Questions and statements: At 14:30, Housing, Communities and Local Government Ministers will respond to MPs’ questions. Topics include social and affordable housing, asylum accommodation, access to infrastructure in new housing developments, the role of water companies in the planning process, visitor levies, devolution, long-term empty homes, community-led housing, homelessness, and the leasehold system.

Any Urgent Questions or Ministerial Statements will follow. Typically, the first sitting day after a long parliamentary recess sees a number of Urgent Questions and/or Ministerial Statements. Possible topics include developments following the dropping of China-related espionage charges against two former parliamentary staff, the war in Gaza, recent announcements on immigration policy and Indefinite Leave to Remain, the Government’s plans for digital ID, and the PM's trade trip to India. Ministers plan to issue 23 Written Statements today, some of which may be accompanied or superseded by Oral Statements. Business of the House motion: This motion will enable the general debate on baby loss to continue for three hours or until 22:00, whichever is the later. On days with multiple Urgent Questions and Ministerial Statements, the start of the main business is often significantly delayed, meaning debates can be shortened or even dropped due to the usual 22:00 cut-off that applies on Mondays. By disapplying this cut-off, the motion guarantees that the debate will run for at least three hours, even if it extends beyond 22:00.

Select committee statements: Two select committee statements will be made:

• Patricia Ferguson MP, Chair of the Scottish Affairs Committee, will make a statement on the Committee’s new report, Problem drug use in Scotland follow-up: Glasgow’s Safer Drug Consumption Facility.

• Helen Hayes MP, Chair of the Education Committee, will make a statement on the Committee’s new report, Solving the SEND Crisis.

Backbench business: There will be a general debate on baby loss, proposed by Labour MPs Andy MacNae and Michelle Welsh, and Conservative MP Sir Jeremy Hunt. The three MPs respectively chair the All Party Parliamentary Groups on baby loss, maternity, and patient safety. In their application to the Backbench Business Committee for this debate, MacNae noted that the debate would be held during Baby Loss Awareness Week and would seek to raise awareness of baby loss and the bereavement pathways available to families. (House of Commons Library briefing)

Presentation of Public Petitions: Labour MP Adam Thompson will present a public petition, on Ilkeston Market Place.

Adjournment: Labour MP Pam Cox has the adjournment debate, on Government support for heritage sites in the East of England.

Westminster Hall: MPs will debate e-petition 700317, which calls for an end to the badger cull and the adoption of alternative methods of controlling Bovine Tuberculosis. The petition has over 102,000 signatures.

Delegated Legislation Committees:

• to consider the Global Irregular Migration and Trafficking in Persons Sanctions Regulations 2025;

• to consider the draft Human Medicines (Authorisation by Pharmacists and Supervision by Pharmacy Technicians) Order 2025.

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Oral questions: At 14:30, Peers will begin the day by questioning Ministers for 40 minutes, on asylum claims based on religious conversion; VAT on private school fees; Alzheimer’s diagnostics; and the jobs market.

Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill (Committee, day 6): Committee Stage is expected to conclude at today’s sitting, with the House debating the remaining amendments on the amendment paper.

The final group of amendments covers a wide range of topics, including refugee family reunion, unaccompanied child refugees, the potential impact of a carers’ minimum wage, exemptions from visa fees for NHS workers, a right to translators and interpreters, the Refugee Convention, citizenship requirements, the Human Rights Act 1998, indefinite leave to remain, the publication of immigration and asylum court judgments, and measures to tackle serious crime. Committee Stage will conclude only once the House has considered and decided upon on all the amendments.

The Government Whips have indicated that Report Stage will take place over two-and-a-half days, on Tuesday 28 October, Monday 3 November, and Wednesday 5 November (half day).

Bus Services (No. 2) Bill (Consideration of Commons amendments): At approximately 19:30, the debate on the Border Security Bill will be paused for a one-hour debate on the Bus Services (No. 2) Bill. This interruption to the main debate is known as taking ‘dinner break business’.

The Bus Services (No. 2) Bill was first introduced in the House of Lords, where it completed all its stages before being passed by the House of Commons. However, MPs made several amendments to the version of the Bill previously agreed by the Lords. Peers must now decide how to respond to each of these Commons amendments: agree with them, disagree with them, or propose alternative wording.

