The entry for Monday was amended to remove an erroneous reference to the Financial Assistance to Ukraine Bill.

Questions and statements: At 14:30, Home Office Ministers will respond to MPs’ questions. Paul Waugh – former lobby journalist, now Labour MP – has the first question on what steps the department is taking to tackle serious and organised crime. Other topics include steps to tackle anti-social behaviour, improving intelligence sharing after terrorist incidents, and tackling shoplifting and violence against shopworkers. Four of the 23 questions listed on the Order Paper are duplicates, hinting at potential co-ordination by party Whips or the Minister’s Parliamentary Private Secretary – an approach highlighted in previous Bulletins.

Any Urgent Questions or Ministerial Statements will follow.

Main business: The main business today is the Non-Domestic Rating (Multipliers and Private Schools) Bill (Second Reading). This Bill will enable the Treasury to make changes to rating multipliers in the retail, hospitality and leisure sectors. Notably the Bill also provides for the removal of charitable rate relief from private schools that are charities. This is in addition to the Government’s more high-profile general election manifesto commitment to impose VAT on fees charged by private schools.

Both the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats have tabled a ‘reasoned amendment’ declining to give the Bill a Second Reading. The Conservatives oppose the Bill on the grounds that, amongst other things, the Autumn Budget cut central Government funding for the sectors concerned and the Bill represents a “stealth increase in business rates on high streets and the hospitality sector”. The Liberal Democrats in contrast welcome the new powers to reduce the rating multipliers but want MPs to decline to give the Bill a Second Reading because, again among a long list of concerns, “it fails to deliver fundamental reform of the broken business rates system to boost businesses, high streets and economic growth”.

The programme motion on the Order Paper stipulates that the Bill should complete the next stage of its proceedings, in Public Bill Committee, by 17 December.

Motions: There are 10 motions on the Order Paper.

• Proxy votes: The first motion, in the name of the Leader of the House of Commons, Lucy Powell MP, proposes changes to the Standing Orders of the House in relation to eligibility for proxy votes. At present MPs can apply for a proxy vote to cover absences related to childbirth, miscarriage or baby loss. These provisions will now be extended to cover Members who are absent from the House owing to complications during pregnancy or ongoing fertility treatment. In addition, the Procedure Committee has been asked by the Leader of the House to undertake a wider review of the proxy vote system.

• Statutory Instruments (SIs): Three motions have been scheduled to approve SIs, concerning arrangements for bail and release from custody in Scotland, judicial pensions, and legislative changes regarding trade union and labour relations.

• Select Committee appointments: The remaining six motions concern the appointment of:

  • several MPs to two of the House’s domestic committees – the Administration and Finance Committees;

  • Sir Desmond Swayne to the Joint Committee on Human Rights;

  • two members to the joint National Security Strategy Committee – Dame Karen Bradley, the current chair of the Home Affairs Select Committee and Sir Julian Lewis, who is a former chair of the Defence Committee and was the chair of the Intelligence and Security Committee in the last Parliament;

  • further members of the Petitions Committee and the Women and Equalities Committee. Rosie Duffield, the now independent MP who resigned the Labour whip a few weeks ago in a blaze of anger, is being appointed to the latter committee. It appears that she is taking a place that would ordinarily belong to the Conservatives.

Statutory Instruments: Of the four Statutory Instruments being debated in a Delegated Legislation Committee today, one stands out for making significant policy changes. The draft Medical Devices (Post-market Surveillance Requirements) (Amendment) (Great Britain) Regulations 2024 introduce major updates to the regulatory framework for medical devices with respect to “Post-Market Surveillance” (PMS). This requires that manufacturers actively collect and evaluate data on the performance and safety of medical devices already on the market, with the goal of enhancing patient safety and increasing transparency. The regulations bring the existing regulations in Great Britain (which were derived from previous EU regulations) largely in line with the current regulatory regime in the EU and Northern Ireland.

