of when the initial debate and possible vote on Kim Leadbeater’s 'assisted dying' bill is likely to occur.
By the end of the week, the four remaining candidates for Conservative leader will be narrowed down to two. On Wednesday, Conservative MPs will vote once again for their preferred leader, with the lowest placed candidate eliminated from the contest. The process will be repeated on Thursday, leaving the final two contenders to be put forward to the Conservative Party membership for a final vote.
Summaries of each day's parliamentary business continue below!
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Questions and statements: At 14:30, Ministers from the Department for Work and Pensions will face questions from MPs.
There are five questions from Conservative MPs about the impact of the means-testing of the Winter Fuel Payment.
Eight out of 25 questions are worded identically to at least one other question on the Order Paper. As we highlight each week in this Bulletin, this is usually an indication that the question has been suggested to them by either the Whips or the Minister’s Parliamentary Private Secretary. The identically worded questions include:
three Conservative MPs asking the Secretary of State, Liz Kendall, ‘What estimate she has made of the number of pensioners in poverty who will not be entitled to the Winter Fuel Payment in winter 2024-25’;
three Labour MPs asking ‘What recent assessment she has made of trends in the number of young people not in education, employment or training’; and
two Labour MPs asking ‘What steps she is taking to tackle Carer’s Allowance overpayments’.
Any Urgent Questions or Ministerial Statements will follow. Ministerial Statements on the Middle East, Chagos Islands, and freebies controversy seem the most likely candidates. However, there are also 12 Written Statements listed on the Order Paper for publication, one of which is from the Foreign Office and is titled "British Indian Ocean Territory" and so will likely be about the Chagos Islands. (The other Written Statements include one about the review of findings into software developed by the Post Office in the 1990s, and one about "Planning" from the Department for Transport.)
Main business: A general debate on Lord Darzi of Denham’s independent investigation into NHS performance. Lord Darzi’s report found that the NHS was in ‘critical condition’, falling short of cancer, A&E and hospital treatment targets, and with high waiting times and poor survival rates.
With Ministers being told to remain neutral on the issue of 'assisted dying', and with Wes Streeting having recently warned about the state of end-of-life-care will any MP ask the Health Secretary whether Lord Darzi’s damning indictment of the state of the NHS could have implications for the upcoming 'assisted dying' bill?
Adjournment: The Labour MP for High Peak, Jon Pearce, has the adjournment debate on the first anniversary of the 7 October attacks by Hamas. Pearce is the newly appointed Parliamentary Chair of Labour Friends of Israel.
House of Lords: The day begins with four oral questions. The first – and possibly most politically difficult – is from Conservative peer Lord Balfe, who will ask the Government what steps they plan to take to build a closer relationship with the European Union.
The main business is Second Reading of the Government’s Passenger Railway Services (Public Ownership) Bill to bring railway operators into public ownership when their franchises expire.
Questions and statements: At 11:30, Ministers from the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero will face questions from MPs.
13 of the 25 questions to the Secretary of State on the Order Paper are duplicates of at least one other question. That includes four on ‘what steps he is taking with his international counterparts to tackle climate change.’
Any Urgent Questions or Ministerial Statements will follow.
Opposition Day: The day is taken up by an Opposition Day debate on a motion in the name of the Official Opposition (that is, the Conservatives). The subject of the debate is yet to be confirmed but they may choose to hold a debate on the freebies controversy currently engulfing the Government.
Adjournment: Charlie Dewhirst, Conservative MP for Bridlington and the Wolds, has the adjournment debate on health services in Bridlington.
