Questions and statements: At 14:30, Education Ministers will respond to MPs’ questions. Topics include primary school assessments; support for children with special educational needs and disabilities; teacher recruitment; mental health support in schools; skills education; the further education college estate; the use of smart phones in schools; and funding for sixth forms.

Any Urgent Questions or Ministerial Statements will follow.

Presentation of Bill: Romford Conservative MP Andrew Rosindell will present the Transport for London (Extension of Concessions) Bill, to require Transport for London to let local councils opt into concessionary fare schemes such as the Freedom Pass. As a Presentation Bill, there will be no debate and little prospect of the Bill making progress.

Main business: There will be a general debate on the 80th anniversary of Victory over Japan. (House of Commons Library briefing)

Presentation of Public Petitions: Three MPs are set to present petitions on behalf of their constituents:

• Tom Gordon (Liberal Democrat) on disabled bus passes during peak hours;

• Cat Smith (Labour) on redundancies at Lancaster University: Cat Smith

• Liam Byrne (Labour) on parking enforcement at Castle Bromwich Infant School.

Adjournment: The Liberal Democrat MP Martin Wrigley has the adjournment debate, on Homes for Ukraine and the Ukrainian Permission Extension Scheme.

Legislative committees: Three draft Statutory Instruments will be debated by two Delegated Legislation Committees:

• the Electrical Safety Standards in the Private Rented Sector (England) (Amendment) (Extension to the Social Rented Sector) Regulations 2025 and the Hazards in Social Housing (Prescribed Requirements) (England) Regulations 2025; and

• the Criminal Justice Act 2003 (Removal of Prisoners for Deportation) Order.

Oral questions: At 14:30, Peers will begin the day by questioning Ministers for 40 minutes, on the impact of overseas development cuts by the UK, US, and EU; plans for artificial intelligence legislation; weight loss medication; and the reduction in staff costs for NHS England.

Main business: The House will vote on whether to approve six draft Statutory Instruments, each of which has already been debated:

• the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (Amendment, etc.) Regulations 2025;

• the Armed Forces Act 2006 (Continuation) Order 2025;

• the Online Safety Super-Complaints (Eligibility and Procedural Matters) Regulations 2025;

• the Legislative Reform (Disclosure of Adult Social Care Data) Order 2025;

• the Electricity Capacity (Amendment) (No. 2) Regulations 2025; and

• the Electricity and Gas (Energy Company Obligation) (Amendment) Order 2025.

House of Lords (Hereditary Peers) Bill (Third Reading). This Bill, as originally drafted, would remove the right of the 90 remaining hereditary peers to sit the House of Lords. Under the system introduced in the 1999 House of Lords Act, when one of the 90 remaining hereditary peers dies or resigns, their seat is filled through a by-election. Any hereditary peer who does not already sit in the House of Lords may stand and the replacement is elected only by hereditary peers from the same party or group as the departing member. (House of Lords Library briefing)

Unlike in the House of Commons, amendments are frequently tabled at Third Reading in the House of Lords, but only for limited purposes. Amendments are normally only admissible if they would clarify any remaining uncertainties in the Bill, improve its drafting, or enable the Government to fulfil undertakings given at earlier stages of the Bill.

So far, no amendments have yet appeared on the amendment paper. However, Baroness Smith of Basildon, the Leader of the House of Lords, promised at Report Stage to discuss with Lord Ashton of Hyde his proposal to allow a person holding lasting power of attorney for a peer to sign on the peer’s behalf when notifying the Clerk of that peer’s retirement. If those discussions have resulted in agreement, we can expect a Government-backed amendment to appear on the amendment paper before today’s debate.

If peers agree to give the Bill a Third Reading, the Bill will be sent back to the House of Commons, where MPs will consider how to respond to the amendments made by the House of Lords. Three amendments were passed against the Government’s wishes at Report Stage, so Ministers are likely to seek to remove or alter these in the Commons:

• Hereditary peers: An amendment from the Conservative peer Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay would prevent the immediate elimination of hereditary peers from the House of Lords and instead abolish the by-elections to replace them. Instead of removing them all at once, the change would allow hereditary peers to leave the House of Lords gradually, with their numbers declining naturally as existing peers die or retire.

• Ministerial salaries: An amendment from Conservative peer Lord True would require all Lords Ministers to be paid a salary.

• Non-sitting life peerages: Another amendment from Lord True would clarify that the Crown may appoint life peers without the right to sit in the House of Lords.

Consideration of Lords Amendments in the Commons is provisionally scheduled for Thursday 4 September.

