Questions and statements: At 14:30, Work and Pensions Ministers will respond to MPs’ questions. Topics include the Personal Independence Payment and the Winter Fuel Payment, unemployment and economic inactivity, supporting disabled people into work, and tackling poverty.

Any Urgent Questions or Ministerial Statements will follow. Media reports suggest that the Government will publish a White Paper on proposed reforms to immigration policy today; if so, there may be a Ministerial Statement. The Prime Minister’s visit to Ukraine over the weekend accompanied by the leaders of France, Germany and Poland may also warrant a Statement.

Main business: Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill (Report Stage and Third Reading). Key provisions of the Bill were outlined in a previous edition of the Bulletin.

At Report Stage, any MP can propose and vote on amendments to the Bill – and so far, 61 pages of amendments have been tabled. This includes 28 Government amendments and new clauses tabled by the Home Secretary, Yvette Cooper MP. Several of her proposals would introduce significant policy changes, including:

• requiring courts to determine appeals from individuals in asylum accommodation, or non-detained foreign national offenders, within 24 weeks, unless it is not reasonably practicable to do so;

• creating a rebuttable presumption that would treat those convicted of certain sexual offences as having committed a particularly serious crime posing a danger to the community under the Refugee Convention;

• requiring companies in the gig economy to carry out immigration checks, bringing them in line with other employers;

• providing the Immigration Advice Authority with new powers to tackle the provision of poor-quality immigration advice by regulated firms, including financial sanctions, repayment of fees and cancellation or suspension of registration; and

• granting Ministers the power to amend the definition of what constitutes a “relevant matter” in immigration advice through delegated legislation.

Most of the remaining amendments have been tabled by the Conservative and Liberal Democrat frontbenches. The Conservative amendments would:

• introduce a new objective for the Border Security Commander to make arrangements with safe third countries to return individuals who have entered the UK illegally;

• extend the qualification period for indefinite leave to remain (ILR) to ten years, and abolish the long-stay route that allows ILR to be granted to anyone who has lived in the UK for ten years;

• require the Government to specify scientific methods for assessing an entrant’s age and allow them to be used without the subject’s consent;

• empower the government to revoke ILR from foreign nationals who commit crimes, claim government benefits, or earn below the national average income;

• disapply the Human Rights Act and interim measures of the European Court of Human Rights in relation to the Act resulting from this Bill;

• mandate caps on the number of spouses and civil partners who may enter the UK and cap the total number of non-visitor visas; and

• require the Government to apply visa penalties to countries that fail to co-operate in taking back their nationals.

The Liberal Democrats have also tabled dozens of amendments. Key proposals include allowing asylum seekers to work while their claims are being processed, establishing new safe and legal routes for those seeking asylum in the UK, and requiring greater cooperation with Europol on immigration matters.

Reform UK leader Nigel Farage MP has tabled two amendments. These call for the creation of secure accommodation to detain illegal migrants immediately on entry, rapid assessment of any asylum claims within 24 hours, the prompt deportation of all failed applicants, and a formal assessment of how the ECHR affects the UK’s border security.

The Speaker of the House will decide which non-Government amendments are selected for a vote (division). Typically, Conservative frontbench amendments will be prioritised, while those from smaller parties and backbench MPs are less likely to be selected. (House of Commons Library briefing)

Other legislative business: Animal Welfare (Import of Dogs, Cats and Ferrets) Bill (Money motion). This Private Member’s Bill, introduced by the Liberal Democrat MP Danny Chambers, is currently scheduled to start its Committee Stage on Wednesday; its provisions and the background to the Bill are discussed in that section of the Bulletin below. Standing Orders require that any new expenditure arising from a bill must be authorised by a resolution of the House. For the Public Bill Committee to consider any clauses in the Bill that have spending implications, a money resolution must therefore be agreed in advance. The motion can be debated for up to 45 minutes and once approved becomes a resolution of the House. Any debate must be confined to the terms of the motion and not the provisions of the Bill itself.

Delegated legislation: Motion to approve the draft Finance Act 2021 (Increase in Schedule 26 Penalty Percentages) Regulations 2025. These regulations have already been debated in a Delegated Legislation Committee, so they will be put to the House for approval without further debate.

Adjournment: The Liberal Democrat MP Joshua Reynolds has the adjournment debate, on support for families of British nationals murdered abroad. (House of Commons Library briefing)

Westminster Hall: MPs will debate e-petition 702844, which calls on the Government to raise the Income Tax personal allowance from £12,570 to £20,000. The petition has acquired around 250,000 signatures. (House of Commons Library briefing)

Legislative committees:

• A programming sub-committee will meet to determine the schedule and other arrangements for the Public Bill Committee appointed to consider the Product Regulation and Metrology Bill.