KEEP UP WITH LEGISLATIVE AND REGULATORY CHANGES Our Hansard Society Statutory Instrument Tracker® is a powerful online tool that delivers daily updates on Statutory Instruments (SIs), including consultations and every stage of an SIs journey through Parliament. With the SI Tracker®, you can customise alerts to fit your specific policy interests and compliance priorities. Subscribing to our SI Tracker®app helps you save time and reduce risk, keeping you fully informed about the latest legislative developments so you can respond swiftly to new statutory requirements and policy changes.

Adjournment: The Labour MP for Easington, Grahame Morris, has the adjournment debate on the impact of relocating homeless families outside London.

Westminster Hall: At 16:30 Dave Robertson MP, on behalf of the Petitions Committee, will lead a debate on an e-petition calling for families to be able to take students outside of school for two weeks a year without penalty. Over a quarter of a million people signed the e-petition before the general election, making it eligible for a debate in the House of Commons.

Main business: Mental Health Bill (Second Reading). The Bill seeks to amend the Mental Health Act 1983, delivering on Labour’s manifesto commitment to modernise this “woefully out of date” legislation. Key reforms include ensuring detention and compulsory treatment are used only when necessary; setting strict limits on the detention of individuals with autism or learning disabilities under the Act; and removing police stations and prisons from the list of acceptable “places of safety” for those experiencing a mental health crisis.

The Bill builds on groundwork laid by an independent review of the Mental Health Act commissioned by the Government, which reported in 2018. Following this, the previous Government published a draft Mental Health Bill in 2022, which underwent pre-legislative scrutiny by the Joint Committee on the draft Mental Health Bill. The Committee published its report in January 2023. While the earlier draft was not introduced to Parliament before the general election, the new Bill incorporates many of its provisions, along with additional changes reflecting the Joint Committee’s recommendations.

Grand Committee: The Product Regulation and Metrology Bill continues its Committee Stage. Some of the many amendments proposed to the Bill were discussed in last week’s edition of the Bulletin.

Highlights include:

• Public Accounts Committee (15:30): MPs will quiz officials, including the Permanent Secretary at the Department for Health and Social Care and the Chief Executive of NHS England about the financial sustainability of the NHS.

The Hansard Society is a charity. If you find this Parliament Matters Bulletin useful, especially for your work, please consider donating the price of a cup of coffee to help cover the research and production costs. Your small, regular donation will fuel our ability to keep you and others up-to-date on the issues that matter in our Parliament.

Questions and statements: At 11:30, the Foreign Secretary David Lammy MP will face questions from MPs. There are several questions on the Order Paper concerning the situation in the Middle East and Ukraine. We can expect MPs to question ministers about the implications of last week’s decision by judges at the International Criminal Court to issue arrest warrants for Israel’s Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu (as well as former Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant and a Hamas military commander). The news that Russian forces have unleashed a new intermediate-range missile on eastern Ukraine in the last week, in response to Ukraine’s use of long-range weapons supplied by the UK and the USA, will no doubt also be raised. Seven of the 24 questions on the Order Paper are duplicates of at least one other.

Any Urgent Questions or Ministerial Statements will follow.

Ten-Minute Rule Motion: Dame Siobhain McDonagh (the Labour MP for Mitcham and Morden and whose sister, Baroness McDonagh, died of brain cancer last year) will present a Ten-Minute Rule Bill titled “Treatment of terminal illness”. The Bill would introduce measures to address the liability of practitioners who prescribe an unlicensed medicine or carry out a non-standard treatment on a person who is terminally ill. See our Hansard Society guide for more information about the parliamentary procedure for Ten Minute Rule Bills.

Main business: The Tobacco and Vapes Bill (Second Reading). MPs will once again debate proposals to impose new restrictions on smoking and vaping, including the flagship measure to ban the sale of tobacco products to anyone born after 2009. This policy was first included in the earlier Bill, which fell in the legislative wash-up before the general election. This new Bill revives most of Rishi Sunak’s original provisions but introduces additional powers to designate specified public places as smoke-free or vape-free zones. However, previously announced plans to ban smoking in pub and restaurant gardens are notably absent. The Bill also proposes a retail licensing regime for the sale of tobacco and vapes, alongside a ban on vape advertising and sponsorship.