To understand the potential areas of disagreement, it is useful to recall that during the Bill’s original passage through the Lords, Peers inserted six groups of amendments against the Government’s wishes – amendments which the Government subsequently reversed during Committee Stage in the Commons:

• Purpose of the Bill: to specify that the Bill’s purpose is to improve the performance, accessibility and quality of bus passenger services and place a duty on the Secretary of State to have regard to that aim.

• Bus fare cap: to require the Government to assess the impact of ending the £2 bus fare cap on access to socially necessary local bus services.

• National Insurance contributions: to require the Government to assess the impact of the higher rate of National Insurance contributions on the provision of socially necessary bus services, including transport for children with special educational needs and disabilities.

• Village bus services: to require the Government to review the provision of bus services to villages.

• Bus safety: to require the Government to work with providers, trade unions, professional bodies and training institutions to implement a Vision Zero programme aimed at eliminating serious injuries during bus operations.

• Assaults on buses: to require bus operators to record all data about assaults and violent behaviour on their buses and require local transport authorities to consult trade unions about that data.

The Lords may seek to re-insert some or all of their amendments into the Bill by disagreeing with the Commons changes, or instead propose compromise versions of their original amendments. If Peers disagree with any Commons amendment or propose any new ones, the Bill will return to the Commons for further consideration.

Once the debate and any votes have concluded, the House will resume its consideration of the Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill.

↖ Contents · Skip to Tuesday’s Lords ↘

Highlights include:

House of Lords

• Finance Bill Sub-Committee of the Economic Affairs Committee (16:00): Representatives from the Chartered Institute of Taxation, the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants, the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales and the Law Society’s Tax Committee will give evidence on issues pertaining to tax administration, clarification and simplification. Further evidence will be given at 17:00 by Dan Neidle of Tax Policy Associates and representatives from TaxWatch, the Confederation of British Industry and Ernst & Young.

Joint

• National Security Strategy (16:30): National Preparedness Commission chair Lord Harris of Haringey and the Defence Attachés from the Embassies of Estonia and Finland will give evidence, followed by the co-chair of the Voluntary and Community Sector Emergencies Partnership and the Strategic Manager of the West Midlands Local Resilience Forum.

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

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↖ Contents · Skip to Tuesday’s Select Committees ↘

Questions and statements: At 11:30, Energy Security and Net Zero Ministers will face questions from MPs. Topics include net zero policies, new energy infrastructure, fuel poverty, energy market reform, trends in energy prices, the Warm Homes Plan, the use of renewable energy by public services, the manufacturing industry, grid infrastructure, the carbon budget, and international cooperation on climate change.

At 12:30, any Urgent Questions or Ministerial Statements will follow. Each Urgent Question lasts around 40 minutes on average, and Ministerial Statements last an average of around 50 minutes.

Presentation of Bill: Liberal Democrat MP Liz Jarvis will introduce the Young Carers (Educational and Employment Support) Bill, which would require schools to maintain a record of pupils with caring responsibilities and make provision to support those pupils, including support for future employment and skills development. A Presentation Bill is a type of Private Member’s Bill that any MP can present by giving notice of their intention to do so on a preceding sitting day. Such Bills very rarely become law without Government support. See our Hansard Society guide for more information about the parliamentary procedure for Presentation Bills.

Ten Minute Rule Motion: Labour MP Alex Barros-Curtis will seek to introduce the Registration of Births, Deaths and Marriages (Welsh Language Provision) Bill under the Ten Minute Rule, which allows MPs to give a ten-minute speech in favour of a Bill before seeking the House’s permission to introduce it. The Bill would require that birth, death and marriage certificates be available in both English and Welsh. See our Hansard Society guide for more information about the parliamentary procedure for Ten Minute Rule Bills.

Mental Health Bill (Report Stage and Third Reading): The key provisions of this Bill were outlined in a previous edition of the Bulletin. At Report Stage, the whole House debates and votes on proposed amendments and new clauses. (House of Commons Library briefing)

Under the terms of the programme motion agreed after Second Reading, this Report Stage will end at 18:00 at the latest, at which point the House will vote on any Government amendments and any other amendments the Speaker selects for separate decision. The Speaker is most likely to select amendments from Conservative Shadow Ministers and Liberal Democrat spokespersons.