• Delegated Legislation Committees meeting today: to consider the draft Medical Devices and Blood Safety and Quality (Fees Amendment) Regulations 2025.

Introduction of new Peers: Two new Peers will be introduced to the House:

• Amanda Spielman (now Baroness Spielman), the former Ofsted chief inspector, whose nomination for a peerage received some criticism in the press. She was nominated by the Conservative Party leader, Kemi Badenoch MP, and will sit as a Conservative Peer.

• Sir Alister Jack (now Lord Jack of Courance), the former Conservative MP and Secretary of State for Scotland.

Oral questions: At 14:30, Peers will begin the day by questioning Ministers for 40 minutes, on the Buckland Review of Autism Employment; trade with the United States; the conditions at Doncaster Royal Infirmary; and mobile phones in schools.

Main business: Armed Forces Commissioner Bill (Third Reading). This Bill would establish a new Armed Forces Commissioner and abolish the existing Service Complaints Ombudsman. The Government says its 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 roles compare.

If the House agrees to give the Bill a Third Reading, it will return to the House of Commons, which will then have to consider the amendments made by the Lords. Only one group of amendments – tabled by the Conservatives – was inserted into the Bill against the Government’s wishes, to introduce a whistleblowing function into the functions of the Commissioner. These amendments are likely to be the only ones that the Commons seeks to remove or replace. (House of Lords Library briefing)

Bank Resolution (Recapitalisation) Bill (Consideration of Commons Reasons and Amendments). This Bill amends the UK’s regime for handling bank failures (the ‘resolution’ regime), following the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and the failure of its UK subsidiary. The Bill would empower the Bank of England to recover the cost of recapitalising failing small banks through a levy on the banking sector.

The Bill was first introduced in the House of Lords, where the Government was defeated on a Conservative amendment to limit the Bank of England’s powers to small and medium-sized banks. The Government subsequently removed the change during Committee Stage in the House of Commons. Peers will now need to consider their response to the Commons amendment and effectively have three options:

• agree with the removal of the change, which would resolve the disagreement and allow the Bill to proceed to Royal Assent;

• disagree with the removal of the change, but propose an alternative amendment in lieu; or

• disagree with the removal of the change, without proposing an alternative amendment.

Data (Use and Access) Bill (Consideration of Commons Amendments). This legislation aims to reform the UK’s data and digital regulatory framework.

Initially introduced in the House of Lords last year, the Bill underwent significant changes, with the Government defeated on five major groups of amendments – relating to AI and copyright, the use of data in scientific research, cybersecurity, digital verification, and intimate image abuse – details of which were outlined in a previous edition of the Bulletin. Each of these five groups of amendments was removed from the Bill. The House of Lords will now need to decide whether it accepts the Commons’ removal of each group, disagrees with it, or wishes to offer alternative amendments in lieu. The Government also made a series of additions to the Bill during its passage through the Commons, which the House of Lords will need to respond to, including:

• an attempted compromise provision over the issue of AI and copyright, as outlined in a recent edition of the Bulletin; and

• a new offence to criminalise the act of requesting the creation of a fake or purported intimate image, replacing a similar offence previously added by the House of Lords. It fulfils a Government commitment made during the Bill’s Third Reading in the Lords.

The House of Lords can respond to these amendments by:

• agreeing to the amendments;

• agreeing to the amendments, but making its own amendments to them;

• disagreeing with the amendments, but proposing an alternative amendment in lieu; or

• disagreeing with the amendments without proposing an alternative.

The Government has tabled one amendment as a concession on the issue of cybersecurity.

Renters’ Rights Bill (Committee). This is the fifth of six days that the Government Whips have provisionally allocated for Committee Stage. While progress on the first two days was in line with the Government’s expectations, it made slower progress on days three and four, where only seven of the 10 expected groups of amendments were debated on each day.

That leaves just two more days – today and the final scheduled day on Wednesday 14 May – to dispense with the remaining 21 groups of amendments. The Government may have to make time for further sittings if the House continues to make slower than expected progress.

The next groups of amendments to be debated relate to:

• financial penalties and offences for landlords who do not comply with certain requirements;

• proposals to broaden existing protections so that extended family members who act as guarantors for a tenant are also covered if the tenant dies;

• proposals to restrict the circumstances in which a landlord can request a guarantor;

• proposals to apply various notice period requirements to joint tenancies;

• protections from eviction for agricultural tenants;

• compliance with restrictions on letting fees and tenant deposits;

• proposals to require planning consent for assured tenancies to be converted into short-term lettings;

• proposals to expand the protections for tenants who wish to keep pets in rented properties; and

• anti-discrimination provisions and complaints against financial penalties.