Renters’ Rights Bill (Third Reading). Peers will be asked to pass the Renters’ Rights Bill, which has already completed its Commons stages. If the House agrees to the Third Reading, it will return to the House of Commons for consideration of Lords amendments on Monday 8 September, since the Lords has amended the Commons’ version of the Bill. In the Commons, the Government is likely to seek to reverse or alter the effect of the Lords amendments it opposed. Specifically, the Government suffered defeats at Report Stage on eight groups of amendments:

• Student accommodation: An amendment from Conservative shadow minister Baroness Scott of Bybrook would remove the proposed restriction of the grounds for eviction set out in the Bill to properties with three or more bedrooms. This means landlords would be able to evict students and so regain possession of properties with any number of bedrooms, not just those with three or more, at the end of an academic year.

• Accommodation for agricultural workers: An amendment from the Crossbench hereditary peer Lord Carrington would allow the ground of eviction that enables landlords to take possession of a property to house an agricultural worker to be used for those who are self-employed, rather than only direct employees of the landlord.

• Accommodation for landlords’ carers: An amendment from the Crossbench hereditary peer Lord de Clifford would introduce a new ground for eviction which would enable landlords to seek possession of a property where it is needed to house a carer for the landlord or member of the landlord’s family.

• Pet damages: Another amendment from Lord de Clifford would introduce pet damage deposits, which landlords could use to repair damage caused by a tenant’s pets.

• Limit on renting out unsold property: An amendment from the Crossbench hereditary peer Lord Cromwell would provide for a six-month rather than a 12-month prohibition on renting out an unsold property where a tenant had been evicted on the grounds that the landlord intended to sell the property.

• Shared leaseholders: An amendment from the Conservative peer Lord Young of Cookham would protect shared 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: An amendment from the Conservative peer Lord Keen of Elie would impose a uniform standard of proof – specifically, of proof beyond reasonable doubt – where local authorities are imposing financial penalties on landlords.

• Service family accommodation: An amendment from the Liberal Democrat peer Baroness Grender would extend the Decent Homes Standard to service family accommodation.

Employment Rights Bill (Report Stage, day 3). This is the third of four days of Report Stage for this Bill, with the final Report Stage sitting set to take place this Wednesday, 23 July. (House of Lords Library briefing)

The House will debate and vote on some of the remaining groups of amendments, starting at the point where the House finished at its last sitting. The next groups of amendments to be debated relate to:

• pay and conditions for school support staff and social care workers;

• seafarers’ and maritime employment;

• collective bargaining;

• new trade union rights to access workplaces, and their application to small businesses;

• the membership threshold for trade unions to be recognised by employers;

• trade union political funds, and whether members should need to opt in; and

• thresholds for votes on industrial action.

Highlights include:

House of Commons

Energy Security and Net Zero Committee (12:30): Ed Miliband MP, Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, will give evidence on the work of his department.

Liaison Committee (14:30): The Prime Minister will appear before the Liaison Committee to answer questions from its members, who are the chairs of other House of Commons select committees. The Liaison Committee is chaired Dame Meg Hillier MP, who also chairs the Treasury Select Committee. Prime Ministers typically appear before the Committee three times a year; in December, ahead of the Prime Minister’s first appearance, Dame Meg wrote to Sir Keir Starmer to request an increase to four appearances annually, but no such commitment has yet been given.

It is not practicable for all 31 members of the Committee to question the Prime Minister. Instead, the following select committee chairs will ask questions on the following themes.

1. Poverty in the UK

• Debbie Abrahams (Work and Pensions)

• Steve Barclay (Finance)

• Liam Byrne (Business and Trade)

• Ruth Cadbury (Transport)

• Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown (Public Accounts)

• Dame Caroline Dinenage (Culture, Media and Sport)

• Florence Eshalomi (Housing, Communities and Local Government)

• Patricia Ferguson (Scottish Affairs)

• Helen Hayes (Education)

• Andy Slaughter (Justice)

• Nick Smith (Administration)

2. International Affairs

• Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown (Public Accounts)

• Dame Caroline Dinenage (Culture, Media and Sport)

• Andy Slaughter (Justice)

• Dame Emily Thornberry (Foreign Affairs)

It remains to be seen what questions, if any, are put to the Prime Minister about the super-injunction that prevented discussion of a data breach at the Ministry of Defence affecting thousands of Afghans and others who had worked with UK forces during the war in Afghanistan. This super-injunction effectively prevented parliamentary scrutiny of the data breach, of the policy of relocating those affected by the breach to the UK, and of the significant costs involved. The Prime Minister does not appear before other select committees so only the Liaison Committee will be able to hold Sir Keir Starmer to account now that the existence of the super-injunction and its constitutional implications for Parliament have been revealed. Although the super-injunction was sought by the previous Conservative Government, it was maintained in place for a year by the current Government. We discuss these issues with legal commentator Joshua Rozenberg in the latest episode of our Parliament Matters podcast.

