Questions and statements: At 14:30, Defence Ministers will respond to MPs’ questions. Topics include pay for military personnel, overall defence spending, defence jobs in Scotland and Wales, the Defence Investment Plan, UK armed forces in the Middle East, defence skills, the US–Iran conflict, the Royal Fleet Auxiliary, and relationships with UK allies.

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. Possible topics include updates from Ministers on the situation in the Middle East. There are eight Written Statements scheduled for publication today. Several of these – for example, the Government’s response to the Nuclear Regulatory Review 2025 – may also warrant an oral statement.

Grenfell Tower Memorial (Expenditure) Bill (All Stages): This Bill was presented to the House on 25 February 2026 and MPs will debate all stages of it today. The Bill would authorise the Government to spend public money on building and operating a memorial to commemorate the victims of the Grenfell Tower fire. It also makes provision for funding to preserve, archive or display parts of the Grenfell Tower. (House of Commons Library briefing)

All public spending must be approved by Parliament. This is usually done via the annual Supply and Appropriation Acts, which implement the departmental spending requests (the Estimates) presented to Parliament during the annual Estimates Cycle. However, as Erskine May explains, when the Government takes on “any new functions which are to be exercised on a continuing basis” the associated spending should be authorised by specific primary legislation, not solely through the annual Appropriation Acts.

This principle stems from a 1932 agreement between the Government and the Public Accounts Committee, known as the Baldwin convention. Under this convention, legislation that exists solely to authorise spending for a new, continuing function is sometimes referred to as a ‘Concordat’ or ‘Baldwin convention’ bill.

Since this Bill establishes a new and continuing Government function – funding the construction, operation and preservation elements of the Grenfell memorial – authorising the spending through the Estimates process would not be sufficient. A specific Act of Parliament is therefore required.

Before the Bill can be debated, the Government will move an Allocation of Time motion setting out how long the House may spend on each stage of its consideration. The motion proposes that all stages of the Bill be taken today with a total time limit of four hours. Under the motion, Second Reading must conclude no later than three hours after the Allocation of Time motion is moved. Committee, Report and Third Reading must all conclude no later than four hours after the Allocation of Time motion is moved (or one hour after the latest permitted end-time for Second Reading, whichever is later).

When the Committee of the Whole House and Report Stage of a Bill are scheduled on the same day, amendments are tabled for Committee Stage rather than Report Stage. Typically, amendments for Committee Stage cannot be tabled until after Second Reading. However, because Second Reading will also take place today, the House agreed a motion on 3 March allowing amendments to be tabled in advance of Second Reading. No amendments have been tabled at the time of writing. If this remains the case, the only questions likely to be put at the end of Committee Stage will be whether each clause should stand part of the Bill.

Because the Bill would authorise new public spending, a Money Resolution is also required to permit the relevant expenditure. The purposes for which the Money motion would authorise expenditure are the same as those set out in the Bill as introduced. As a result, amendments to the Bill that would expand the purposes for which money could be spent beyond those originally set out would not be selected. This is because, as Erskine May explains, the Chair will not allow an MP to move an amendment that would involve expenditure not covered by the Money resolution relating to the bill. Amendments that would reduce expenditure would be procedurally in order, but in this context, they are unlikely to be tabled.

Once the Bill has passed the House of Commons, it will be sent to the House of Lords. The Office of the Parliamentary Counsel’s guide on Money Bills notes that Baldwin convention bills are “typically certified as Money Bills if they are confined to authorising expenditure”. It is therefore likely that the Speaker will certify this Bill as a Money Bill. If this occurs, the Bill will follow an expedited process in the House of Lords. It will not have separate Committee or Report Stages and will instead go through all its stages in a single sitting. For more information, see the Hansard Society’s guide to Money Bills.

Adjournment: Labour MP Douglas McAllister will give a speech on the Compensation Act 2006 and asbestos related lung cancer. A Minister will then give a response. (House of Commons Library briefing)

Westminster Hall

16:30: MPs will debate e-petition 737660, which calls for by-elections to be automatically called when MPs defect to another party. The petition has around 129,000 signatures. (House of Commons Library briefing)

Delegated Legislation Committee

18:00: The draft Non-Domestic Rating (Rates Retention and Levy and Safety Net: Miscellaneous Amendments) Regulations 2026

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Oral questions: At 14:30, Peers will begin the day by questioning Ministers for 40 minutes, on standards for civil servants on secondment to international organisations; in-house NHS software capabilities; humanist weddings; and the impact of proposals for a visitor levy on the cost of domestic travel and holidays within the UK.

Conduct motion (Lord Chadlington): Lord Kakkar, Chair of the Conduct Committee, will move a motion asking the House to agree to the Committee’s report regarding the conduct of Lord Chadlington.