Westminster Hall: There are five Westminster Hall debates today:
9:30-11:00: Removal of VAT and business rates exemptions for independent schools (Bradley Thomas, Conservative)
11:00-11:30: Support for creative industries in Stoke-on-Trent (Gareth Snell, Labour)
14:30-16:00: SEND provision in the East of England (Jess Asato, Labour)
16:00-16:30: The matter of tackling sewage discharges in chalk streams (Victoria Collins, Liberal Democrat)
16:30-17:30: Culture and economic contribution of the Edinburgh Festivals (Chris Murray, Labour)
Legislative Committees: The first House of Commons legislative committees of the new Parliament are sitting today. Legislative committees are specially appointed to consider particular items of legislation: Public Bill Committees consider primary legislation (bills) clause-by-clause usually over a number of sittings; and Delegated Legislation Committees consider delegated legislation (usually Statutory Instruments) in debates lasting up to 90 minutes.
The members of both types of committee are appointed by the Committee of Selection, which is controlled by the Government Whips, enabling the Government to maintain tight control over the legislative process.
The Public Bill Committee considering the Great British Energy Bill has its first two sittings today. As is common for Government Bills, the first sittings are oral evidence sessions, with the clause-by-clause scrutiny of the Bill undertaken in later sittings. The witnesses are formally decided at a ‘programming sub-committee’ of the Public Bill Committee – which meets on Monday – but prior agreement will have been reached through negotiations between the ‘Usual Channels’ (the business managers).
Two Delegated Legislation Committees are also sitting today to consider two Statutory Instruments:
The latter SI may attract more interest; it will enable French border officials to operate across a larger zone at the Port of Dover, to reduce the risk of congestion because of the new EU Entry/Exit system.
While these debates can last up to 90 minutes, they are frequently much shorter. In the first three months of 2024 alone, there were eight DLC debates that lasted less than 10 minutes. One of the central problems highlighted by our Delegated Legislation Review is the inadequate nature of DLC scrutiny of Statutory Instruments and the extent to which they waste the time of Ministers, MPs and parliamentary staff. We propose abolishing them and replacing them with a set of permanent Regulatory Scrutiny Committees.
House of Lords: After oral questions, the main business of the day is Second Reading of the Product Regulation and Metrology Bill, introduced to the House of Lords in September.
The Bill grants the Secretary of State new delegated powers to regulate product standards and measurements for goods sold in the UK. In particular, clause 1(1) grants broad powers to enact regulations on the marketing or use of products with the intention of:
‘reducing or mitigating risks’ posed by the products;
ensuring that products operate ‘efficiently or effectively’; and
ensuring that products designed for weighing or measuring operate accurately.
Most controversial of all may be the powers to use regulations to achieve alignment between EU and UK law. Clause 1(2) grants the Secretary of State powers to make provision, in relation to the marketing or use of products, which “corresponds, or is similar, to a provision of relevant EU law” for the purpose of mitigating the environmental impact of products. Similarly, any product regulations made under clause 1(1) may provide that a requirement is met if “a requirement of relevant EU law specified in product regulations is met”.
The House of Lords Delegated Powers and Regulatory Reform Committee (DPRRC) normally publishes a report which examines the appropriateness of any delegated powers and the degree of scrutiny assigned to exercises of those powers. Given the apparent breadth of the powers, it will be worth keeping an eye out for their report. The DPRRC has not met since the Bill was introduced, so a report is unlikely to be published before Second Reading, but the Committee normally reports on Bills in advance of Committee Stage.
In the afternoon (from 3:45pm in Grand Committee) Peers will consider the review of the House of Lords' Code of Conduct by the Conduct Committee. This Committee is chaired by the former head of MI5 Baroness Manningham-Buller and four of its nine members are lay-members appointed from outside the House. In addition to reviewing the Code of Conduct the Committee is tasked with overseeing the work of the House of Lords Commissioner for Standards.
This section was amended to remove the debate on immigration regulations in the House of Lords, which was rescheduled for Monday 14 October.
Questions and statements: At 11:30, Women and Equalities Ministers will face questions from MPs. Once again, eight of the 15 questions on the Order Paper are duplicates.
One notable question is from former Conservative Party chairman Richard Holden, about the steps the Government is taking to implement the recommendations of the Cass Review. The Government has not yet clarified whether it intends to make the temporary puberty blockers ban that was introduced in May into a permanent one, though it has said it is undertaking the targeted consultation necessary to do so.
