Questions and statements: At 14:30, Work and Pensions Ministers will respond to MPs’ questions. Topics include organised welfare fraud, child poverty, unemployment, supporting disabled people into work, the Personal Independence Payment application process, Universal Credit, and economic abuse in the child maintenance system.

Any Urgent Questions or Ministerial Statements will follow. There may be a Ministerial Statement to update the House following the American bombing of Iran's nuclear facilities at the weekend. The Government's Industrial Strategy will be published today and may also elicit an oral Ministerial Statement in addition to the planned Written Statement.

Main business: There will be a general debate on Pride Month. (House of Commons Library briefing)

Adjournment: The Independent Unionist MP Alex Easton has the adjournment debate, on access to GPs.

Westminster Hall: MPs will debate e-petition 701963, which calls for all forms of geo-engineering to be made illegal. The petition has acquired over 160,000 signatures. (House of Commons Library briefing)

Legislative committees:

• Bus Services (No. 2) Bill: A programming sub-committee will meet today to decide the timetable for the Public Bill Committee nominated to consider the Bill clause-by-clause. The Committee will meet formally for the first time on Tuesday.

• Delegated Legislation Committees meeting today: to consider the draft Marking of Retail Good Regulations 2025; and the draft Combined Authorities (Adult Education Functions) (Amendment) Order 2025.

Oral questions: Peers will begin the day by questioning Ministers for 40 minutes, on support for the live music industry; the impact on vulnerable children of cuts to overseas aid; energy efficiency and fire safety measures in local planning processes; and business rates reform.

Main business: Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill (Committee Stage, day 7). Peers will continue their consideration of the Bill and any proposed amendments.

Committee Stage had originally been scheduled to conclude at this sitting. However, due to slow progress, the Government Whips scheduled an additional sitting for Thursday 3 July. Despite this, with 62 groups of amendments still awaiting debate, it may be difficult for the House to complete Committee Stage on time. As a result, the Whips may need to schedule further sittings.

The next clauses and groups of amendments to be considered relate to independent guardians, the wellbeing of children on social media and technology, early years support, the production of reports in family courts, enforcement of child maintenance, free school meal eligibility, and the cost of school uniforms.

The House will debate a motion to approve the draft Contracts for Difference (Miscellaneous Amendments) (No. 2) Regulations 2025. This Statutory Instrument (SI) would allow existing biomass generators to receive support through a contract for difference (CFD), a type of contract designed to provide greater revenue certainty to electricity generators. Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle, a Green Party Peer, has tabled a regret motion which sets out concerns about the SI but would not block it. The motion criticises the Regulations for failing to clearly identify their subject as the Drax wood-burning power station, for lacking mechanisms to hold Drax to account for its environmental impact, and for offering an unjustified financial premium to the company.

Highlights include:

House of Commons

• Foreign Affairs Committee (13:45): Sir Mark Lyall Grant, the former UK Permanent Representative to the United Nations and former National Security Adviser, will give evidence on the UK’s role at the UN Security Council.

• Public Accounts Committee (15:30): The interim Permanent Secretary and other senior officials from the Ministry of Justice, HM Courts and Tribunal Service, and CAFCASS will all give evidence on improving family court services for children. This follows a National Audit Office report published last month, which concluded that, though the caseload has declined since 2021, “children and families are still waiting too long to have their cases resolved”.

• Foreign Affairs Committee (15:30): Stephen Doughty MP, the Minister for Europe, North America and the Overseas Territories, will give evidence on the Chagos Agreement.

• Northern Ireland Affairs Committee (16:30): Hilary Benn MP, Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, his ministerial colleague Fleur Anderson MP, and officials from the Northern Ireland Office and the Cabinet Office will give evidence. The Committee has indicated that questions will cover areas such as the plan to repeal and replace the Northern Ireland Troubles (Legacy and Reconciliation) Act 2023, public service funding following the Spending Review, and the operation and implementation of the post-Brexit legal agreement with the EU.

Joint

• National Security Strategy Committee (16:30): Lord Ricketts, the former UK National Security Adviser and now Chair of the Lords European Affairs Committee, and Rachel Ellehuus, the Director-General of RUSI (the Royal United Services Institute), will give evidence on national security strategy.