Earlier this year, the Hansard Society raised concerns about some of the delegated powers in the original Bill for the regulation of tobacco and nicotine products and their packaging, because they were an example of a ‘creeping’ effect whereby powers are justified on the grounds that similar powers have been granted in the past. While these powers remain in the new Bill, they appear in a modified form. Additionally, we are concerned about the breadth of some of the new powers to designate smoke-free places. They reflect a legislative approach where detailed policy work is deferred to delegated legislation, raising questions about parliamentary oversight and accountability.

Public Bill Committee: The Employment Rights Bill begins its Committee Stage today, with the Public Bill Committee scheduled to conduct two oral evidence sessions, before commencing its detailed scrutiny of the clauses in the Bill on Thursday. The selection of witnesses for these sessions will be finalised by a sub-committee of the Public Bill Committee on Monday. At the Hansard Society, we are concerned that the Bill is ‘framework’ or ‘skeleton’ legislation, with very little policy detail included on the face of the Bill while the substance is left to broad powers to define and implement policies through subsequent regulations to be made by Ministers. This is particularly noticeable with respect to the new rights to a guaranteed hours contract and the provisions around unfair dismissal and probationary periods. By deferring critical policy details to future regulations, there is a risk that significant aspects of employment law may be established with less parliamentary debate and oversight than would be the case if they were set out in the Bill itself.

Adjournment: The Labour MP for Dunfermline and Dollar, Graeme Downie, has the adjournment debate on Government funding for improvements to coastal infrastructure in Scotland.

Westminster Hall: There are five Westminster Hall debates: on delivery of electricity grid upgrades; Government support for local councils to tackle fly-tipping; online safety for children and young people; suicide and mental health of young people in Tatton; and the rollout of Project Gigabit in rural areas.

Main business: Water (Special Measures) Bill (Third Reading). This Bill makes changes to the regulatory framework for water companies and is discussed in detail in a previous edition of the Bulletin. If Peers agree to give the Bill a Third Reading, it will be sent to the House of Commons for further scrutiny.

During its passage through the Lords, the Government suffered two defeats on amendments, which it may seek to overturn when the Bill reaches the Commons:

• Amendment 2, proposed by Crossbench Peer, Lord Cromwell, and supported by Conservative and Liberal Democrat Peers, requires water companies to report annually on their financial structuring, debt levels, commercial strategy and any associated risks.

• Amendment 11, proposed by Conservative Peer, Lord Roborough, and supported primarily by Conservative Peers, requires Ofwat’s rules on remuneration and governance to be laid before Parliament as a draft Statutory Instrument and approved by both Houses.

Subsequently, the House will hold a general debate on the importance of the rule of law.

Grand Committee: The Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education (Transfer of Functions etc) Bill, which will transfer several responsibilities with respect to skills and training to the newly established Skills England, will continue its Committee Stage consideration.

House of Commons

• Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee (10:00): the Chief Executive and other officials from Ofwat will answer MPs questions about the financial state of the water sector, including the prospects for Thames Water, as well as the regulation of the wider water industry.

• International Development Committee (14:00): representatives from humanitarian organisations including Medecins Sans Frontieres will be questioned about the crisis in Sudan, where 8.4 million people have been internally displaced by conflict. The UK is the “pen holder” for Sudan at the United Nations, and the Committee is exploring whether the UK is doing enough to promote peace and access to aid.

• Business and Trade Committee (14:30): Secretary of State Jonathan Reynolds, will give evidence alongside his Permanent Secretary on the work of their Department.

• Justice Committee (14:30): the Lady Chief Justice of England and Wales, Baroness Carr of Walton-on-the-Hill, will give evidence about her work. Her first annual report to Parliament has just been published.

• Science, Innovation and Technology Committee: having launched an inquiry last week into social media, misinformation, and harmful algorithms the Committee is to visit King’s Cross - a hub for tech giants and startups - on Monday evening.