At 12:00, the Prime Minister will face his weekly session of Prime Minister’s Questions.
Any Urgent Questions or Ministerial Statements will follow.
Main business: The main business is Second Reading of the Renters’ Rights Bill. The Bill seeks to abolish no-fault evictions, clarify landlords’ possession grounds, strengthen tenants’ rights to challenge rent rises and rental bidding wars, give tenants the right to request a pet, apply a Decent Homes Standard to the private rented sector, and extend Awaab’s Law to the private rented sector.
Some of these provisions featured in a similar form in the Renters (Reform) Bill that was lost in the legislative wash-up before the General Election.
Adjournment: The Labour MP for Newcastle-under-Lyme, Adam Jogee, has the adjournment debate on higher education in Staffordshire.
Westminster Hall: There are five Westminster Hall debates today:
9:30-11:00: Government support for the RSPCA (Ruth Jones, Labour)
11:00-11:30: Environmental impact of the proposed salt marshes at Pawlett Hams and other sides (Sir Ashley Fox, Conservative)
14:30-16:00: Maternity services in Gloucestershire (Max Wilkinson, Liberal Democrat)
16:00-16:30: Skills England (Antonia Bance, Labour)
16:30-17:30: Sepsis awareness (Lee Anderson, Reform UK)
House of Lords: The main business in the House of Lords is Second Reading of the Water (Special Measures) Bill. The headline provisions of the Bill are:
banning water companies from giving bonuses 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.
Afterwards, there will be a 90-minute debate on the steps the Government is taking to improve productivity across the public sector.
Peers will also consider the Strategic Defence Review from 4:45pm in Grand Committee in a debate initiated by former NATO Secretary General, Lord Robertson of Port Ellen. A number of former senior military leaders and Ministry of Defence officials as well as former Defence Ministers are expected to contribute to the debate.
Questions and statements: At 9:30, Transport Ministers will face questions from MPs. Only three of the 25 questions on the Order Paper are duplicates, all three of which are Labour MPs asking the Secretary of State ‘what steps she is taking to help improve local bus services.’
Any Urgent Questions will follow.
Barring any Urgent Questions, the Leader of the House will make her weekly Business Statement to the House at 10:30. The statement will set out the forthcoming business for the following week.
Any other Ministerial Statements will follow.
Main business: MPs will participate in a ‘general debate on sport, following Team GB and Paralympics GB successes’.
Presentation of Bills: Media reports indicate that the Employment Rights Bill – which the Government pledged to introduce within its first 100 days in office – will be introduced on Thursday, just two days before that 100-day deadline.
The Bill will reportedly include measures to extend entitlement to sick pay and to maternity and paternity leave, cap probation periods at six months, and increase protection from unfair dismissal from day one of a job. Because of the Government’s 100-day pledge, the detail of many of the changes in employment rules will apparently be set out in delegated (secondary) legislation rather than on the face of the Bill itself. At the Hansard Society we will be taking a close look at the scope and design of the Bill's delegated powers and how they measure up against recommended legislative standards for the delegation of power.
Public Bill Committees: As outlined earlier, the Great British Energy Bill Committee will begin clause-by-clause consideration of the Bill, the first substantive Public Bill Committee sitting of the new Parliament.
Adjournment: Liberal Democrat MP Will Forster has the adjournment debate on the cost of rail fares.
Westminster Hall: There are two Westminster Hall debates today:
13:30-15:00: Improving support for mental health (Sojan Joseph, Labour)
15:00-16:30: Humanitarian aid and Gaza (Ayoub Khan, Independent)
House of Lords: After Questions Peers will participate in three debates today, starting with a debate on the state of social care in England and the case for a comprehensive social care strategy and further support for unpaid carers.
This will be followed by a short debate on steps to ensure farmers are supported and recompensed for their role in flood prevention.
The final item of business is a debate on relations between the United Kingdom and Europe, particularly on issues of culture, diplomacy and security.