Grand Committee: There will be debates on five Statutory Instruments and one draft Code of Practice, each of which will subsequently need approval by the House:

• draft Fair Dealing Obligations (Pigs) Regulations 2025;

• Forensic Science Regulator draft Code of Practice 2025;

• draft Investigatory Powers (Codes of Practice, Review of Notices and Technical Advisory Board) Regulations 2025;

• draft Health and Social Care Information Standards (Procedure) Regulations 2025;

• Russia (Sanctions) (EU Exit) (Amendment) Regulations 2025; and

• Syria (Sanctions) (EU Exit) (Amendment) 2025.

Highlights include:

House of Commons

• Work and Pensions Committee (09:00): The Older People’s Commissioner for Wales, Age Cymru, and Care and Repair Cymru will give evidence on pensioner poverty.

• Public Accounts Committee (15:30): The Permanent Secretary at the Treasury, as well as senior officials from the Treasury and the National Infrastructure and Service Transformation Authority (NISTA), will give evidence on the Government’s use of private finance for infrastructure. This builds upon a report published by the National Audit Office (NAO) in March, which set out lessons learned from over 140 NAO publications with relevance to the use of private finance for infrastructure.

Joint

• National Security Strategy Committee (16:30): Experts and academics will give evidence on undersea cables and the UK’s ability to defend its undersea infrastructure.

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

This section was updated on 12 May to add the newly announced peerage titles for Mark Harper and Stephen Massey.

Private bills: Royal Albert Hall Bill (Second Reading). This is a Private Bill promoted by the Royal Albert Hall to make certain changes to its governance arrangements. Under the Private Bill procedure, motions related to Private Bills – including Second Reading – can be approved without debate in the time slot before oral questions, provided that no MP objects. An objection from a single MP is sufficient to delay the vote taking place, a process which can be repeated indefinitely. Sir Christopher Chope MP has used the objection tactic twice already and is expected to once again seek to delay the Second Reading of the Bill proceeding without debate. As a Private Bill does not have a ministerial or backbench sponsor, the senior Deputy Speaker, the Chairman of Ways and Means, performs some of the usual functions of a Bill’s sponsor in the Commons Chamber. To avoid further delays to the Bill, the Chairman of Ways and Means, Nusrat Ghani MP, may choose to use her powers to require a debate in Government time on the Bill. For more information on the Bill, its parliamentary progress so far, and the procedure for Private Bills, see the discussion of the Bill in last week’s edition of the Bulletin.

Questions and statements: At 11:30, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Ministers will face questions from MPs. Topics on the Order Paper concern the humanitarian situation in Gaza, a two-state solution in Israel and Palestine, the situation in Kashmir, US policy on Iran, the use of aid on educational programmes, the right to consular assistance, support for Ukraine, marine biological diversity, and aid funding.

Any Urgent Questions or Ministerial Statements will follow.

Ten Minute Rule Motion: The Labour MP Olivia Bailey will seek the agreement of the House to introduce a Ten Minute Rule Bill titled the A34 Slip Road Safety (East Ilsley and Beedon) Bill. See our Hansard Society guide for more information about the parliamentary procedure for Ten Minute Rule Bills.

Main business: Opposition Day (Official Opposition). This marks the seventh Opposition Day of the 20 required this Session under Standing Orders. Of these, it is the fifth Opposition Day allocated to the Conservatives, who are entitled to 17 in total. On such days, opposition parties select the topic for debate in the House. The Conservatives have not yet announced the subject for this sitting.

Adjournment: The Liberal Democrat MP Munira Wilson MP has the adjournment debate on inequalities in access to palliative care. (House of Commons Library briefing)

Westminster Hall: There are five debates, on:

• the impact of churches and religious buildings on communities;

• access to venture capital for people from ethnic minority and other underrepresented backgrounds;

• reform of the standard method for assessing local housing need (Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology POSTnote);

• Government support for defence industries in the North East; and

• flooding and planning and developer responsibilities.

Legislative committees:

• Crime and Policing Bill: Crime and Policing Bill: The programme order agreed by the House requires the Public Bill Committee to conclude its proceedings today. Any amendments, new clauses, or parts of the Bill which have not been debated before the end of the sitting will be voted on without debate at the end. The only remaining items to be considered are a series of new clauses tabled by the Opposition, followed by the final provisions of the Bill relating to commencement, regulation-making powers, and citation. The remaining new clauses before the Committee comprise 10 Conservative proposals, including new clauses which would:

  • terminate the parental rights of any individual convicted of child sex offences to any children they had at the time of the crime;

  • make the default sentence for child murder a whole life order; add financial gain as an aggravating factor for specified child sexual offences;

  • prohibit sexual relationships between first cousins;

  • allow the Government to amend or veto any Code of Practice issued by the College of Policing;

  • remove the recording and retention of non-crime hate incidents;

  • lower the threshold of the existing offence of intentional harassment, alarm or distress;

  • add penalty points to the driving licenses of those convicted of littering from a vehicle; and

  • prevent organisations which support criminal conduct or use violence to subvert democratic institutions from accessing public funds.

