Questions and statements: At 14:30, Education Ministers will respond to MPs’ questions. Topics include student loans, NEETs, support and training in relation to children with SEND, the Curriculum and Assessment Review, the Inclusion Fund, independent fostering agencies, international skills partnerships, kinship carers, and the number of teachers.

At 15:30, any Urgent Questions or Ministerial Statements will follow. Each Urgent Question lasts around 40 minutes on average, and Ministerial Statements last an average of around 50 minutes.

Presentation of Bills: Bills will be presented by three Liberal Democrat MPs:

• Vikki Slade will present the Barbers and Hairdressers (Registration) Bill, which would make provision for the compulsory registration of barbers and hairdressers in England.

• Tim Farron will present the Rural Communities (Public Services and Energy) Bill, which would require the Secretary of State to carry out a review of the adequacy of local government funding for rural communities, and require that review to consider the additional costs of delivering public services in sparsely populated areas, the availability of healthcare services, and support for rural households affected by fuel poverty.

• Ben Maguire will present the Planning and Development (Community Infrastructure), to require housing developers to construct any planned community infrastructure before commencing construction of associated housing.

Under Standing Order No. 57, any MP may introduce a Presentation Bill – a type of Private Member’s Bill – by giving notice of their intention to do so. Presentation is a formality: no debate or decision takes place. The short title is read out, the bill is ordered to be printed, and the MP presenting the bill names a date for its Second Reading. In practice, given the limited time available for Private Members’ Bills, few Presentation Bills actually get time for a Second Reading debate. Our Hansard Society guide provides more information about Presentation Bills and the procedures involved.

Sovereign Grant Bill (All Stages): MPs will consider all stages of the Government’s Sovereign Grant reform legislation in a single sitting. The Bill would set the Sovereign Grant at £99.9 million for 2027-28, fix the share of the Crown Estate’s net revenue surplus used to calculate the Grant in subsequent years at 20.5%, allow the Grant to fall from one year to the next, and give the Treasury power to increase it during a financial year in exceptional circumstances. (House of Commons Library briefing)

Fast-tracking every Commons stage of a Government bill in a single day is relatively uncommon and is generally reserved for legislation that is urgent or largely uncontroversial. As with other bills recently expedited in this way, MPs will first debate the Bill’s general principles at Second Reading, then the House will resolve itself into a Committee of the Whole House for clause-level scrutiny, enabling all MPs to participate rather than restricting consideration to a Public Bill Committee. There will be no separate Report Stage and the House will proceed immediately to Third Reading.

Normally, amendments for Committee Stage cannot be formally tabled until a Bill has received its Second Reading. That is impractical when both stages take place on the same day. The House has therefore made special provision to permit amendments, new clauses and new schedules to the Sovereign Grant Bill to be tabled before Second Reading.

Once the Bill has completed its Commons stages, the Speaker is expected to certify it as a Money Bill. As we explained when MPs debated the Bill’s founding resolution, this significantly restricts the House of Lords’ role. Peers have already agreed a Humble Address assuring the King that they would “cheerfully concur” in the measures proposed by the Commons.

Debate on motions relating to House of Commons procedure: MPs will consider four motions tabled by the Leader of the House, Sir Alan Campbell, to implement recommendations from the Modernisation Committee (which he chairs) and from the Committee of Privileges, and to update Standing Orders following recent machinery-of-government changes.