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

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Questions and statements: At 11:30, Health and Social Care Ministers will face questions from MPs. Topics include A&E waiting times, serious mental illness, perinatal mental health, eating disorders, electronic patient record systems in the NHS, car parking in NHS hospitals, and the impact of industrial action.

Any Urgent Questions or Ministerial Statements will follow.

Ten Minute Rule Motion: The Labour MP Blair McDougall will seek to introduce a Ten Minute Rule Bill titled the Crown Immunity (Prisons) Bill to remove crown immunity from prisons in relation to health and safety legislation. See our Hansard Society guide for more information about the parliamentary procedure for Ten Minute Rule Bills.

Main business: The Sir David Amess Summer Adjournment Debate. In recent years the practice has been that before the House rises for the Summer, a special adjournment debate is held as the final item of business. During the debate, MPs can make speeches about whatever topic they choose. The traditional annual debate was named in memory of the Conservative MP Sir David Amess who was murdered in his constituency in 2021 and who was a frequent participant in such debates.

Presentation of Public Petition: Labour MP Linsey Farnsworth will present a petition on the future of Wingfield Manor, in her Derbyshire constituency of Amber Valley.

Adjournment: The Labour MP Daniel Francis has the adjournment debate, on Changing Places toilets.

Westminster Hall: There are debates on five topics:

• Black Country day (House of Commons Library briefing);

• the future of gene editing (Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology notes on genome edited animals and genome edited food crops);

• the humanitarian situation in Sudan (House of Commons Library briefing);

• housing provision in Stafford; and

• barriers to trade in the UK internal market.

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

Introduction of new Peers: At 14:30, one newly ennobled Member will be introduced:

• Lord (Simon) Case, Cabinet Secretary and Head of the Home Civil Service between September 2020 and December 2024.

Oral questions: Peers will question Ministers for 40 minutes, on Great British Energy’s funding for nuclear energy generation development; the Independent Commission into Adult Social Care; the provision of givinostat to boys living with Duchenne muscular dystrophy; and the ‘pull factors’ attracting migrants to enter the UK illegally.

Main business: Crown Estate (Wales) Bill (Report). This Private Member’s Bill, presented by Plaid Cymru’s Lord Wigley, would transfer responsibility for the Crown Estate in Wales to the Welsh Government. As the Bill is not supported by the Government, it is unlikely to become law. (House of Lords Library briefing)

Peers will debate three Statutory Instruments (SIs) in relation to the ownership of newspapers and other news organisations:

• The draft Enterprise Act 2002 (Mergers Involving Newspaper Enterprises and Foreign Powers) Regulations 2025: Under existing law, acquisitions of news organisations must be blocked or reversed if they give a foreign power control or influence over the organisation’s policy. These Regulations would set a threshold, defining such influence as a state-owned investor holding more than 15% of the shares or voting rights. Foreign states would therefore be permitted to own up to 15% of newspaper enterprises without triggering intervention.

• The Enterprise Act 2002 (Amendment of Section 58 Considerations) Order 2025: This Order would extend the public interest test for merger approvals. Currently, the Government can only intervene in newspaper mergers, but the change would extend this power to cover news broadcaster mergers as well. This would allow the Government to intervene in mergers involving print and online newspapers, periodical magazines, and broadcast news programmes.

• The draft Enterprise Act 2002 (Definition of Newspaper) Order 2025: This Order similarly amends the definition of a newspaper in the Enterprise Act 2002 to cover news magazines and online newspapers, enabling the Government to intervene in mergers on public interest or foreign state influence grounds.

The first of these SIs is the most controversial. The House of Lords Secondary Legislation Scrutiny Committee has drawn the SI to the attention of the House on the grounds that they are politically and legally important and give rise to issues of public policy likely to be of interest to the House. The Committee notes that the Secretary of State will still be required to intervene in cases where a state-owned investor has invested within the 15% threshold but is able to direct or influence a newspaper’s policy. The Committee suggested that Peers ask the Minister “how the Secretary of State will reliably be able to detect, and, if necessary, prove that the state-owned investor can exert this influence”.

Two related motions criticising the SI have been scheduled for debate:

• The Liberal Democrat peer Lord Fox has tabled a “fatal motion” – that is, a motion intended to reject the approval of the SI – arguing that allowing foreign states to own up to 15% of UK newspapers “constitutes a direct threat to the freedom of the British press”. The Liberal Democrats have already forced a division on the SI in the House of Commons, where MPs approved the regulations by 338 votes to 79. Labour MPs supported the measure, while Conservatives abstained. The House of Lords has not rejected a Statutory Instrument since 2012.