• Planning and Infrastructure Bill: The next clauses to be debated by this Public Bill Committee relate to long duration electricity storage, bill discounts for those who live close to electricity transmission infrastructure, the commissioning of electricity infrastructure, the use of the forestry estate for renewable electricity, and the process for approving new roads and railways.

• Product Regulation and Metrology Bill: Clause-by-clause scrutiny of this Bill by the Public Bill Committee begins today. For more information on the Bill’s provisions, see our recent edition of this Bulletin, in which we drew attention to concerns expressed in the House of Lords about the volume and breadth of the delegated powers it would grant to Ministers. As this Bill was first introduced into the Lords, no oral evidence will be taken at the start of the Committee’s proceedings (this is a procedural anomaly which is detrimental to the scrutiny of bills that begin their passage in the Lords rather than the Commons).The Programme Order for the Bill states that the Committee must conclude its consideration of the legislation on Tuesday 20 May, so allowing just one week – and probably three sittings – for MPs to consider the provisions. The Bill is relatively short, at just 20 pages, but does contain controversial powers not least those that would allow Ministers to establish “dynamic alignment” with EU standards.

• Delegated Legislation Committees meeting today: to consider the Syria (Sanctions) (EU Exit) (Amendment) Regulations 2025; and four draft Statutory Instruments laid under the National Security Act 2023.

Introduction of new Peers: Two new Peers will be introduced to the House:

• Mark Harper (now Lord Harper), the former Conservative MP who served as Transport Secretary and Chief Whip.

• Stephen Massey (now Lord Massey of Hampstead), the former Chief Executive of the Conservative Party.

Oral questions: Shortly after 14:30, Peers will question Ministers for 40 minutes, on morale, recruitment and retention of police, prison and probation officers; dealing with uncollected financial penalties such as fines, costs and confiscation orders; encouraging scientists from around the world to work in the United Kingdom; and the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.

Main business:

• Norwich Livestock Market Bill (Third Reading). This is a Private Bill, meaning it would affect specific individuals or organisations, rather than the public in general. The Bill is required to allow Norwich City Council – the promoter of the Bill – to relocate the Norwich Livestock Market to a location outside the City of Norwich.

• Infrastructure Planning (Onshore Wind and Solar Generation) Order 2025. The House will then be asked to approve this delegated legislation which raises the threshold at which solar energy projects are considered Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects (NSIPs), shifting decision-making from local planning authorities to the Planning Inspectorate, from 50 megawatts to 100 megawatts of generating capacity. It also brings onshore wind with a generating capacity above 100 megawatts back in scope of the NSIP regime. This Order has already been debated in Grand Committee and so will be voted on without debate.

• Employment Rights Bill (Committee, Day 3 of 7). On the first day in Committee only five groups of amendments were disposed of, well below the nine groups the Government Whips had anticipated to deal with. In contrast, progress on day two was in line with the Whips’ expectations. The final sitting is provisionally scheduled for Thursday 5 June. If the Committee makes slower than expected progress, additional sittings may be required. (House of Lords Library briefing)

Grand Committee: There will be debates on two Lords select committee reports:

• High Streets: Life beyond retail?, a report by the Built Environment Committee (House of Lords Library briefing); and

• Methane: Keep up the momentum, a report by the Environment and Climate Change Committee (House of Lords Library briefing).

Highlights include:

House of Commons

• Science, Innovation and Technology Committee (09:45): Sir Iain Duncan Smith MP, former Secretary of State for Work and Pensions and former Leader of the Conservative Party, will give evidence to the Committee’s digital centre of government inquiry, looking at the transfer of digital, data and AI functions from the Cabinet Office to the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology.

• Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (10:00): The CEO, Chief Financial Officer and Chair of Thames Water will give evidence on reforming the water sector. Questions are expected on leadership and culture at Thames Water, its ownership and prospective sale, recent court cases, the future of the company, and executive pay and bonuses.

• Culture, Media and Sport Committee (10:00): Sir Chris Bryant MP, the Minister for Creative Industries, Arts and Tourism, will give evidence on grassroots music venues.

• Education Committee (10:00): Senior officials from Ofsted, the Care Quality Commission, the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman, and the Independent Provider of Special Education Advice will give evidence on solving the SEND crisis.

• Foreign Affairs Committee (10:00): Witnesses will give evidence on the Israeli–Palestinian conflict.

• Committee on Standards (10:15): Senior officials from Ofcom will give evidence on MPs’ outside employment and interests. Questions about the role and work of MPs who are employed by broadcasters are likely to be addressed.