The Modernisation Committee has recommended two of the motions (House of Commons Library briefing):

• Acting select committee chairs: A new Standing Order, initially lasting until the end of this Parliament, would enable a select committee chair who has arranged a proxy vote to take a continuous period of leave lasting between one and seven months. During that absence, the committee could appoint one of its members, normally from the same party as the incumbent, to serve as acting chair. The acting chair would exercise all the chair’s powers and temporarily replace them on the Liaison Committee. Proposed by the Modernisation Committee, the change is intended to enable chairs to take parental, medical or other qualifying leave without disrupting their committee’s work. (Modernisation Committee report)

• Virtual participation in select committees: A second new Standing Order, also lasting until the end of this Parliament, would permit MPs to participate remotely in formal select committee proceedings in two circumstances: where access to the parliamentary estate is significantly restricted or prevented, or where virtual participation is required as a reasonable adjustment on health and wellbeing grounds following an assessment process. Remote participants would count towards the committee’s quorum. Physical attendance would remain the default, and the arrangements would operate in accordance with guidance from the Liaison Committee. (Modernisation Committee report)

MPs will also consider a motion endorsing a report by the Committee of Privileges concerning the Charity Commission. In September 2025, the House referred to the Committee the Commission’s attempt to take legal action to prevent the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman from laying two special reports before Parliament. The Privileges Committee concluded in July that the Charity Commission had “clearly committed a contempt of Parliament” by seeking to prevent the reports from being laid. It recommended that the Commission’s Board accept responsibility and apologise to the House. It also recommended that the Chief Executive apologise separately for statements about the purpose of the legal action. As only the House itself can determine whether a contempt has been committed, the motion invites MPs formally to endorse the Committee’s report and its conclusions. (Privileges Committee report and House of Commons Library briefing)

Finally, MPs will consider a motion making changes to Standing Orders following machinery-of-government changes. These would update the system of departmental select committees, including replacing:

• the Business and Trade Committee with the Business, Innovation, Science and Trade Committee;

• the Culture, Media and Sport Committee with the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee; and

• the Science, Innovation and Technology Committee with the Science and Technology Committee.

The motion would make a number of other consequential changes.

General debate on Israel and Palestine: The Government has allocated the remainder of the sitting to a general debate on Israel and Palestine. This will give the House a chance to debate the new sanctions proposals that the Government announced last week, in advance of the necessary legislation being presented to Parliament. (House of Commons Library briefing)

General debates take place on a neutral motion that the House “has considered” the relevant subject. Such a motion does not ask MPs to take a substantive decision and the debate therefore normally concludes without a division (formal vote).

Presentation of Public Petitions: Four petitions will be presented:

• by Conservative MP Rebecca Smith, on safe reopening of Mount Batten Beach and peninsula;

• by Liberal Democrat MP Vikki Slade, on Bearwood and Merley Green Belt;

• by Conservative MP Neil O’Brien, on proposed Leicester City Council boundary expansion; and

• by Conservative MP Alicia Kearns, on local government reorganisation in Leicestershire, Rutland and Lincolnshire.

Adjournment: Labour MP Apsana Begum will give a speech on community cohesion and the 90th anniversary of the Battle of Cable Street. A Minister will then give a response.

Westminster Hall

16:30: MPs will debate e-petition 762640, which calls for a referendum on bringing the water industry into public ownership. The petition has around 207,000 signatures. (House of Commons Library briefing)

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Introduction of Peers: At 14:30, two new Peers will be introduced:

• Sir Brian Leveson (now Lord Leveson of Liverpool), the Investigatory Powers Commissioner and former chair of the Leveson press inquiry, will join as a Crossbench Peer; and

• Martin McTague (now Lord McTague), the former chair of the Federation of Small Businesses, will join as a Labour Peer.

Oral questions: Peers will question Ministers for 40 minutes, on the UK presidency of the Financial Action Task Force; departmental responsibility for the Public Sector Fraud Authority; public inquiries; and the impact of the Employment Rights Act 2025 on youth employment in Scotland.

Representation of the People Bill (Second Reading): Peers will debate the Government’s legislation on elections and political finance. The Bill would extend the franchise to 16- and 17-year-olds for UK parliamentary and local elections; enable greater automation of electoral registration; add bank cards to the forms of photographic identification accepted at polling stations; strengthen the regulation and enforcement of political donations; and make wider changes to electoral administration. (House of Lords Library briefing)

The Bill began its passage in the Commons in the previous parliamentary Session and was carried over into the current Session. It completed its Commons stages on 2 September, when MPs gave it a Third Reading.