House of Lords

• Justice and Home Affairs Committee (10:30): Peers will take evidence from the CEO of the Prison Reform Trust and others as part of its inquiry into prison culture, exploring governance, leadership and staffing issues.

• Industry and Regulators Committee (10:30): former MP Jacqui Smith, now a Peer and Minister for Skills in the Department for Education will be scrutinised alongside Employment Minister Alison McGovern on the Government’s plans to improve skills, including apprenticeships and training.

• Economic Affairs Committee (15:00): the Chief Economist at the Bank of England will be questioned about economic activity in the UK and the relationship between the welfare system and long-term sickness.

A summary of Wednesday's business continues below!

Questions and statements: At 11:30, Northern Ireland Secretary of State Hilary Benn MP and his team will face questions from MPs about the work of the Northern Ireland Office. However, not one question on the Order Paper is in the name of an MP representing a constituency in Northern Ireland. Questions concern economic support and the impact of the Budget, measures to tackle innovation, and plans to tackle violence against women and girls. 10 of the 14 questions on the Order Paper are duplicates of at least one other.

Any Urgent Questions or Ministerial Statements will follow.

Prime Minister’s Questions: At 12:00, Sir Keir Starmer will face the Leader of the Opposition, Kemi Badenoch, at PMQs. The Deputy Leader of the Liberal Democrats, Daisy Cooper, has the first question on the Order Paper.

Ten-Minute Rule Motion: Jessica Morden, Labour MP for Newport East and Chair of the Parliamentary Labour Party, will present a Ten-Minute Rule Bill titled “E-scooters (review and awareness)”. The Bill would require the Secretary of State for Transport to “commission and publish a review of the legislation and guidance relating to e-scooters”.

Main business: Finance Bill (Second Reading): MPs will debate the 272 pages of legislative text that will provide statutory authority for the Budget. Our Hansard Society guide to the Finance Bill explains the legislative process for what is known, in parliamentary parlance, as a “Bill of aids and supplies”. The debate will provide an opportunity for the opposition parties to drive home their concerns about changes to eligibility for inheritance tax affecting farmers, the imposition of VAT on private school fees, the increase in the windfall tax on oil and gas companies, and allegations that the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rachel Reeves, misrepresented her professional experience on her CV. The changes to National Insurance contributions, while potentially a point of discussion during the Finance Bill debate, will actually be legislated for separately through the National Insurance Contributions (Secondary Class 1 Contributions) Bill. This Bill is scheduled to receive its Second Reading on Tuesday 3 December.

Statutory Instruments: There are three Statutory Instruments scheduled for debate in Delegated Legislation Committees today, two of which enact significant policy changes.

• The draft Human Medicines (Amendment) (Modular Manufacture and Point of Care) Regulations 2024 will create a new regulatory framework for the manufacture of medicines at the “point of care” (personalised medicines “such as cell or gene therapies, 3D-printed medicines, or treatments derived from a patient’s own blood”, which often have very short shelf lives – sometimes mere minutes – and which must therefore be prepared close to the patient) and modular manufacturing where products are produced in modular, relocatable units. A written ministerial statement highlights that the UK will be the first country in the world to introduce such a regulatory framework.

• The draft Producer Responsibility Obligations (Packaging and Packaging Waste) Regulations 2024 focus on tackling packaging waste and promoting recycling by imposing new obligations on businesses. Companies will be required to pay the costs of managing household packaging waste and provide public information on proper waste disposal; and producers will be mandated to ensure a specified proportion of the materials they supply, categorised by type (such as plastic or paper), is recycled.

Adjournment: The Liberal Democrat MP for North Cornwall, Ben Maguire, has the adjournment debate on sewage discharges in the South West.

Westminster Hall: There are five Westminster Hall debates: on UK air and missile defences; potential merits of a devolution deal for Lancashire; tackling violence against women and girls; railway connectivity between Witney, Carterton, Eynsham and Oxford; and World AIDS Day.