• Modernisation Committee (11:45): A House of Commons clerk, trade union representatives of MPs’ staff, and the Politico journalist Esther Webber, will all give evidence on access to the House of Commons and its procedures.

• International Development Committee (14:00): The Minister for International Development, Baroness Chapman of Darlington, will answer questions on the development work of the Foreign Office, followed by further evidence on humanitarian access and adherence to international humanitarian law.

• Business and Trade Committee (14:30): The Business Secretary, Jonathan Reynolds MP, the Skills Minister, Baroness Smith of Malvern, the Investment Minister, Baroness Gustafsson, and the Financial Secretary to the Treasury, Lord Livermore, will all give evidence on industrial strategy.

• Home Affairs Committee (14:45): Serco, Clearsprings and Mears Group – three firms responsible for housing asylum seekers – will give evidence on asylum accommodation.

• Justice Committee (14:30): The Chief Inspector of Prisons, the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman, and the National Chair of Independent Monitoring Boards will give evidence on rehabilitation and resettlement of offenders.

• Energy Security and Net Zero Committee (15:30): Sarah Jones MP, the Minister of State at the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, will give evidence on workforce planning to deliver clean, secure energy.

House of Lords

• Science and Technology Committee (10:15): Former Cabinet Secretary Lord (Gus) O’Donnell, and the former Cabinet Minister and former chair of the Science, Innovation and Technology Committee, Greg Clark, will give evidence on financing and scaling UK science and technology.

• European Affairs Committee (15:30): Sir Chris Bryant MP, Minister of State at the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, will make his second select committee appearance of the day to give evidence on UK–EU data adequacy.

• International Agreements Committee (16:00): Two legal experts from the United States will contribute to the Committee’s inquiry into parliamentary scrutiny of treaties.

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 on the Order Paper concern battery cell production, digital landlines, rural broadband coverage, innovation, artificial intelligence, digital services and the US–UK trade agreement, public sector productivity, and online safety.

Prime Minister’s Questions: At 12:00, Sir Keir Starmer will face the Leader of the Opposition, Kemi Badenoch, at PMQs. Reform UK leader Nigel Farage appears in eighth place on the list so will certainly be called by the Speaker to put a question to the Prime Minister.

Any Urgent Questions or Ministerial Statements will follow.

Ten Minute Rule Motion: The chairman of the Backbench Business Committee, Conservative MP Bob Blackman, will seek the leave of the House to introduce a Ten Minute Rule Bill titled the Equitable Life Policyholders (Compensation) Bill. It aims to provide for compensation under the Equitable Life (Payments) Act 2010 to individuals who suffered due to regulatory maladministration affecting the Equitable Life Assurance Society before December 2001.

Main business: Great British Energy Bill (Consideration of Lords Message). Ping pong on the Great British Energy Bill will continue today, with the final disagreement between the Houses – on the issue of modern slavery and trafficking – set to be resolved, thereby enabling the Bill to receive Royal Assent.

The Bill passed through the House of Commons but was amended in the House of Lords to block any funding for Great British Energy if modern slavery were credibly linked to its supply chains. The Commons then rejected this amendment outright, prompting further consideration by the Lords.

Before Peers made a final decision, the Government proposed a compromise: an amendment imposing a statutory objective on Great British Energy to adopt measures against slavery and human trafficking in its supply chains. The Lords accepted this compromise without a vote. The Commons is now set to consider the revised Bill, but no significant opposition is expected, as the change was a Government-offered concession.

This will be followed, if necessary, by consideration of Lords amendments on unspecified bills. This is most likely to be in relation to the Data (Use and Access) Bill and /or the Bank Resolution (Recapitalisation) Bill, since the House of Lords is considering Commons amendments to both pieces of legislation on Monday. If the Lords disagrees with any Commons amendments, or proposes any amendments in lieu, then the Commons will need to decide on its response. As outlined earlier in the Bulletin, there are several outstanding points of contention on the Data (Use and Access) Bill, so it seems likely that this will need another round of ping pong.

Russia (Sanctions) (EU Exit) (Amendment) Regulations 2025. The House will then consider the latest set of regulations to impose restrictions on trade with Russia and so weaken the country’s military and industrial capabilities, targeting chemicals, electronics, machinery, plastics, and metals. These regulations are subject to the “made affirmative” procedure, meaning that they are signed into law by a Minister before being laid before Parliament, but can only remain in law if both Houses approve them within usually 28 or 40 days. The procedure is typically reserved for legislation that is urgent. The provision for retrospective scrutiny is used in relation to sanctions legislation because of the need to control capital flight or introduce provisions in relation to high-risk countries.