The Bill changed significantly during its Commons passage, following the Government’s acceptance of the recommendations of the Rycroft Review into political finance. Government amendments included a moratorium on political donations using cryptoassets; a £100,000 annual limit on donations by overseas electors; a minimum-residency period before returning overseas electors cease to be subject to that limit; restrictions linking company donations to post-tax profits; and strengthened Electoral Commission investigatory and enforcement powers.

At Second Reading, Peers debate the general principles and purposes of a bill rather than its detailed wording. The text cannot be amended at this stage. The Lords does not usually divide on the Second Reading of a Government bill.

If the Bill receives a Second Reading, it will proceed to Committee Stage, when Peers will begin detailed clause-by-clause scrutiny and can propose amendments. Committee Stage will take place in Committee of the Whole House, though the timetable has not yet been announced.

Lord Rooker has moved an amendment to the motion that the Bill be committed to a Committee of the Whole House, that “Committee stage will not commence until the Minister has made a statement setting out which clauses and schedules of the Bill, including amendments made to the Bill, the House of Commons did not have time to consider on the floor of the House”.

Lord Rooker moved an identical amendment to the Public Office (Accountability) Bill on 1 September. He used it to argue that programme motions (or ‘guillotines’) have significantly weakened legislative scrutiny in the House of Commons by imposing time limits on debates and restricting the number of amendments on which MPs can vote. He withdrew the amendment after a brief debate and may do so again.

Grand Committee

From 15:45, Peers will debate six Statutory Instruments in four groups:

• Group 1: The draft Armed Forces (Service Complaints Miscellaneous Provisions) (Amendment) Regulations 2026

• Group 2: The draft Withdrawal Agreement (Windsor Framework and Governance) (Amendment) Regulations 2026

• Group 3: The draft Boiler Upgrade Scheme (Amendment to the Energy Act 2008 etc.) Regulations 2026

• Group 4: The draft Voter Identification (Amendment of List of Specified Documents) (Northern Ireland) Regulations 2026, the draft Local Elections (Northern Ireland) (Uprating Election Expenses) Order 2026, and the draft Voter Identification (Amendment of List of Specified Documents) (Local Elections) (Northern Ireland) Order 2026.

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Highlights include:

House of Commons

14:00: Environmental Audit Committee – Air pollution in England: Public Health Minister Dame Diana Johnson MP, Transport Minister Simon Lightwood MP, Environment Minister Emma Hardy MP, and Chief Medical Officer Sir Chris Whitty will give evidence.

15:30: Public Accounts Committee – Delivering HS2 and Euston: The Permanent Secretary at the Department for Transport and the Chief Executive of HS2 Ltd will give evidence.

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

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Questions and statements: At 11:30, Justice Ministers will respond to MPs’ questions. Topics include the Courts and Tribunals Bill and jury trials, proposals for a Royal Commission on the justice system, water supply in prisons, deportation of foreign national offenders, AI-based violence against women and girls, the Rapid Deployment Cells Programme, coronial system delays, programmes to reduce reoffending, unregulated child contact centres, Imprisonment for Public Protection sentences, and youth offending.

At 12:30, any Urgent Questions or Ministerial Statements will follow.

Select Committee statement – Treasury Committee: Dame Meg Hillier, Chair of the Treasury Committee, will make a statement on the Government’s response to the Committee’s July 2026 report, Student loans: Broken and unfair? The Government’s response is due to be published on Sunday 13 September.

Select Committee statement – Public Accounts Committee: Anna Dixon, a member of the Public Accounts Committee, will make a statement on the Committee’s 9 September report, Government compensation schemes.