Main business: Football Governance Bill (Committee Stage). The Bill seeks to establish an Independent Football Regulator (IFR) tasked with overseeing financial sustainability in football clubs and across the leagues. The IFR would manage a licensing regime and monitor and enforce compliance with rules on financial regulation, club ownership, fan engagement, and club heritage. The Bill retains many provisions from a previous version introduced by the last Government, with the changes outlined in a Government factsheet.

Fifty pages of amendments have been published so far. More than 100 of the amendments have been jointly proposed by two Labour Peers, Baroness Taylor of Bolton (who is Chair of the Hansard Society’s Board of Trustees) and Lord Bassam of Brighton. One of these amendments requires the IFR to publish and lay before Parliament an annual report detailing whether and how it has achieved its objectives and discharged its duties. Other amendments tabled by the pair include amendments to:

• prohibit the granting of licences to state-controlled clubs;

• introduce a corporate responsibility condition for licences, requiring clubs to give due consideration to their impact on society, the environment, and the local community;

• require that any agreement on the distribution of revenue between leagues, or entered into under a mediation process between the leagues, must be approved by the IFR and meet certain minimum standards, including seeking to close the financial gap between the higher and lower divisions;

• enable the IFR to initiate the mediation process between leagues to agree a distribution deal.

Baroness Taylor has also tabled an amendment requiring a club’s fans to actively approve any relocation of a club’s matches to a ground further than five miles from its current home ground.

Baroness (Karren) Brady, a Conservative Peer and the Vice-Chairman of West Ham United football club, has also tabled 22 amendments, reflecting concerns about the impact of regulatory reforms on the financial and operational autonomy of clubs and leagues and the need to safeguard the commercial viability and contractual integrity of football organisations. Her amendments include:

• requiring the Independent Football Regulator (IFR) to take into account the contractual and other property rights of clubs and leagues during the mediation process. Additionally, the IFR must ensure that neither the mediation process nor its outcomes impose undue burdens on the commercial interests of leagues.

• replacing the requirement for a committee of experts to issue a binding revenue distribution order if it determines that a proposal meets certain principles. Instead, under the amendment, the committee would have discretionary power to decide whether to make such an order, allowing greater flexibility in determining outcomes.

Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay also has an amendment to the Bill to replace the use of the word “crest” with the word “badge”. The explanatory note accompanying his amendment explains that it is “to avoid the incorrect use of heraldic terms”.

Following the adjournment of the Football Governance Bill debate, the House will turn its attention to the Windsor Framework (Non-Commercial Movement of Pet Animals) Regulations 2024. These regulations establish the legal foundation for the Northern Ireland Pet Travel Scheme, as agreed under the Windsor Framework between the UK and EU. The intention of the scheme is to facilitate the smoother movement of pet dogs, cats and ferrets from Great Britain to Northern Ireland, as well as ensuring that pets travelling into the Republic of Ireland or the rest of the EU comply with EU regulatory requirements.

Baroness Hoey has tabled a ‘regret motion’ (a motion which expresses an opinion about a Statutory Instrument, but which does not invalidate the SI if approved) to express her dissatisfaction with the regulations. Her motion criticises the regulations for “[treating] pets travelling to Northern Ireland differently from those travelling to any other part of the United Kingdom.”

Grand Committee: The Product Regulation and Metrology Bill is expected to continue its Committee Stage if it has not already concluded.

House of Commons

• Welsh Affairs Committee (10:00): academic experts from Cardiff University, the Bevan Centre and the Institute for Fiscal Studies will discuss the impact of the Budget on Wales.

• Treasury Committee (14:00): senior officials from HM Revenue and Customs will give evidence about the work of their non-ministerial department.

• Environmental Audit Committee (14:30): the Interim Chair of the Climate Change Committee will answer MPs questions about the progress being made by the Government in delivering its climate targets.

• Foreign Affairs Committee (15:30): Foreign Secretary David Lammy and Permanent Secretary Sir Philip Barton will give evidence on the work of the Foreign Office amid an increasingly difficult geopolitical environment.

House of Lords

• Environment and Climate Change Committee (10:00): The Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Secretary, Steve Reed, will give evidence on his work as Secretary of State.