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

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

Private Bill: For the eighth time, Sir Christopher Chope has signalled his intention to block the Royal Albert Hall Bill from progressing without debate. He has once again used the procedural device of tabling a motion to delay the Bill’s Second Reading by six months – a tactic used to halt Private Bills. For more on this unusual procedure and the specifics of this case, see a previous edition of this Bulletin. We also explored the Royal Albert Hall Bill in depth in a recent episode of our Parliament Matters podcast.

Questions and statements: At 11:30, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Ministers will face questions from MPs. Topics include aid for Gaza, security cooperation with Europe, funding for vaccines internationally, the seizure of frozen Russian assets, the rights of women and girls globally, arms trade with Israel, the Chagos Islands, support for British sports fans abroad, UK–Saudi relations, British nationals in the Middle East, and the recognition of Palestine.

Any Urgent Questions or Ministerial Statements will follow.

Ten Minute Rule Motion: The Conservative MP Blake Stephenson will seek the House’s permission to introduce a Ten Minute Rule Bill titled the Planning (Flooding) Bill. The Bill would make provision about the consideration of flooding risk in the planning process and make internal drainage boards statutory consultees for certain planning decisions. See our Hansard Society guide for more information about the parliamentary procedure for Ten Minute Rule Bills.

Main business: Estimates Day: Department for Education; Department of Health and Social Care; and Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government.

Estimates are the Government’s departmental spending plans, which are presented to Parliament for approval every year. Government requests to Parliament for funds for departments are made in at least two and sometimes as many four stages throughout the year in what is known as the ‘Estimates Cycle’. See our Hansard Society guide to the Estimates process for more information about the parliamentary procedure for scrutinising and approving Government spending plans.

In February MPs approved the Vote on Account (stage one of the Estimates Cycle). This was a request from Government for funding to cover departmental spending plans for the first four months of this financial year. The Estimates to be debated today and tomorrow are the Main Estimates (stage two of the Estimates Cycle), which set out the formal annual spending plans for each department and its agencies. The advance funding approved through the earlier Vote on Account is deducted from each departmental Main Estimate.

The Main Estimates may be scrutinised by the relevant departmental select committee. MPs then debate them in the Chamber during two allotted “Estimates Days”. There is not time to debate every department’s spending plans, so the Backbench Business Committee considers bids from backbench MPs, including select committee members, to determine which Estimates will be debated across the two days. Based on these bids, and taking into account factors such as cross-party support, the likely number of contributors, and gender balance, the Committee submits formal proposals for debate topics to the Liaison Committee, which then recommends these proposals to the whole House, which must agree them.

The Backbench Business Committee has recommended – and the House agreed in a motion on 18 June – that today’s debate should cover the Main Estimates for the Department for Education, the Department of Health and Social Care, and the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government. However, voting on these Estimates will be deferred until the end of tomorrow’s debate.

MPs may propose amendments to these Estimates, though as set out in Standing Order No. 48 amendments may only propose a reduction in spending, reflecting the constitutional principle that only the Crown (i.e., Ministers) may initiate expenditure. This dates back to an Order of the House of Commons on 11 June 1713 which stated, “That this House will receive no Petition for any sum of money relating to public service but what is recommended from the Crown.” This Order gave the Government the sole power of financial initiative in Parliament. It was partly designed to limit ‘pork barrel’ politics by MPs seeking funds for local constituency expenditure with little or no regard for the nation’s finances.

House of Commons Library briefings:

• Main Estimates: Government spending plans for 2025/26

• The Estimate of the Department for Education

• The Estimate of the Department of Health and Social Care

• The Estimate of the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government

Adjournment: The Liberal Democrat MP Lisa Smart has the adjournment debate, on the criteria for speed camera installation.

Westminster Hall: There are five debates, on:

• the right to maintain contact in care settings (House of Commons Library briefing);

• unadopted estates and roads;

• the impact of the VAT registration threshold on SMEs;

• improving flood defences in Chesterfield; and

• the role of war memorials (House of Commons Library briefing).

Legislative committees:

• Mental Health Bill: The Public Bill Committee will continue its clause-by-clause scrutiny of the Bill and consideration of amendments and new clauses. The next clauses and amendments to be considered include the provision of after-care services, tribunal proceedings in guardianship cases, the removal of police stations and prisons as places of safety, and allowing the removal of patients by authorised persons, as well as the routine procedural provisions relating to regulations, legislative extent, and commencement of the Bill.