On any day allotted for backbench business, such as today, Select Committees can ask the Backbench Business Committee for time to make statements on the publication of new reports or Government responses. A statement consists of a 10-minute speech from a member of the Committee, during which interventions are not permitted, followed by 10 minutes of questions from MPs, to which the Committee member responds.

Ten Minute Rule Motion: Liberal Democrat MP Tom Gordon will seek to introduce a Student Finance (Review) Bill under the Ten Minute Rule which allows MPs to give a ten-minute speech in favour of a Bill before seeking the House’s permission to introduce it. The Bill would require the Secretary of State to review student finance in England, including loan repayment arrangements and thresholds, the terms and conditions applying to student loans when they were issued, and the relationship between student finance loan repayment thresholds and average earnings. See our Hansard Society guide for more information about the parliamentary procedure for Ten Minute Rule Bills.

Backbench debate – Potential merits of a full ban on fracking: The Backbench Business Committee allocated time for this debate, which will be led by the Liberal Democrat MP Claire Young. The application was originally made by Liberal Democrat spokesperson Pippa Heylings, who said that the debate would focus on a “small loophole” in the 2019 moratorium on fracking. (House of Commons Library briefing)

The debate will take place on a neutral motion that the House “has considered” the relevant topic. Unlike a substantive motion, agreement to a neutral motion does not express a formal opinion or require the Government to act, so the debate would normally conclude without division.

Backbench debate – World Sepsis Awareness Month: The Backbench Business Committee also allocated time for this debate which will be led by Conservative MP Mike Wood, Labour MP Jim Dickson, and Reform UK MP Lee Anderson. In his application to the Committee, Mike Wood highlighted that sepsis claims the lives of more than 48,000 people in the UK each year and affects around a quarter of a million people. This debate will also take place on a neutral motion, meaning that no division is expected. (House of Commons Library briefing)

Change to Select Committee membership: Committee of Selection chair Jessica Morden will move a motion to change the membership of the newly renamed Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee. This change is needed following the recent Conservative front-bench reshuffle. Further motions to update Select Committee membership may be expected in the coming weeks.

Presentation of Public Petition: Liberal Democrat MP Vikki Slade will present a petition relating to young carers’ champions.

Adjournment: Labour MP Jim Dickson will give a speech on the 10th anniversary of the murder of George Low in Cyprus. A Minister will then give a response.

Westminster Hall

09:30: Building safety remediation of residential buildings

11:00: Ocean conservation and stewardship

14:30: The definition and application of grey belt land

16:00: Goods trading between Great Britain and Northern Ireland

16:30: Administration of the Civil Service Pension Scheme

Public Bill Committee

09:25 and 14:00 – Immigration and Asylum Bill (Committee, day 1): Both of today’s sittings will be devoted to oral evidence from witnesses, who will have been agreed in advance between the Government and Opposition Whips. (House of Commons Library briefing)

Once the oral evidence sessions are complete, the Committee will proceed to formal clause-by-clause scrutiny, considering whether each clause and schedule should remain in the Bill and whether amendments or new provisions should be added. Under the programme order agreed after Second Reading, the Committee must complete its proceedings by Tuesday 3 November.

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Introduction of new Peers: At 14:30, two new Peers will be introduced:

• Sir Sadiq Khan (now Lord Khan of Tooting), the Mayor of London, will join as a Labour Peer; and

• Roberto Neri (now Lord Neri), a music executive, will join as a Labour Peer.

Oral questions: Peers will question Ministers for 40 minutes, on the 1.5 million new homes target; the relationship between taxes and economic growth; the integration of neighbourhood health and social care; and the risk of AI causing human extinction within the next decade.

Financial Services and Markets Bill (Third Reading): Peers will decide whether to pass the Government’s wide-ranging legislation to reform the regulation of financial services and markets. (House of Lords Library briefing)

At Third Reading, the House decides whether to pass the final version of the Bill and send it to the House of Commons. Unlike in the House of Commons, amendments may be tabled at Third Reading in the Lords, though are expected to be limited to clarifying uncertainties, improving drafting, or enabling Ministers to fulfil undertakings given at earlier stages.