• A “non-fatal” motion has also been tabled by the Conservative peer and former Leader of the House of Lords, Baroness Stowell of Bolton. Non-fatal motions allow the House to be critical of a Statutory Instrument but do not seek to reject it. The motion expresses regret that the Regulations do not distinguish between state investment funds that are directly or indirectly controlled by a foreign power, proposes that the draft Regulations be withdrawn and replaced before 15 September with new draft Regulations that cap foreign state investment to a total of 15% of the ownership of any newspaper, rather than 15% per foreign power.

Universal Credit Bill (Second Reading and Remaining Stages). Peers will debate all stages of the Government’s welfare reform legislation, which now contains only provisions relating to Universal Credit, with the Government having removed the changes to Personal Independence Payment in the House of Commons, as outlined in our recent Bulletin. (House of Lords Library briefing)

Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle, of the Green Party, has tabled an amendment to the Bill’s Second Reading motion. This expresses regret about the impact the Bill will have in a number of areas including age discrimination, on people with mental health conditions, and on the rates and severity of poverty among people with disabilities.

The Bill has been designated a Money Bill, which means that it has been certified by the Commons Speaker as a bill that contains only provisions dealing with national taxation, public money or loans. In procedural terms, this means the House of Lords has very limited powers to amend the Bill. It is not debarred from doing so provided that the amendments were passed within one month, but there would be no obligation on the Commons to then consider Lords amendments. The Committee, Report and Third Reading stages in the House of Lords are therefore typically a formality and all stages are normally taken in a single day. Once agreed, the Bill will be sent for Royal Assent. See the Hansard Society’s guide to Money Bills for more information.

Highlights include:

House of Commons

• Treasury Committee (10:15): The Governor of the Bank of England, Andrew Bailey, and two members of the Bank’s Financial Policy Committee, will give evidence on the Bank’s recent Financial Stability Report. The Bank of England publishes reports twice a year on the stability of the UK’s financial system. MPs may also use the session to question the Governor on the reforms to financial services regulations announced by the Chancellor last week.

House of Lords

• Industry and Regulators Committee (10:00); The Chief Executive and the Chair of the Office for Nuclear Regulation (ONR) will give evidence on the ONR’s work.

• Economic Affairs Committee (14:00): Rachel Reeves MP, Chancellor of the Exchequer, will appear for her annual scrutiny session with the Committee.

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

Details of Wednesday’s business can be found below.

The House will not be sitting.

Oral questions: At 15:00, Peers will begin the day by questioning Ministers for 40 minutes, on the jobs market; steps to encourage pension saving; and the re-development of Casement Park in Belfast. The topic of a fourth question will be decided by a ballot drawn at lunchtime on Monday 21 July.

Main business: Employment Rights Bill (Report, day 4). This is the final day scheduled for the Bill’s Report Stage. At today’s sitting the final groups of amendments will be debated, starting at the point that the House reaches on Monday. (House of Lords Library briefing)

The groups of amendments likely to be debated at today’s sitting relate to:

• whether ‘secondary’ industrial action should be lawful;

• actions short of a strike;

• allowing the Government to initiate proceedings in an employment tribunal, in place of a worker, where that worker is not going to do so;

• freelance workers;

• the use of AI by employers; and

• requirements on the Government to consult or review the effect of the Act.

Unlike in the House of Commons, Government Bills in the House of Lords typically receive their Third Reading on a separate day to Report Stage. The Bill is therefore not likely to have its Third Reading until September, after which it will be sent back to the Commons for consideration of any Lords amendments.

Armed Forces Commissioner Bill (Consideration of Commons Reasons): This Bill establishes a new Armed Forces Commissioner to replace the existing Service Complaints Ombudsman. The proposal is inspired by the German Parliamentary Commissioner for the Armed Forces. In an episode of the Hansard Society’s Parliament Matters podcast earlier this year, we looked at how the two roles compare.

During the Bill’s passage through the House of Lords, an amendment to give the new Commissioner a whistleblowing function was inserted into the Bill against the Government’s wishes. When the Lords’ amendment was sent to the Commons, the Government disagreed with it but proposed a compromise amendment instead. This proposed that if the Commissioner publishes a report on an investigation which was prompted by a complaint from a specific individual, the report must not include any information that could identify that individual without their consent. However, the House of Lords rejected this compromise and instead proposed a revised version of the amendment concerning the Commissioner’s functions in relation to whistleblowers. The House of Commons then disagreed with this amendment and insisted on its own compromise amendment. The House of Lords now needs to decide whether to insist on its revised proposal, agree with the Government’s proposal, or propose another alternative amendment. If it agrees with the Government’s proposal, the Bill will be sent to receive Royal Assent.