• Victims and Courts Bill: The Public Bill Committee will continue its detailed scrutiny of the Bill and consideration of amendments and new clauses. The next clauses and amendments to be considered are the Bill’s provisions in relation to sentencing, followed by the routine procedural provisions at the end of the Bill.

• Bus Services (No. 2) Bill: This is the first meeting of the Public Bill Committee tasked with examining the Bill in detail and considering any proposed amendments. The Committee will begin by reviewing the opening clauses, which set out the Bill’s purpose and include provisions to allow local authorities to launch their own bus franchising process without needing central government approval. During its passage through the House of Lords, Peers inserted six groups of amendments into the Bill, against the Government’s wishes, which Ministers are now likely to try to reverse in Committee. As outlined in an earlier edition of the Bulletin, these amendments relate to the purpose of the Act, the cap on bus fares, village bus services, National Insurance contributions, bus safety, and assaults on buses. If these provisions are removed, they are likely to be the subject of legislative ping-pong once the Bill returns to the Lords.

• Delegated Legislation Committees meeting today: to consider the draft Protection and Disclosure of Personal Information (Amendment) Regulations 2025; and the draft Nuclear Installations (Compensation for Nuclear Damage) (Amendment) Regulations 2025.

Oral questions: Peers will begin the day at 14:30 by questioning Ministers for 40 minutes, on the Music and Dance Scheme; nutritional and marketing standards for baby foods; improving social care provision; and equal access to high-quality sport and extra-curricular activities for young people.

Main business: Employment Rights Bill (Committee Stage, day 11). With just a few groups of amendments left to be debated, this is expected to be the final day of what has been by far the longest Committee Stage for any bill this Session. In the House of Lords, the rule of thumb is that Report Stage will comprise half the amount of time spent on a Bill at Committee Stage. This would mean five days of Report Stage for this Bill, though the final number, and the dates, will be agreed between the Government and Opposition Whips.

The debate on the Bill will be interrupted by a one-hour debate – known as dinner break business – on steps to improve the quality and quantity of music education in state schools.

Highlights include:

House of Commons

• Science, Innovation and Technology Committee (09:30): Experts and academics will give evidence on whether the Earth is prepared for an asteroid threat.

• Foreign Affairs Committee (09:30): Yair Lapid, the Leader of the Opposition in the Israeli Knesset, will give evidence on the Iran–Israel conflict.

• Education Committee (10:00): Baroness Smith of Malvern, the Minister for Skills, will give evidence on further education and skills.

• Housing, Communities, and Local Government Committee (10:00): Dame Sara Khan, author of the Khan Review on social cohesion and democratic resilience, and Professor Ted Cantle, author of the Cantle Report on community cohesion, will give evidence on community cohesion, alongside Imam Ibrahim Hussein, chair of Southport Mosque, and Baroness Gohir, CEO of the Muslim Women’s Network.

• Administration Committee (10:10): House of Commons officials will give evidence to the Committee’s inquiry into the physical and mental health and wellbeing services provided on the parliamentary estate.

• Modernisation Committee (11:45): The Inclusive Parliament coalition, Disability Rights UK, and Mencap will give evidence on access to the House of Commons and its procedures.

House of Lords

• Justice and Home Affairs Committee (10:30): David Bolt, the Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration, will give evidence on his work, including on his Inspectorate’s powers, the use of asylum hotels, small boat crossings, and the rollout of electronic visas.

• Economic Affairs Committee (15:00): The Governor of the Bank of England, Andrew Bailey, will give evidence at one of his regular evidence sessions 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.

Questions and statements: At 11:30, Science, Innovation and Technology Ministers will face questions from MPs. Topics include high-speed internet provision, children’s online safety, rural mobile coverage, AI in schools, proposals for AI legislation, AI Growth Zones, funding for innovation, digital inclusion, public sector efficiency, the gaming industry, and semiconductors.

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: The Reform UK MP Richard Tice will seek to introduce a Ten Minute Rule Bill titled the Criminal Cases Review (Public Petition) Bill. The Bill would enable the general public to petition the Criminal Cases Review Commission to review sentences they believe are either too harsh or too lenient. If the Commission agrees, it could refer the case to the courts for appeal.

Main business: Estimates Day (3rd Allotted Day): The departmental Estimates to be debated today – the Ministry of Justice, insofar as it relates to criminal justice; the Ministry of Defence, insofar as it relates to the remit of the National Armaments Director; and the Department for Transport – were once again recommended by the Backbench Business Committee following bids from MPs.