At Report Stage, the Government suffered six defeats:

• Access to banking: Peers removed a provision that would have given the Treasury a broad power to make regulations relating to access to banking services.

• Child Trust Funds and Junior ISAs: Peers required the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) to make rules enabling someone acting on behalf of a person who lacks capacity to access money held in a Child Trust Fund or Junior ISA without an application to the Court of Protection.

• Financial investigations: Peers restricted regulators’ use of ‘skilled person’ investigations into financial firms, requiring both a material risk of serious detriment and a proportionate response.

• Digital assets strategy: Peers required the Treasury to prepare and consult on a strategy for digital assets.

• Use of delegated powers: Peers required the Treasury to provide Parliament with information about the intended use of several significant delegated powers before bringing them into force. These included powers relating to consumer credit, payment systems regulation, anti-money laundering supervision, overseas recognition regimes, and cryptoassets.

• Consequential amendments: Peers removed a clause that would have allowed the Treasury to make consequential changes through regulations, including amendments to primary legislation.

If the Bill is passed, it will be sent to the House of Commons for further scrutiny. The Government typically seeks to reverse or revise any amendments that it opposed in the Lords when the Bill reaches Committee Stage in the Commons.

Commercial Payments Bill (Report, day 1 of 1): Peers will consider amendments to the Government’s legislation to tackle late payment between businesses. (House of Lords Library briefing)

At Report Stage, the whole House decides whether any amendments should be made, or new clauses added, to the Bill. Similar amendments and new clauses are grouped together for debate, to prevent repetition and create a more focused debate. The House will decide amendments in the order in which they would appear in the Bill. It is at Report Stage that the Government is most frequently defeated on amendments.

After Report Stage, the Bill will proceed to Third Reading, a date for which has not yet been scheduled.

Statutory Instrument debate – Batteries and Northern Ireland: At around 19:30, proceedings on the Commercial Payments Bill will be interrupted for a one-hour debate on a motion to approve the draft Batteries (Placing on the Market) (Northern Ireland) Regulations 2026.

These Regulations would establish an offences and penalties regime in Northern Ireland for breaches of obligations under the EU Batteries Regulation, which applies directly in Northern Ireland by virtue of the Windsor Framework. They would also establish an operational framework for conformity assessments for batteries placed on the Northern Ireland market.

Because the Regulations are subject to the draft affirmative procedure, they cannot become law unless debated and approved by both Houses. The House of Commons has already debated and approved the Regulations.

The Secondary Legislation Scrutiny Committee has noted that, because the EU Batteries Regulation applies only in Northern Ireland, different rules apply in Great Britain. The Government said in response that it expects the impact on the UK internal market to be negligible or non-existent and plans to consult this autumn on an aligned regime across the whole of the UK which would be consistent with the EU Batteries Regulation.

DUP Peer Lord McCrea of Magherafelt and Cookstown has tabled a regret motion expressing concern that the Regulations impose different legal requirements for placing batteries on the market in Northern Ireland in order to comply with the Windsor Framework, further undermine the integrity of the UK internal market, and could lead to higher costs for businesses. A regret motion does not prevent an instrument from becoming law but enables the House to place its concerns on the record.

The approval and regret motions will be debated together for up to one hour. At the end, a vote on the regret motion will be held first (unless it is withdrawn), followed by the vote on the approval motion.