At the time of writing, 59 amendments have been tabled – 53 by Liberal Democrat MPs. No Conservative amendments have yet appeared on the amendment paper, though some are expected to appear before the sitting.

Once the divisions at Report Stage have concluded, the House will move on to Third Reading, when MPs will decide whether to pass the final version of the Bill. The Third Reading debate will continue until 19:00 at the latest, followed by the final vote.

As the Bill was first passed by the House of Lords, and has since been amended by the Commons, it will be returned to the Lords once MPs agree the Third Reading. Peers will then need to decide how to respond to the Commons amendments. During the Bill’s initial passage through the Lords, Peers inserted four groups of amendments against the Government’s wishes, which were subsequently removed during Committee Stage in the Commons. These four areas are therefore likely to form the basis of disagreement between the two Houses, in a process known as “ping pong”, until both Houses agree the same text.

The four original Lords amendments were:

• Persons authorised to detain: to create a new category of “authorised persons” permitted to carry out detentions under the Mental Health Act 1983, including specially trained medical practitioners and mental health professionals, thereby removing the need for a police presence at mental health incidents.

• Community treatment orders (CTOs): to align CTOs with a Government-issued code of practice, limit their default duration to 12 months, mandate regular reviews including a six-month review for extended orders, and strengthen patient consultation and oversight.

• Nominated persons and parental responsibility: to replace the existing “nearest relative” provision with a new “nominated person” role to represent the interests of someone detained under the 1983 Act. 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, nominee would need to be someone with parental responsibility. Peers amended this 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: to require that mental health patients be de-briefed following their discharge from hospital.

For each Commons amendment, Peers will need to decide whether to agree, disagree, or propose alternative wording. Unless the Lords agrees to all Commons amendments, the Bill will be returned to the Commons for further consideration.

Adjournment: Conservative MP Harriet Cross has the adjournment debate, on the impact of the energy profits levy on north east Scotland. (House of Commons Library briefing)

Westminster Hall: There are five debates, on:

• the potential merits of returning international rail services to Ashford (House of Commons Library briefing);

• support for people with postural tachycardia syndrome;

• Sir Brian Leveson’s Independent Review of the Criminal Courts (House of Commons Library debate pack);

• the potential merits of a child risk disclosure scheme; and

• COP30 and global food system transformation. (Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology POSTnote / POSTbrief)

Public Bill Committee:

• English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill: Following its oral evidence sessions with experts and officials on Tuesday 16 September, the Public Bill Committee appointed for the Bill will now begin its clause-by-clause scrutiny of the Bill and consideration of amendments. The Committee is currently scheduled to sit seven times, concluding on Wednesday 12 November. The Committee will consider the clauses and amendments in the order in which they appear (or would appear) in the Bill, so today’s sitting will focus on the first clauses of the Bill, which define the new local government structures to be known as Strategic Authorities.

Delegated Legislation Committee:

• to consider the draft Extradition Act 2003 (Amendment to Designations) Order 2025.

↖ Contents · Skip to Wednesday’s Commons ↘

Oral questions: At 14:30, Peers will begin the day by questioning Ministers for 40 minutes, on global deforestation particularly in West Papua; refugee family reunion; prisoner reoffending; and the Jaguar Land Rover cyber attack.