Adjournment: The Labour MP Matt Western has the adjournment debate on the environmental impact of plastic recycling in Leamington.

Westminster Hall: There are five debates, on:

• the future of public libraries (House of Commons Library briefing);

• the potential merits of rebalancing regional economies (House of Commons Library briefing);

• the impact of extended producer responsibility for packaging on glass packaging producers;

• future new towns; and

• carer’s leave.

Legislative committees:

• Planning and Infrastructure Bill: The Public Bill Committee will continue its clause-by-clause scrutiny of the Bill.

• Animal Welfare (Import of Dogs, Cats and Ferrets) Bill: This is a Private Member’s Bill (PMB) introduced by the Liberal Democrat MP Dr Danny Chambers after he was one of 20 MPs to be successfully drawn in the PMB ballot at the start of the Session. It would make provision to restrict the commercial importation and non-commercial movement of dogs, cats and ferrets into the United Kingdom. This is the first sitting of the Public Bill Committee appointed to consider the Bill clause-by-clause. The Bill was the second PMB ballot bill to be given a Second Reading last November, just behind the assisted dying bill (properly known as the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill). Since then, the Animal Welfare Bill’s Committee stage has been significantly delayed by the prolonged sitting of the Public Bill Committee for the assisted dying bill ahead of it in the PMB queue, which only concluded last month. The progress of this animal welfare bill could have consequences for the assisted dying bill. On the remaining Fridays allocated to Private Member’s Bills, any new Report Stages take precedence over ongoing Report Stages that have been adjourned on an earlier day. If the Report Stage for the assisted dying bill does not conclude on the day currently set down – Friday 16 May – it will need to continue on a future day; the next available date would be Friday 13 June. However, if the Animal Welfare (Import of Dogs, Cats and Ferrets) Bill concludes its Committee Stage in advance of 13 June, Danny Chambers, as the sponsoring MP, would be entitled (but not required) to choose that Friday for its Report Stage, and it would then take precedence on that day, ahead of the assisted dying bill. Members opposed to the assisted dying bill would then be able to talk at length during the Report Stage of this Animal Welfare Bill to run down the clock and prevent MPs from resuming their debate on the assisted dying bill. In the last Parliament every Public Bill Committee constituted to consider a PMB concluded its deliberations in a single sitting. This is because PMBs tend to be short and uncontroversial. The animal welfare bill is also short, with just a few substantive clauses, so the Committee might also conclude its work in one sitting. If debate in Committee is drawn out, this may be an indicator that members of the Committee are seeking to delay the Bill’s exit from the Committee to prevent it overtaking the assisted dying bill in the queue in case the latter requires more than one day to complete its Report Stage consideration.

• Delegated Legislation Committee meeting today: to consider the draft Pension Fund Clearing Obligation Exemption (Amendment) Regulations 2025.

Oral questions: At 15:00, Peers will begin the day by questioning Ministers for 40 minutes, on ensuring technology and telecommunications firms contribute to the cost of fraud prevention and reimbursing victims; the cost of illegally operated e-scooters; and the BBC’s decision to deny access to BBC Sounds for people abroad. The topic of a fourth question will be decided by a ballot drawn at lunchtime on Monday 12 May.

Main business: Renters’ Rights Bill (Committee, Day 6 of 6). The House will continue its scrutiny of the Renters’ Rights Bill in Committee. The Government Whips have indicated that they want Committee Stage to wrap up today, and media reports suggest Labour Peers have been advised that they may need to sit late into the evening to ensure that the Committee stage concludes. (House of Lords Library briefing)

Highlights include:

House of Commons

• Transport Committee (09:15): The Minister for Local Transport, Simon Lightwood MP, will give evidence on buses connecting communities.

• Treasury Committee (14:15): Industry representatives including from the Institution of Civil Engineers and the Investment Association will give evidence on the National Wealth Fund.

House of Lords

• Constitution Committee (10:30): The Legal Aid Practitioners Group and the Law Centres Network will be questioned about the rule of law.

Joint

• Human Rights Committee (14:15): The Deputy Chief Prosecutor at the Crown Prosecution Service, the Immigration Law Practitioners’ Association, and the Bonavero Institute of Human Rights will give evidence on the Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill.

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 on the Order Paper include economic growth, skills for the rail sector, the maritime sector, the aviation sector and airport expansion, the backlog for driving tests, pavement parking, vehicle registration, the condition of local roads, bus services in rural areas, and train service reliability.

Any Urgent Questions will follow.

The Leader of the House of Commons, Lucy Powell, will then present her weekly Business Statement, setting out the business in the House for the next couple of weeks. Any other Ministerial Statements will follow.