Grand Committee

Debate on the Macolin Convention: From 15:45, Peers will debate the Council of Europe Convention on the Manipulation of Sports Competitions, known as the Macolin Convention. This is an international agreement that seeks to prevent, detect, and sanction the manipulation of sports competitions by promoting co-operation between public authorities, sports organisations, betting operators and competition organisers. (House of Lords Library briefing)

Although the UK has already signed the Convention, it cannot ratify it until the parliamentary scrutiny process under the Constitutional Reform and Governance Act 2010 has been completed. The Convention must be laid before Parliament for 21 sitting days, during which either House may resolve that it should not be ratified. The UK signed the Convention in December 2018, and the Government laid it before Parliament on 4 June 2026. Today’s debate will take place on a neutral motion, rather than a motion approving or opposing ratification.

At the request of the House of Lords International Agreements Committee (IAC), the Government extended the 21-sitting-day scrutiny period by a further 15 sitting days to allow the Committee more time to consider the Convention. The Committee held three public evidence sessions in July, hearing from experts on sports integrity, the Gambling Commission, sporting and betting bodies, and Government officials. The IAC reported on the Convention on 11 September for the special attention of the House “due to its legal significance as the first international legal instrument focusing specifically on the manipulation of sports competitions, and its political significance in light of the size of the UK sports sector and betting markets, and its role in shaping international standards in this area”.

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Highlights include:

House of Commons

09:30: Science, Innovation and Technology Committee – Machinery of government changes: Experts in governance, science and technology will give evidence.

10:00: Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee – Climate adaptation and emergency response: Building Safety, Fire and Resilience Minister Baroness Blake of Leeds and Nature Minister Jenny Riddell-Carpenter will give evidence.

10:10: House of Commons Administration Committee – General election planning: Former MPs Nigel Mills, Sir Charles Walker, Sir Nigel Evans, and Baroness Debbonaire will give evidence.

14:00: International Development Committee –International Development Minister Kirsty McNeill MP will give evidence on her work.

14:45: Home Affairs Committee – Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood MP will give evidence on her work.

16:00: Transport Committee – Scrutiny of the draft Heathrow Expansion National Policy Statement: Transport and planning experts will give evidence. Under the Planning Act 2008, proposals for new National Policy Statements should be scrutinised by a House of Commons Select Committee, which report its conclusions to the House. Issued by Ministers, these statements set out the Government’s policy on particular infrastructure projects or categories of projects in fields such as transport, energy, and water.

House of Lords

11:00: European Affairs Committee – UK–EU Agreement on Gibraltar: Foreign Office Minister Lord Wood of Anfield will give evidence, followed at 12:00 by the Chief Minister of Gibraltar, Fabian Picardo.

14:15: Communications and Digital Committee – Implementation and impact of the Online Safety Act: Senior officials at Ofcom will give evidence.

15:00: Economic Affairs Committee – Fiscal devolution in England: Tees Valley Metro Mayor Ben Houchen (Lord Houchen of High Leven) and London Deputy Mayor for Business Howard Dawber will give evidence.

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

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Details of Wednesday’s business can be found below.

The House will not be sitting as MPs begin the Conference Recess.

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Oral questions: At 15:00, Peers will begin the day by questioning Ministers for 40 minutes, on the recall system for imprisonments for public protection; business rates avoidance schemes; and the cost of interest for servicing Government debt. The topic of a fourth question will be decided by a ballot drawn at lunchtime on Monday 14 September.

Motions relating to House of Lords procedure: Peers will consider recommendations from a report of the Procedure and Privileges Committee on behaviour and courtesy in the Chamber, speaking times during scrutiny of bills, and changes to the House’s Standing Orders. If the House agrees the Committee’s recommendations, the Senior Deputy Speaker will then move a second motion making the necessary amendments to the Standing Orders.

The Committee recommends strengthening several of the House’s conventions on behaviour in proceedings:

• Peers taking part in a debate would be required, rather than merely expected, to attend its beginning and end, and should also attend the greater part of that debate;

• Peers would be encouraged to engage in active debate with other speakers rather than simply read prepared speeches;

• supplementary questions at Oral Questions would be subject to firmer guidance on length;

• guidance requiring Peers to refer to one another in the third person would be reinforced; and

• an explicit expectation that Members wear “business attire” in the Chamber and Grand Committee, in select committees, and in the division lobbies would be added to the Companion to the Standing Orders.