Business of the House motion: The Leader of the House, Baroness Smith of Basildon, will move a motion to set aside Standing Order 38(1) on Wednesday 22 October and Wednesday 29 October to enable Report stage of the Planning and Infrastructure Bill to begin before oral questions on those days. Lord True, the Shadow Leader of the House, has tabled an amendment to this motion opposing the proposal as "no persuasive case has been put for systematically abandoning the usual conventions governing the sitting times of the House". This public disagreement between the Government and Opposition about the scheduling of business reflects both the growing pressure on the Government's legislative timetable in the Lords and the heightened partisan tension over how that should be managed each week. Motion to establish a Select Committee for the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill: The Senior Deputy Speaker will move a motion that a Committee be appointed to "consider the safeguards and procedures" contained in the Bill and to hear evidence including "from professional bodies, those with professional experience of coronial services, and Ministers". Peers agreed to set up this Select Committee at the end of the Second Reading debate on the 19 September. Given the time pressures for the Bill to be considered, they also agreed that the Committee should report by 7 November and that exceptionally it could report by "drawing the attention of the House to the evidence received without making recommendations." The motion also establishes the membership of the Committee: Baroness Berger (who proposed that this Select Committee should be established), Baroness Berridge, Baroness Finlay of Llandaff, Lord Goddard of Stockport, Lord Goodman of Wycombe, Baroness Hayter of Kentish Town, Lord Markham, the Bishop of Newcastle, Lord Patel, Baroness Scotland of Asthal, Baroness Smith of Newnham, and Lord Winston. The Committee will be chaired by Lord Hope of Craighead, the former Convenor of the Crossbench Peers and a former Deputy President of the Supreme Court. Motion to discharge the order of commitment for the Tobacco and Vapes Bill: Baroness Merron, the Minister responsible for the Bill, will move a motion to discharge the order of commitment made on 23 April. That order had sent the Tobacco and Vapes Bill, following its Second Reading, for clause-by-clause scrutiny in Committee of the Whole House. The motion now proposes that the Bill instead be considered in Grand Committee. A Committee of the Whole House meets in the Chamber, all Peers can participate, amd Divisions (formal recorded votes) are held when required. In contrast, a Grand Committee meets in a large committee room known as the Moses Room, which serves as an alternative forum for legislative business. All Peers may attend and speak, but formal Divisions do not take place. Amendments can therefore only be agreed by unanimous consent. As a result, amendments debated in Grand Committee are typically probing in nature — intended to elicit the Government’s position or to explore issues in greater detail. Substantive changes are then usually considered and voted upon at the Bill’s Report Stage. That six months have elapsed since Second Reading, and that the Committee stage is now being relocated to Grand Committee, both highlight the pressures currently facing the Government’s business managers in the Lords. Renters’ Rights Bill (Consideration of Commons Reasons and Amendments): After the Bill initially passed through the House of Commons, the Government was defeated on eight amendments in the House of Lords:

• Student accommodation: to remove the proposed restriction of the grounds for eviction to properties with three or more bedrooms. This means landlords would be able to evict students and regain possession of properties with any number of bedrooms, not just those with three or more, at the end of each academic year.

• Accommodation for agricultural workers: to expand the ground for eviction that enables landlords to take possession of a property for the purpose of housing an agricultural worker, so that it can be used for agricultural workers who are self-employed, rather than only direct employees of the landlord.

• Accommodation for landlords’ carers: to introduce a new ground for eviction which would enable landlords to seek possession of a property where it is needed to house a carer of the landlord or of a member of the landlord’s family.

• Pet damages: to introduce pet damage deposits, which landlords could use to repair damage caused by a tenant’s pets.

• Limit on renting out unsold property: to provide for a 6-month rather than a 12-month prohibition on renting out an unsold property where a tenant had been evicted on the basis that the landlord intended to sell the property.

• Shared owners: to protect shared ownership leaseholders from the provisions prohibiting the renting out of unsold property where the sale-of-property ground of eviction has been used.

• Standard of proof for penalties: to impose a uniform standard of proof – specifically, of proof beyond reasonable doubt – where local authorities are imposing financial penalties on landlords.

• Service family accommodation: to extend the Decent Homes Standard to service family accommodation.

When the Bill returned to the House of Commons, the Government successfully proposed that the Commons disagree outright with all but one of the Lords amendments. The exception was the amendment on accommodation for agricultural workers. In that case, the Government proposed amendments in lieu, to enable landlords to evict tenants in order to house both employees and non-employed workers engaged in agriculture. The Minister indicated that these changes had been accepted by the Peer who proposed the original amendment.

For each issue, the Lords must now decide whether to insist on their original amendment, accept the Commons’ position, or propose another alternative.

Lord Young of Cookham, who proposed the amendment on shared owners, has tabled a motion to insist on his original amendment. If that motion is agreed, the Commons would be unable to simply restate its disagreement without proposing an alternative, as this would result in what is known as “double insistence” – a situation that, by convention, kills a bill. The Commons would therefore need either to agree the amendment or to propose an alternative version of it.