Select Committee statement: Labour MP Debbie Abrahams, chair of the Work and Pensions Committee, will make a statement about her Committee’s forthcoming report, Safeguarding vulnerable claimants following an inquiry which was launched by the Committee in the last Parliament.

Select Committees can ask the Backbench Business Committee for time to make a statement announcing the launch of an inquiry or the publication of a report. The report has not yet been published but must be released before the statement is made. These statements are usually delivered in the Chamber during backbench business time on Thursdays. The statement, presented by the Committee Chair or another designated member of the Committee, consists of a 10-minute speech during which interventions are not permitted, followed by 10 minutes of questions from MPs, to which the Select Committee member responds.

Main business: There will be two general debates, the subjects of which were chosen by the Backbench Business Committee:

• Solar farms: In her submission to the Committee, Conservative MP Dr Caroline Johnson stressed that she has cross-party support for the debate, that the last debate on this issue had been heavily subscribed, and that there have since been many more applications for large solar farms, affecting multiple constituencies. (House of Commons Library briefing)

• Long-term funding of youth services: In her application, Labour’s Natasha Irons MP argued that the debate would be a chance to “put our young people back up the political agenda” and would enable MPs to highlight youth services in their constituencies. (House of Commons Library briefing)

Adjournment: The Independent MP Ayoub Khan has the adjournment debate, on Government support for coroner services in the West Midlands.

Westminster Hall: There are two debates today, on:

• funding for GAVI, the Vaccine Alliance, and the Global Fund; and

• World Asthma Day.

Legislative committees:

• Planning and Infrastructure Bill: The Public Bill Committee will continue its clause-by-clause scrutiny of the Bill.

• Product Regulation and Metrology Bill: The Public Bill Committee will continue its clause-by-clause scrutiny of the Bill.

Oral questions: At 11:00, Peers will begin the day by questioning Ministers for 40 minutes, on supporting ex-offenders; the use of creative content in training artificial intelligence models; and the impact of proposed planning reforms on productivity. The topic of a fourth question will be decided by a ballot drawn at lunchtime on Tuesday 13 May.

Main business: Public Authorities (Fraud, Error and Recovery) Bill (Second Reading). This Bill makes a number of changes to tackle public sector fraud and social security fraud. Its provisions were outlined in a recent edition of the Bulletin. At Second Reading, the House debates the principles underlying the Bill and Peers are unable to propose amendments to the Bill’s text. The House of Lords also does not normally vote on the Second Readings of Government bills. (House of Lords Library briefing)

Highlights include:

House of Commons

• Public Accounts Committee (10:00): The Permanent Secretary and other senior officials at the Department for Work and Pensions will give evidence on jobcentres. This inquiry builds upon a report by the National Audit Office published in March.

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

Private Members’ Bills (PMBs): Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill (Remaining Stages). This is the Private Member’s Bill introduced by Kim Leadbeater MP to legalise assisted dying in England and Wales. Debate on the Bill will commence at 09:30 and finish at the latest at 14:30. At Second Reading on 29 November, MPs supported the Bill by a margin of 330 to 275, after which it was committed to a Public Bill Committee. The Bill now returns to the Chamber for Report Stage. In Committee, the Bill is considered clause-by-clause; at Report Stage debate is limited to those areas where new clauses, or amendments to existing clauses, have been proposed. It will be for the Speaker to decide which amendments are selected and how these are grouped for debate and decision. A debate and vote is guaranteed only in relation to amendments tabled by the Bill’s sponsor, Kim Leadbeater. At the end of last week, the amendment paper was 39 pages long; the deadline for tabling amendments is the rise of the House on Tuesday (13 May), so the final list is expected to be longer still. Kim Leadbeater has tabled 35 new clauses and amendments. At Report Stage, new clauses have precedence over amendments, and new clauses tabled in the name of the sponsor of the Bill are prioritised over new clauses tabled by others. Leadbeater’s tabling of new clauses thus means that she can speak first in the debate. Leadbeater discussed some of the new clauses and amendments she planned to bring forward in this week’s episode of our Parliament Matters podcast. It seems from that discussion that some of the changes she is proposing may have been requested by the Government to tidy-up the drafting and make the Bill operable. One of her new clauses (NC10) strengthens the conscience opt-out in the legislation. It provides that no person will be “under any duty to participate in the provision of assistance in accordance with this Act”. It also proposes that the Employment Rights Act 1996 should be amended to ensure employees are not subject to “any detriment” if they exercise the right “not to participate in an activity or perform a function” in accordance with the Act. Leadbeater also proposes that a new clause should be added to the Bill (NC14) to impose a prohibition on advertisements to promote services relating to voluntary assisted dying. Several of her proposed changes also seek to provide more parliamentary oversight by subjecting future regulations, to be made by the Minister to implement the assisted dying scheme, to the affirmative rather than the negative scrutiny procedure. Among the amendments tabled by other MPs, two new clauses proposed by the Treasury Select Committee chair, Dame Meg Hillier MP, have so far acquired the highest number of supporting signatures from other MPs. Her new clauses would amend the Bill to explicitly state that no health professional can raise the topic of assisted dying with a patient unless that person has first raised it, and that no health professional can raise assisted dying with a person under the age of 18 in any circumstances. At the start of the Report Stage debate, the Speaker will issue his “provisional selection and grouping of amendments”. His decision is final, and he does not have to provide an explanation for his choices, although he may provide some insight into his thinking at the start of the debate. The document will set out:

• The amendments that have been selected for debate. Selection does not guarantee that it will be the subject of a decision (division), only that it has not been ruled out of order by the Speaker. Amendments may be ruled out of order if they are deemed out of scope of the Bill.

• The grouping of the amendments that have been selected for debate. The Speaker will group amendments together so that similar amendments are debated at the same time. While debates at Committee Stage are often built around several, narrowly focused groups of amendments, recent practice at Report Stage (for both Government Bills and Private Members’ Bills) has been for one large group of amendments to be created, providing for a single debate during which MPs may discuss any aspect of the Bill. It remains to be seen whether the Speaker will depart from this practice. After debate on a group concludes, the lead amendment will be voted on. The Chair must decide which, if any, other amendments in the group require a separate vote.

What decision the Speaker makes in respect of the grouping of amendments will thus have implications for the structure and focus of the debate and the amount of time that is consumed in divisions rather than discussion. A single, large group of amendments often results in a wide-ranging, repetitive debate that lacks focus and structure. However, multiple groups of amendments, whilst more focused in debate, requires more time for divisions. To bring a debate on a group of amendments to a close, an MP must move a “closure” motion, that “the question be now put”. Only if that closure motion is agreed – with both a majority vote and more than 100 MPs voting in the affirmative – can the main question on the substantive provision – the new clause or amendment – be put. The Chair (the Speaker or one of the Deputy Speakers) will only allow a closure motion to be put to the House if (s)he deems that the provisions being debated have been adequately discussed. If the Speaker creates only one group of amendments, then only one closure motion will be needed to bring debate to a close and move onto a vote on the lead amendment. But if the Speaker creates multiple groups of amendments, then a separate closure motion will be needed to bring debate on each group to an end in order to proceed to the vote. This would mean more time spent on divisions during the sitting. If debate on all the groups of amendments – whether on a single group or multiple groups – is not concluded, and a decision in respect of each has not been reached before 14:30, then the debate will be adjourned to resume on a future day, most likely the next available sitting Friday for consideration of Private Members’ Bills, namely 13 June. However, as new Report Stages have precedence over adjourned Report Stages, there is a risk that this assisted dying bill could be leapfrogged by other Private Members’ Bills, hitherto behind it in the queue, but which have finished their Committee Stage before 13 June and now await their Report Stage. Conversely, if Report Stage does conclude today, then the Bill will move onto the next stage, namely Third Reading, where MPs will be asked to decide whether they are content with the Bill as amended and wish it to be sent to the House of Lords for consideration by Peers. Third Reading is usually a short, cursory stage but that is not expected to be the case for this Bill. It is likely that Third Reading of this Bill will be a more in-depth debate than normal and require a full Friday sitting, akin to the Second Reading debate. Third Reading could be dealt with at the end of Report Stage today, but given that another closure motion to bring the debate to an end would be needed, it is unlikely to be accepted by the Chair if there has been only a short, cursory debate prior to the 14:30 cut off for the sitting. The expectation is therefore that Third Reading will take place on 13 June, when it would have priority over all other PMBs. At 14:30, any other Private Members’ Bills on the Order Paper awaiting Second Reading will be given a Second Reading providing that they are unopposed. If any MP shouts “Object!” then the MP responsible for the Bill must name a future day for Second Reading. Usually, a Government Whip will object to any PMBs that the Government does not support. In the absence of any objection, Bills may be given a Second Reading and proceed to the next stage with little or no debate. The Hansard Society’s guide to Private Members’ Bills explains in more detail the various types of PMBs and how the legislative process for PMBs differs from that for Government Bills. You can also listen to our special Parliament Matters podcast series focused on the assisted dying bill – we have discussed the Bill and the changes made to it with several members of the Public Bill Committee, both those who support and oppose the Bill; we discuss the procedural complexities of the PMB process with former House of Commons clerk, Paul Evans; and in our last few episodes we discuss some of the core changes made to the Bill and discuss next steps with the Bill’s sponsor, Kim Leadbeater. Adjournment: The Labour MP Navendu Mishra has the adjournment debate on the condition of Stockport railway station.

The House will not be sitting.

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