At the end of the debate, at around 19:00, the House will be asked to agree all outstanding Estimates. Votes will take place on the individual supply motions tabled for each of the six departments whose Estimates have been debated over the two allotted days. Standing Order No. 54 then enables all the remaining Estimates to be approved via a non-amendable ‘roll-up’ motion. The Supply motions, if approved, will become resolutions of the House. They are the parliamentary foundation for the Supply and Appropriation (Main Estimates) Bill which will be presented to the House tomorrow, and which when passed will provide the formal statutory authority for all the departmental spending contained in the Main Estimates.

This abbreviated roll-up motion procedure can only be used if approval of the Estimates is agreed by 5 August each year. If approval were not sought until after this date, each departmental Estimate would have to be approved separately or the Standing Orders amended, if only temporarily. This process dates back to a Sessional Order of 1896 proposed by the then Leader of the House of Commons Arthur Balfour MP. Prior to 1896 the Speaker had few formal means to bring debates to a close on what, in the late nineteenth century, were often up to 200 individual Estimate motions. The 1896 Sessional Order provided that all outstanding questions relating to the Main Estimates must be put to and resolved by the House by 5 August. It was alleged during the debate on the Order that this 5 August timetable was established to enable Estimates debates to conclude before the grouse shooting season began on the Glorious Twelfth.

House of Commons Library briefings:

• Main Estimates: Government spending plans for 2025/26

• The Estimate of the Ministry of Justice

• The Estimate of the Ministry of Defence

• The Estimate of the Department for Transport

Adjournment: The Labour MP Torcuil Crichton has the adjournment debate, on haemochromatosis screening.

Westminster Hall: There are five debates, on:

• GP funding in the South West;

• English wine production;

• armed forces recruitment in the North East;

• the flying of flags from public buildings (House of Commons Library briefing); and

• banking hubs in Hertfordshire (House of Commons Library briefing).

Legislative committees:

• Unauthorised Entry to Football Matches Bill: This Private Member’s Bill (PMB), sponsored by the Labour MP Linsey Farnsworth, would create an offence of unauthorised entry at football matches for which a football banning order can be imposed. As with most PMBs, the Committee is likely to sit only once.

• Controlled Drugs (Procedure for Specification) Bill: This Bill, also a PMB, is sponsored by the Labour MP Alex McIntyre. It proposes changing the process for amending the list of “controlled drugs” from requiring an Order in Council to allowing changes through Regulations made by a Minister. This Committee is also likely to only sit once. It is rare for there to be two PMB committees at the same time. Under Standing Orders, only one such committee can be appointed at a time, unless a Minister tables a motion that sets aside that rule. The exceptionally long Committee Stage for the assisted dying bill – the longest in recent years – has until now blocked other PMBs from progressing to Committee Stage. With only two PMB Fridays still to come this session (4 July and 11 July), time for other PMBs to complete their remaining stages is running out. PMB committees can only sit on Wednesdays, leaving just three Wednesdays before the final PMB Friday. To address this, the Government tabled the necessary motion earlier this week, allowing both PMBs above to proceed to Committee Stage concurrently.

• Delegated Legislation Committee meeting today: to consider the draft Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (Regulated Activities etc.) (Amendment) Order 2025.

Oral questions: Peers will begin the day at 15:00 by questioning Ministers for 40 minutes, on VAT on private school fees; the timeframe for the Restoration and Renewal of the Palace of Westminster; and spending on perinatal mental health services. The topic of a fourth question will be decided by a ballot drawn at lunchtime on Monday 23 June.

Main business: Planning and Infrastructure Bill (Second Reading). Peers will debate the legislation intended to speed up infrastructure and housing delivery, the main provisions of which were outlined in an earlier edition of the Bulletin.

At Second Reading, the House debates the principles of the Bill and cannot make amendments to its text. The House of Lords does not typically have divisions on Second Reading, particularly for Government bills. (House of Lords Library briefing)

Grand Committee: Public Authorities (Fraud, Error and Recovery) Bill (Committee Stage, day 6). The Government Whips have indicated that this is expected to be the final day of Committee Stage. With only a few groups of amendments left to consider, the Committee is on track to complete its work as scheduled.