Taking a different approach, Baroness Grender, who proposed the amendment on service family accommodation, has proposed a modified version of her original amendment for the Lords to consider.

Deprivation of Citizenship Orders (Effect during Appeal) Bill (Second Reading): This two-page bill makes targeted changes to the process for depriving a person of British citizenship, following a recent judgment by the UK Supreme Court. (House of Lords Library briefing)

Currently, the Government may remove a person’s British citizenship if it is deemed conducive to the public good – often on national security grounds – or if citizenship was obtained fraudulently. These deprivation orders take effect immediately, even before an appeal to the Special Immigration Appeals Commission is lodged or concluded. In many cases, the appeals process is the only opportunity to challenge a deprivation order, especially when the order is issued with little or no notice.

In February this year, the Supreme Court ruled that when an appeal against deprivation of citizenship succeeds, the person concerned is treated as never having lost their citizenship. Their citizenship is therefore automatically restored, without further action by the Government.

The Government argues that the judgment poses a threat to national security, as it could enable someone whose appeal initially succeeds to re-enter the UK before the Government has the opportunity to challenge that outcome in court with a second appeal. To address this, the Bill proposes that a citizenship deprivation order will remain in effect for the entire duration of the appeals process. This would apply to all deprivation cases, including those based on fraud, not just those involving national security.

At Second Reading, the House debates the principles and purposes of the Bill; amendments to the Bill’s text are not permitted at this stage. If the motion for Second Reading is agreed, the Bill will be committed to a Committee of the Whole House. In accordance with the Business of the House motion tabled by the Government, the Bill is scheduled to complete its remaining stages on Tuesday 21 October, just one week after Second Reading.

Ordinarily, as outlined in the Government’s Guide to Making Legislation, a minimum interval of 14 calendar days should be observed between Second Reading and Committee Stage. Shortening this interval “can only be agreed through the usual channels”, that is, with the consent of the Opposition Whips. In this case, the brevity of the Bill, its claimed urgency with respect to national security, and the absence of opposition to it from the Conservatives, all explain why the Bill will proceed on an expedited timetable.

Grand Committee: At 15:45, Peers will debate a motion to ‘take note’ of the Government’s proposal to amend the National Policy Statement for Ports. National Policy Statements set out the criteria by which applications for Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects should be decided by the Secretary of State and are subject to parliamentary procedure. (House of Lords Library briefing)

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Highlights include:

House of Commons

• Education Committee (10:00): Ofsted’s Chief Inspector and Chair will give evidence on the organisation’s work.

• Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee (10:00): Harry Rich, the former Registrar of Consultant Lobbyists, will give evidence on the work of the Registrar.

• Treasury Committee (10:15): Dan Neidle, of Tax Policy Associates, and Helen Miller and Ruth Curtice, respectively the new Directors of the Institute for Fiscal Studies and the Resolution Foundation, will give evidence on the tax options available to the Chancellor ahead of the forthcoming Budget. The Committee is expected to discuss proposals for a wealth tax, the freezing of income tax thresholds, potential changes to inheritance and capital gains tax, pension tax relief and taxes on landlords.

• Administration Committee (10:10): Al Carns MP, his former member of staff Marcus Hudson, and Chris Bryant MP will give evidence on health and wellbeing in Parliament.

• International Development Committee (14:00): Fawzia Koofi, former Afghan politician and the country’s first female Deputy Speaker, will give evidence to the inquiry on the UN Women, Peace and Security agenda and how the UK Government is addressing the needs of women through its development work. She will be followed by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon, who was from 2017 to 2024 the Prime Minister’s Special Representative on Preventing Sexual Violence in Conflict. Other panellists include Sudanese activist Hanin Ahmed, along with representatives from Women for Women International and the HALO Trust.

House of Lords

• Justice and Home Affairs Committee (10:30): Simon Calder, travel journalist and broadcaster, will give evidence on the launch this week of the EU’s new Entry/Exit System and the impact of the UK’s Electronic Travel Authorisation scheme on border management. He will be joined by Simon Lejeune, Chief Safety and Stations and Security Officer at Eurostar, and Dr Niovi Vavoula, Senior Lecturer in Migration and Security at Queen Mary University of London.