Questions and statements: At 09:30, Culture, Media and Sport Ministers will face questions from MPs. Topics cover issues such as support for grassroots football clubs and sports facilities, music venues, and creative industries. Only three of the 17 questions on the Order Paper are duplicates of at least one other question.

Any Urgent Questions will follow.

The Leader of the House of Commons, Lucy Powell, will then give her weekly Business Statement, setting out the business in the House for the coming week. Any other Ministerial Statements will follow.

Backbench Business: The main business today is two backbench debates.

• A motion relating to the international status of Taiwan: this calls on the Government to clarify its position in relation to UN Resolutions on Taiwan, and specifically to state that UN Resolutions do not establish that Taiwan and China are part of one country and do not preclude Taiwan’s participation in international organisations.

• A motion relating to freedom of religion in Pakistan: this notes the deteriorating religious freedom in Pakistan and expresses concern over alleged forced conversions and human rights abuses of minority religious groups.

Adjournment: The Conservative MP Peter Bedford has the adjournment debate on challenges posed by cross-boundary housing developments.

Westminster Hall: There is one Westminster Hall debate at 13:30 on the fishing industry, led by the Liberal Democrat MP Alistair Carmichael, chair of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Select Committee and former Secretary of State for Scotland.

Main business: Two general debates are scheduled on:

• ‘The case against politicisation of the Civil Service’. The motion is in the name of Lord Butler of Brockwell, who served as Cabinet Secretary from 1988 to 1998.

• The increasing interest in mandating that schools be mobile phone free.

Grand Committee: Five Statutory Instruments will be debated in Grand Committee, including the SI on medical devices debated in the Commons on Monday and the SIs on producer responsibility for packaging waste and medicines regulations debated in the Commons on Wednesday.

Highlights include:

• The House of Lords Constitution Committee (10:15): Michael Gove, the former Cabinet Minister, now Editor of the Spectator Magazine following his retirement from the House of Commons, will give evidence on executive oversight and responsibility for the UK constitution. Prior to the general election he was the Minister for Inter-governmental Relations in addition to his role as a Secretary of State, and therefore had responsibility for constitutional matters pertaining to the Union. The Committee’s inquiry is intended to clarify the division of ministerial responsibilities for constitutional policy.

Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill (Second Reading): At 09:30, the House of Commons will begin debating Kim Leadbeater’s Private Member’s Bill (PMB) to legalise assisted dying for terminally ill adults under specific circumstances. The debate is expected to be heavily over-subscribed by MPs wanting to speak, and at least two votes – one on a ‘closure’ motion and the other on the main question of whether to give the Bill a Second Reading – are expected in the final hour of debate before business concludes at 14:30. If the Bill is given a Second Reading, it will be committed to a Public Bill Committee.

Although PMBs follow the same legislative stages as Government bills, some of the rules governing those stages are different, facilitating opportunities for time-wasting on divisions and filibustering in debate and potentially enabling even a small number of opponents to thwart a PMB’s progress.

Other Private Members’ Bills: Because the debate on the assisted dying bill is likely to conclude just before 14:30, there will be limited time, if any, for consideration of the other PMBs listed below it on the Order Paper. If those bills are reached only after 14:30, then their Second Reading can be agreed only if they are unopposed. If any MP shouts ‘Object’ when the MP promoting their PMB seeks to move Second Reading, then that Bill becomes ‘opposed business’ and its debate is postponed to a future PMB Friday sitting. Rescheduled bills join the end of the queue of PMBs on the Order Paper on their new date, making it harder for them to secure the necessary time for further consideration.

The Hansard Society’s guide to Private Members’ Bills explains this process in more detail.

Adjournment: The Labour MP Emily Darlington has the adjournment debate on tackling violence by men against women and girls.

The House of Lords will not be sitting.

The Hansard Society is a charity. If you find this Parliament Matters Bulletin useful, especially for your work, please consider donating the price of a cup of coffee to help cover the research and production costs. Your small, regular donation will fuel our ability to keep you and others up-to-date on the issues that matter in our Parliament.