The Committee also proposes changes designed to speed up scrutiny of legislation. The advisory limit for backbench speeches at Report Stage and subsequent amending stages would be reduced from 10 to eight minutes. When deciding whether to withdraw or press an amendment at the end of a group, Peers would be required to speak briefly, without summarising the debate or revisiting earlier arguments.

A further Standing Order change would clarify that the requirement for at least 30 Peers to participate in a division applies to all motions relating to subordinate legislation, including regret or delay motions, rather than only motions formally approving or rejecting an instrument.

Business of the House motion (Sovereign Grant Bill): Peers will consider a motion to allow the Sovereign Grant Bill to complete all its remaining Lords stages on Wednesday 14 October.

Normally, Standing Order 44 prevents two stages of a bill being taken on the same day. The motion would suspend that rule for this bill on Wednesday 14 October, and would also prevent amendments being moved at Third Reading. If agreed, the Sovereign Grant Bill could therefore complete all its stages in a single sitting day.

This reflects the fact that the Bill will have been certified as a Money Bill, which significantly restricts the House of Lords’ role, and that Peers have agreed a Humble Address assuring the King that the House would “cheerfully concur” in the measures proposed by the Commons.

Select committee report debate – Retirement and participation: Peers will debate a report from the Retirement and Participation Committee recommending the introduction of a retirement age and minimum attendance requirement for members of the House of Lords. The cross-party Committee, chaired by Labour Peer Baroness Taylor of Bolton, was established following commitments in Labour’s 2024 manifesto to introduce a mandatory retirement age and a participation requirement. (House of Lords Library briefing).

The Committee recommends that the retirement age should apply to all existing members, without exemptions, but should be phased in to avoid a large number of Peers leaving at once. The process would begin on 8 July 2029, when any Peers aged 85 or over would be expected to retire. The retirement age would then fall by one year annually until reaching 80 in 2034.

For existing Peers, the Committee recommends implementing the retirement age through a resolution expressing the House’s view that members should retire by the relevant age. Without legislation, such a resolution could not be binding: life Peers have a statutory right under the Life Peerages Act 1958 to receive a writ of summons and to attend, sit, and vote. The arrangement would therefore rely on compliance by individual Peers and the party groups. New Peers, by contrast, would be required to give a written undertaking before appointment to retire by the age of 80. Failure to honour that undertaking could be treated as misconduct and result in expulsion.

On participation, the Committee concluded that attempting to measure Peers’ spoken contributions or participation in divisions would risk encouraging “performative” activity and would fail to capture work undertaken outside formal proceedings. It therefore recommended a simpler attendance threshold of 20% of sitting days, averaged over two parliamentary sessions. Unlike the retirement age for existing Peers, the Committee says this rule could be enforced through Standing Orders, using the House’s statutory power to expel or suspend members.

The Committee stresses that these reforms will not necessarily reduce the overall size of the House if departures are simply followed by further appointments.

Grand Committee

16:15: Railways Bill (Committee, day 3 of 7): The Committee will resume consideration of clauses and amendments to the Government’s legislation to establish Great British Railways (GBR) and reform the structure and regulation of the railway from the point reached at its second sitting on Thursday. (House of Lords Library briefing)

At Committee Stage, the House must decide whether each clause and schedule should remain in the Bill and whether amendments or new provisions should be added. Amendments are grouped for debate to avoid repetition. As scrutiny is taking place in Grand Committee, no divisions (formal votes) can be held, and an amendment can be agreed only if there is no objection. Peers may nevertheless use probing amendments to test the Government’s position before deciding whether to return to an issue at Report Stage.

The next sitting is scheduled for Monday 12 October, with four further Committee days currently planned, concluding on 26 October.