• Communications and Digital Committee (14:30): Ofcom’s Chief Executive will give evidence on media literacy and the Online Safety Act.

• Economic Affairs Committee (15:00): Chief Secretary to the Treasury James Murray MP will give evidence on preparing for an ageing society.

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

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Details of Wednesday’s business can be found below.

Questions and statements: At 11:30, Northern Ireland Office Ministers will face questions from MPs. Topics include the Northern Ireland Legacy Act, the technology industry in Northern Ireland, Intertrade UK, the Defence Industrial Strategy, the UK internal market, health services in Northern Ireland, trusted trader schemes, and violence against women and girls.

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

Any Urgent Questions or Ministerial Statements will follow.

Ten Minute Rule Motion: Labour MP Matt Western will seek to introduce the Police and Crime Commissioners (Accountability and Review) Bill under the Ten Minute Rule that allows MPs to give a ten-minute speech in favour of a Bill before seeking the House’s permission to introduce it. The Bill would make provision for strengthening the accountability and performance measurement of Police and Crime Commissioners, and require the Government to review their operation and functions, including consideration of their abolition and replacement.

Sustainable Aviation Fuel Bill (Report Stage and Third Reading): This Bill is intended to ensure stability in the pricing of non-petroleum aviation fuel, with price guarantees funded through a levy on aviation fuel suppliers. (House of Commons Library briefing)

At Report Stage, the whole House debates and votes on proposed amendments and new clauses. Under the terms of the programme motion agreed at Second Reading, Report Stage will conclude at 18:00 at the latest. When it ends, the House will vote on any Government amendments and any other amendments the Speaker selects for separate decision. The Speaker is most likely to select amendments from Conservative Shadow Ministers and Liberal Democrat spokespersons.

So far, only three new clauses – all tabled by the Liberal Democrats – appear on the amendment paper. However, as Conservative MPs tabled amendments during Committee Stage, further proposals from them are expected before Report Stage begins.

Once any divisions at Report Stage have concluded, the House will proceed to Third Reading, where MPs must decide whether to pass the final version of the Bill. The Third Reading debate may continue until 19:00 at the latest. However, since the Public Bill Committee completed its clause-by-clause consideration of the Bill in only one day – unusually short for a Government Bill – it is possible that the votes could begin much earlier, if the debate attracts little interest among MPs.

Adjournment: Labour MP Catherine Atkinson has the adjournment debate, on work in prisons for serving prisoners.

Westminster Hall: There are five debates, on:

• knife crime (House of Commons Library briefing);

• access to community helipads in rural areas;

• reforming the educational assessment system (House of Commons Library briefing);

• the potential merits of issuing guidance on tree maintenance to local authorities; and

• healthcare in Bolton.

Legislative committees: There are no legislative committees scheduled to meet today.

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Oral questions: At 15:00, Peers will begin the day by questioning Ministers for 40 minutes, on NHS support for unpaid carers; nuclear manufacturing; and waste crime. The topic of a fourth question will be decided by a ballot drawn at lunchtime on Monday 13 October.

Business of the House motion: The Leader of the House, Baroness Smith of Basildon, will move a motion to set aside Standing Order 44 in relation to the proposed consideration of the Deprivation of Citizenship Orders (Effect during Appeal) Bill next week (Tuesday 21 October). Standing Order 44 normally prevents more than one stage of a Bill from taking place on the same day. Disapplying the Standing Order will enable the Bill to go through Committee of the Whole House, Report Stage and Third Reading in a single day, just one week after its Second Reading.

Absent Voting (Elections in Scotland and Wales) Bill (Committee Stage): At approximately 15:45, the House is expected to undertake clause-by-clause scrutiny of the Bill.

This Private Member’s Bill, which has completed all its Commons stages and is supported by the Government, would amend electoral law to make it easier for voters in Scotland and Wales to apply for postal and proxy voting including by enabling online applications and by aligning postal voting renewal cycles. (House of Lords Library briefing)

Although stages of Private Members’ Bills are usually taken on Fridays, uncontroversial bills often progress on other sitting days, with the cooperation of the Government. So far, no amendments have been tabled. If none are submitted by Wednesday and no Peer signals an intention to speak, the Bill’s sponsor in the Lords (Lord Murphy of Torfaen) may move “that the order of commitment (or re-commitment) be discharged”, enabling the Bill to skip Committee Stage entirely. However, if any amendments are tabled in advance, the Government may choose to reschedule the debate to a Friday sitting instead to allow time for fuller consideration.