Once Committee concludes, the Bill will head for Report Stage, where it could receive up to three days of further scrutiny. (House of Lords Library briefing)

Highlights include:

House of Commons

• Scottish Affairs Committee (09:30): Ian Murray MP, the Secretary of State for Scotland, will respond to questions about the work of the Scotland Office.

• Work and Pensions Committee (09:30): The Minister for Social Security and Pensions, Sir Stephen Timms MP, will give evidence on the Government’s plans to reform Universal Credit and Personal Independence Payments.

• Treasury Committee (10:00): Darren Jones MP, Chief Secretary to the Treasury, will give evidence on the 2025 Spending Review.

• Energy Security and Net Zero Committee (15:00): The CEO of Ofgem and the Energy Ombudsman, as well as Centrica, Citizens Advice, and MoneySavingExpert, will discuss the cost of energy.

House of Lords

• Northern Ireland Scrutiny Committee (10:15): The Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, Hilary Benn MP, will give evidence on strengthening Northern Ireland’s voice in the context of the Windsor Framework.

• Constitution Committee (10:30): The Gloucestershire Police and Crime Commissioner and the Merseyside Chief Constable will give evidence on the rule of law.

• Public Services Committee (11:00): Baroness Sherlock, Minister of State at the Department for Work and Pensions, will answer questions about child maintenance.

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

Questions and statements: At 09:30, Transport Ministers will face questions from MPs. Topics include the role of transport in economic growth, local bus services, open access rail services, the aviation sector, bus manufacturing, the condition of the road network, and the backlog for driving tests.

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 (Main Estimates) (No. 2) Bill (Second and Third Reading). Assuming that the Main Estimates are approved on Wednesday evening (see above), then the Government will present the resulting Supply and Appropriation Bill today. As the House will have already agreed the Supply resolutions, this Bill will not be subject to debate or amendment at any stage. There is no Committee stage, and thus also no Report stage, and under Standing Order No. 56 the questions on Second and Third Reading will be put ‘forthwith’ – that is immediately, without debate. The Bill will be certified as a Money Bill by the Speaker and will go to the House of Lords where it will be passed, unamended, in accordance with the Parliament Act 1911. (Our Hansard Society guide to the Parliament Act explains the process). Once the Bill receives Royal Assent, the Government will have 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 revenues would be paid, and from which all payments for public services would be made.)

There will then be a general debate on Armed Forces Day.

Adjournment: the Conservative MP Lincoln Jopp has the adjournment debate, on the potential merits of floating solar panels.

Westminster Hall: There are two debates and a Select Committee Statement today:

• Select Committee Statement by Alex Sobel MP, a member of the Joint Committee on Human Rights (JCHR), about the Committee’s new report Legislative Scrutiny: Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill.

• A debate on the role of the RAF Photographic Reconnaissance Unit during the Second World War. (House of Commons Library briefing)

• A debate on the funding of the BBC World Service. (House of Commons Library briefing)

Legislative committees:

• The Public Bill Committees appointed to consider the Mental Health Bill, Victims and Courts Bill, and Bus Services (No. 2) Bill will continue their work. The Victims and Courts Bill and Mental Health Bill are both expected to conclude their Committee Stage proceedings at this sitting.

Oral questions: Peers will begin the day at 11:00 by questioning Ministers for 40 minutes, on allergen information; integration between the NHS and social care; and diabetes and the forthcoming 10 Year Health Plan in relation to diabetes. The topic of a fourth question will be decided by a ballot drawn at lunchtime on Tuesday 24 June.

Main business: Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill (Committee Stage, day 1). This is the first of six days currently scheduled for the Bill’s Committee Stage; the final sitting of the Committee has not yet been confirmed, but with the third sitting scheduled for Thursday 10 July, it may extend beyond the Summer recess.

The House will begin its consideration of the Bill and any proposed amendments in relation to the opening clauses, which focus on the creation of a new Border Security Commander. Peers do not normally make amendments to the Bill at Committee Stage, principally because if any amendment is rejected it cannot be proposed again at Report Stage. (House of Lords Library briefing)

Highlights include:

House of Commons

• Public Accounts Committee (10:00): The Permanent Secretary at the Treasury and the Chair of the Office for Value for Money will give evidence on governance and decision-making on major projects. This follows a National Audit Office report published earlier this year.

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

Neither House will be sitting.

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