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Highlights include:

House of Lords

10:30: Constitution Committee – The UK’s constitutional safeguards: Former Cabinet Secretary Lord Case and former Principal Private Secretary to the Royal Household Lord Young of Old Windsor will give evidence.

10:30: International Relations and Defence Committee – Multilateralism: Experts in international relations will give evidence.

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

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The House will not be sitting as MPs continue the Conference Recess.

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Introduction of Peers: At 11:00, two new Peers will be introduced:

• Sir Chris Wormald (now Lord Wormald), former Cabinet Secretary, will join as a Crossbench Peer; and

• Dave McCobb (now Lord McCobb), a Liberal Democrat party official, will join as a Liberal Democrat Peer.

Oral questions: Peers will question Ministers for 40 minutes, on the G20 summit in 2027; plans to reduce the welfare budget to fund defence; and the impact of climate change on UK food supply. The topic of a fourth question will be decided by a ballot drawn at lunchtime on Tuesday 15 September.

General debate – VAT and other taxes on private schools: Typically, every Thursday from the beginning of each session until the end of January, time is set aside for general debates in the name of opposition frontbenchers, backbenchers or Crossbenchers. The allocation of these debates is decided via the Usual Channels, that is, the business managers from the Government and other parliamentary groups in the House. Two such debates are scheduled to take place today, either side of a Question for Short Debate.

The first general debate, led by Conservative Peer Lord Lexden, is on the impact of VAT and other tax changes on independent schools since 1 January 2025. The debate will take place on a neutral motion to “take note” of the issue and will therefore conclude without a division (formal vote). (House of Lords Library briefing)

Short debate – Mental health of agricultural workers: Every Thursday from the start of a session until the end of January, a topical Question for Short Debate (QSD) is scheduled between two general debates. The topic is selected by ballot, and only backbench and Crossbench members are eligible to enter. These debates are strictly time-limited to one hour. Proceedings begin with a speech from the member who tabled the question, followed by a response from the Minister. The remaining time is divided equally among the other members who wish to speak.

Today’s QSD, tabled by the Bishop of Hereford, asks what assessment the Government have made of the impact of economic uncertainty, regulatory change, and environmental pressures on the mental health of those working in agriculture.

General debate – The prison and probation service: The second general debate, led by Conservative Peer Lord Farmer, is on the state of the prison and probation service in England and Wales. As with the first general debate, the discussion will take place on a neutral motion with no division. (House of Lords Library briefing)

Grand Committee

Once every five sitting weeks, the Grand Committee sits for four hours on a Thursday to consider four Questions for Short Debate (QSDs). These QSDs are selected through a ballot, held on the same five-week cycle, open only to backbench and Crossbench Peers. The first four entries drawn in the ballot are scheduled for debate in Grand Committee on the relevant Thursday. The remaining successful entries are placed on a reserve list and may be debated during lunch or dinner breaks, or as the last item of business on a sitting day.

From 12:15, Peers will consider the four Questions for Short Debate drawn in the latest ballot, with each debate limited to one hour. Proceedings begin with a speech from the member who tabled the question, followed by a response from the Minister. The remaining time is divided equally among the other members who wish to speak.

• Empty homes and homelessness: Lord Bird will ask what assessment the Government has made of the potential for a national empty homes strategy to help end homelessness.

• Enterprise zones for sports clubs: Lord Mann will ask what assessment the Government has made of the economic benefits of giving sports clubs special enterprise zone status. (House of Lords Library briefing)

• Civil Service impartiality: Baroness Falkner of Margravine will ask what steps the Government intends to take to strengthen impartiality in the civil service and the delivery of public services.

• International healthcare partnerships: Lord Crisp will ask what steps the Government is taking to ensure that its international partnerships with organisations in African and Asian countries support the development of healthcare in those countries.

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No select committees are scheduled to meet in public today.

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Following the Conference Recess, both Houses will resume at 14:30 on Monday 12 October 2026.

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