Public Authorities (Fraud, Error and Recovery) Bill (Report Stage, day 1): This is the Government’s legislation to tackle public sector fraud and error, including welfare fraud. (House of Lords Library briefing)

Today is the first of two days allocated for the Bill’s Report Stage, with the second day currently scheduled for Tuesday 21 October. At Report Stage, the whole House will debate and vote on proposed amendments to the Bill in the Lords Chamber.

The amendments relate to whistleblowing in relation to public sector fraud, requiring banks to analyse claimants’ bank accounts to check for social security fraud, compelling banks to disclose bank statements from benefits recipients, and repayments for overpaid Carer’s Allowance.

Grand Committee: Peers will debate three draft Statutory Instruments.

• Building Safety Levy (England) Regulations 2025: these 111-page Regulations establish the new Building Safety Levy which will be paid by residential property developers. The levy is expected to raise around £3.4 billion over 10 years to fund the remediation of building safety defects identified in the aftermath of the Grenfell Tower fire. The Regulations set out the developments to which the levy applies, the rate and method of calculation, the administration and collection procedures, and the dispute resolution process.

• Aviation Safety (Amendment) Regulations 2025; and

• Companies (Directors’ Report) (Payment Reporting) Regulations 2025.

↖ Contents · Skip to Thursday’s Lords ↘

Highlights include:

House of Commons

• Work and Pensions Committee (09:30): The Chair of the Social Security Advisory Committee – the body that scrutinises proposed delegated legislation (Statutory Instruments) relating to the social security system – will give evidence on the Committee’s work.

• Treasury Committee (14:15): Representatives of the Financial Conduct Authority and the Bank of England will give evidence on AI in financial services.

• Energy Security and Net Zero Committee (15:00): The chief executives of all “big six” energy companies will give evidence on the cost of energy.

• Procedure Committee (15:30): Three MPs – Claire Hanna of the SDLP, Robin Swann of the Ulster Unionists, and Dr Ellie Chowns of the Green Party – will give evidence on the merits of using call lists (also known as speakers lists) for debates in the House of Commons.

House of Lords

• Public Services Committee (11:00): Dr Keith Ridge, NHS’s Chief Pharmaceutical Officer from 2006 until 2022, will give evidence on medicines security.

• Financial Services Regulation Committee (11:15): The Chief Executive and other officials from the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) will give evidence on the FCA’s approach to motor finance compensation, following its newly announced compensation scheme for 14 million consumers in response to a landmark Supreme Court judgment earlier this year.

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

↖ Contents · Skip to Thursday’s Select Committees ↘

Questions and statements: At 09:30, Culture, Media and Sport Ministers will face questions from MPs. Topics include youth services, creative copyright, grassroots music venues, the motorsport industry, support for tourism, support for listed places of worship, grassroots sports facilities, the Commonwealth Games, the availability of major sporting events on television, and local authority support for arts and culture.

At 10:10, the representatives of the Church Commissioners (Marsha de Cordova MP) and House of Commons Commission (Nick Smith MP) will take questions from MPs. Nine of the 11 questions on the Order Paper are for the Church Commissioners, and only two for the House of Commons Commission.

• Church Commissioners: topics include persecuted Christians and freedom of religion abroad, churches in rural communities, the impact of church leaders on community relations, the appointment process for the Archbishop of Canterbury, safeguarding in the Church of England, and Christians in Palestine.

• House of Commons Commission: topics include the use of British-made ceramics in Parliament and the provision of accessible toilets.

Any Urgent Questions will follow.

The new Leader of the House of Commons, Sir Alan Campbell MP, will present the weekly Business Statement, setting out the business in the House for the next couple of weeks and answering questions about anything that Members might want debated. Any other Ministerial Statements will follow.

Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction Bill (Second Reading): This Bill will enable the UK to implement the Agreement on Marine Biological Diversity of Areas beyond National Jurisdiction, commonly known as the BBNJ Agreement or High Seas Treaty, which the UK signed in September 2023. The Agreement seeks to strengthen the conservation of areas of the ocean that lie beyond national jurisdiction.

As the UK is what is known as a “dualist state”, international agreements (treaties) do not automatically have legal effect in domestic law. Implementing legislation must therefore be enacted to give internal legal effect to the UK’s obligations. An agreement is internationally binding in principle on signing, but typically provides that it will not come into operation until signatories ratify their consent. By convention, the Government does not ratify an agreement until any necessary domestic legislation has been passed.

Under the Constitutional Reform and Governance Act 2010, a treaty also cannot be ratified until it has been laid before Parliament for 21 sitting days, during which either House may resolve that the agreement should not be ratified. The BBNJ Agreement was laid before Parliament in October 2023. The House of Lords International Agreements Committee published a report on it in December 2023 drawing the Agreement to the special attention of the House. But neither the Commons nor the Lords objected to ratification of the Agreement within the prescribed period.

At Second Reading, the House is debating the principles of a Bill rather than its detailed provisions. Amendments to the text cannot be made at this stage.

Adjournment: Liberal Democrat MP Alison Bennett has the adjournment debate, on Government support for children’s hospices in the South East. (House of Commons Library briefings on hospices and hospice and palliative care)

Westminster Hall: There are two debates, on:

• World Menopause Day (House of Commons Library briefing); and

• Ada Lovelace Day and Government support for women in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (House of Lords Library briefing).

Public Bill Committee:

• English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill: The Committee will resume its clause-by-clause scrutiny of the Bill and consideration of amendments, starting from where it left off at Tuesday’s sitting.

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Introduction of Peers: Two new Labour Peers will be introduced to the House of Lords, both of whom were appointed as Ministers in the recent reshuffle:

• Jason Stockwood, the new Minister for Investment and co-owner and former chair of Grimsby Town FC, will be introduced as Lord Stockwood; and

• Liz Lloyd, the new Minister for the Digital Economy and former Deputy Chief of Staff to Tony Blair and Director of Policy and Innovation to Keir Starmer in 10 Downing Street, will be introduced as a baroness (title yet to be announced).

Oral questions: Peers will begin the day by questioning Ministers for 40 minutes, on stablecoin ownership; the acquisition of the Telegraph Media Group; and youth unemployment. The topic of a fourth question will be decided by a ballot drawn at lunchtime on Tuesday 14 October.

Crime and Policing Bill (Second Reading): This Bill, which has already passed through the House of Commons, makes a number of significant reforms to criminal law and police powers. At 429 pages, it is the largest Bill currently before either House and is 112 pages longer than when scrutiny began in the Commons. The main provisions of the Bill were summarised in a recent edition of the Bulletin. (House of Lords Library briefing)

At Second Reading, the House debates the principles and purposes of the Bill but cannot make amendments to the Bill’s text. If Second Reading is agreed, the Bill will be committed to a Committee of the Whole House for clause-by-clause examination.

Grand Committee: There will be four questions for short debate – a debate in the form of a question to the Government that lasts a maximum of one hour – on:

• the use of starvation as a weapon of war and compliance with international humanitarian law (House of Lords Library briefing);

• affordable access to specialist music and dance schools (House of Lords Library briefing);

• the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (House of Lords Library briefing); and

• fracture liaison services in England, and the commitment to universal coverage by 2030 (House of Lords Library briefing).

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Highlights include:

House of Commons

• Home Affairs Committee (09:30): Martin Hewitt, Border Security Commander, and Rob Jones, Director General (Operations) at the National Crime Agency, will give evidence on the work of the Border Security Command in addressing border security and irregular migration.

• Public Accounts Committee (10:00): The Permanent Secretary at the Treasury, the Chief Executive of the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Standards Agency, and other senior officials from the Treasury and Ministry of Justice will give evidence on identifying costs and generating income in Government services.

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

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Neither House is scheduled to sit on Friday 17 October 2025. Both Houses will therefore resume at 14:30 on Monday 20 October 2025.

Our next Bulletin will be published on Sunday 19 October.

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