House of Lords

• Financial Services Regulation Committee (10:05): Experts from the Bruegel think-tank and and George Washington University Law School will give evidence on the growth of private markets in the UK following the reforms introduced after 2008, particularly those in respect of regulatory capital and liquidity.

• International Relations and Defence Committee (15:30): Ivo Daalder, former US Permanent Representative to NATO, and Anthony Dworkin, Senior Policy Fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations, will give evidence on the UK’s future relationship with the United States of America.

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

The House will not be sitting.

Introduction of Peers: Lord Barrow – Sir Tim Barrow, the former National Security Adviser and former Ambassador to the European Union, Ukraine, and Russia – will be introduced to the House.

Oral questions: Peers will question Ministers for 40 minutes, on minimally invasive cancer therapies; Young Futures Hubs; and the proposed “Hillsborough Law”. The topic of a fourth question will be decided by a ballot drawn at lunchtime on Tuesday 22 July.

Business of the House motion: The Leader of the House, Baroness Smith of Basildon, has tabled a motion to suspend Standing Order 38(1) on Tuesday 2 September, Wednesday 10 September and Tuesday 16 September. This is to enable the Committee Stage debate on the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill to begin earlier than usual, before oral questions, on each of those days. The motion does not explain the reason for the change, but the Committee Stage has already run longer than expected. The Government had originally scheduled seven days for scrutiny, but this was later extended. Last week the whips indicated that 13 days would be allocated, with five after the Summer recess. However, this week the schedule has been revised to 12 days, with only four sittings after recess (2, 10, 16 and 18 September). So a decision appears to have been made to reduce the total number of sittings while lengthening some of the remaining ones. Starting earlier in the parliamentary day will help speed up progress.

Main business: Planning and Infrastructure Bill (Committee, day 2). This is the second of eight days scheduled for Committee Stage, with the final day pencilled in for 18 September. At Committee Stage, the House debates whether each clause should “stand part of the Bill” and whether any amendments should be made. In the House of Lords it is rare for any amendments other than Government amendments to be voted on at Committee Stage, because any amendments that are voted on and defeated cannot be moved again at Report Stage. (House of Lords Library briefing)

The next clauses and amendments to be debated relate to Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects, electricity transmission infrastructure, transport infrastructure, heritage assets, electric vehicle charging, and water infrastructure and reservoirs.

The Hansard Society published a briefing earlier this year which criticised the Bill’s provisions in relation to electricity transmission infrastructure; these clauses are likely to be debated today. The Bill proposes giving Ministers the power to make regulations to create a scheme offering consumer benefits – likely to be in the form of discounts on energy bills – for households which are near new or upgraded electricity transmission infrastructure such as pylons. However, none of the key details about the scheme appear on the face of the Bill, including who will be eligible, the value or duration of the payment, or the form in which benefits will be paid. Moreover, in only three limited circumstances will the regulations need to be actively approved by both Houses of Parliament under the affirmative scrutiny procedure. We therefore recommended that the affirmative procedure apply more broadly to exercises of this power. The House of Lords Delegated Powers and Regulatory Reform Committee, which scrutinises proposed delegated powers in bills, has since echoed these concerns in its report on the Bill. It called for all exercises of this power to be subject to the affirmative procedure.

The Government has tabled 30 amendments addressing concerns expressed during the parliamentary debates on Part 3 of the Bill in the following areas:

• the overall improvement test which the Secretary of State must consider before approving an Environmental Delivery Plan (EDP);

• back-up measures and monitoring by Natural England that can be included in an EDP;

• remedial action that can be taken by the Secretary of State in the event that conservation measures do not work as foreseen;

• a requirement for Natural England and the Secretary of State to take account of the best available scientific evidence when preparing, amending or revoking an EDP;

• clarification of the consultation requirements when amending an EDP; and

• new provisions relating to the design and delivery of conservation measures by Natural England.

There are no select committees scheduled to meet today.

The House of Commons will have risen for the summer recess at the close of business on Tuesday 22 July, with the House of Lords rising two days later at the close of business on Thursday 24 July.

Both Houses will return from recess on Monday 1 September. The next edition of this Bulletin will therefore be published on Sunday 31 August.

The Hansard Society is a charity. If you find this Bulletin useful please help us cover the research and production costs. A small donation of just £3 per month – less than the cost of a cup of coffee – will help us keep you up-to-date on the issues that matter in Parliament. Donate here