On 11 March 2025, the Commissioner for Standards received a complaint from Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice UK alleging that Lord Chadlington may have misled the Commissioner during two previous investigations into his role in referring SG Recruitment Ltd to the government’s Covid-19 PPE ‘High Priority Lane’. Earlier investigations in 2022 and 2023 had concluded that there was insufficient evidence that Lord Chadlington breached the House of Lords Code of Conduct. The new complaint relied on evidence submitted to the Covid-19 Inquiry suggesting additional undisclosed contact with a Government minister. After reviewing the Inquiry material, Lord Chadlington’s witness statement, and evidence from the earlier investigations, the Commissioner found sufficient prima facie evidence to open a third investigation. He ultimately found that Lord Chadlington had committed five breaches of the Code, including providing paid parliamentary services, failing to cooperate adequately with earlier investigations, and failing to act on his personal honour. The Commissioner recommended that Lord Chadlington be suspended from the service of the House for 12 months. Lord Chadlington appealed against the Commissioner’s report, but the Conduct Committee rejected all his grounds of appeal. It upheld the Commissioner’s findings and recommended that the House adopt the proposed sanction of a 12-month suspension.

If the House agrees with the Committee’s report, then a further motion is normally moved to formally give effect to the suspension. However, on publication of the Conduct Committee’s report Lord Chadlington announced that he would retire from the House of Lords. His retirement took effect the following day.

The Standing Orders of the House of Lords require that any motion on a Conduct Committee report and any subsequent motion providing for a sanction must be taken without debate.

Pension Schemes Bill (Report, day 1 of 3): Today is the first day of Report Stage of the Government’s Bill to reform the pensions regime. (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 will be grouped together for debate, to prevent repetition and create a more focused debate. It is at Report Stage that the Government is most frequently defeated on amendments.

The House will decide the amendments in the order in which they apply to the Bill, so the first amendments to be debated will relate to the Bill’s early clauses, which require all local government pension funds to join a centralised “asset pool company” with responsibility for implementing investment strategies.

The Hansard Society has highlighted the difficulties Parliament faces in scrutinising legislation in highly complex and technical areas such as pensions law. This Bill contains 123 clauses, and 119 provisions delegate powers to Ministers – rather than Parliament – to make law later through regulations. The House of Lords Delegated Powers and Regulatory Reform Committee has warned that this “skeletal” Bill amounts to a “licence” or “blank cheque” for Ministers to legislate by regulation.

The Society has noted that while substantial attention is given to Bills of this kind, far less scrutiny is devolved to the regulations that follow, even though these Statutory Instruments ultimately shape and implement the policy. Pensions legislation illustrates how reforms to the scrutiny of delegated legislation, as proposed by the Hansard Society, would enable Parliament to focus less on hypothetical risks in primary legislation and more on the detailed policy choices contained in the regulations that follow. Such reforms could strike a better balance between governmental flexibility and democratic oversight, enabling Governments to legislate in complex and fast-moving policy areas while ensuring Parliament can properly scrutinise and influence the laws that affect people’s lives.

Grand Committee

From 15:45, Peers will debate two select committee reports:

• A report by the International Agreements Committee (IAC), titled Treaty Scrutiny in Westminster: Addressing the Accountability Gap. The Hansard Society submitted evidence to the IAC’s inquiry and the then Chair of the Committee, Lord Goldsmith, discussed the inquiry on our Parliament Matters podcast last December. In our submission we called for a parliamentary consent vote for the most significant international agreements, a stronger role for Parliament in shaping negotiating mandates and monitoring progress, and a sifting committee tasked with determining which agreements warrant the greatest scrutiny. The IAC’s report supported calls for a parliamentary consent vote on significant agreements and other aspects of our recommendations. The Government has responded to the IAC’s report. While the Government expresses a willingness to discuss how to improve working practices, it does not believe there is a strong case for fundamental reform of parliamentary scrutiny. This is contrary to the views expressed by many Ministers when they were in opposition in the 2019 Parliament. (House of Lords Library briefing)

• A report by the Communications and Digital Committee, titled Media literacy. The Government has responded to the Committee’s report. (House of Lords Library briefing)

↖ Contents · Skip to Tuesday’s Lords ↘

Highlights include:

House of Commons

15:30: Public Accounts Committee – Regulating for growth: The Permanent Secretary at the Department for Business and Trade (DBT), the Second Permanent Secretary at the Treasury, and other senior DBT and Treasury officials 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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↖ Contents · Skip to Tuesday’s Select Committees ↘

Questions and statements: At 11:30, Justice Ministers will respond to MPs’ questions. Topics include a National Listing Framework, violence against women and girls, foreign national prisoner deportation, early-release schemes, the experience of victims in court, the right to protest, changes to jury trials, transparency in court proceedings, fly-tipping, automated enforcement technology, and knife crime.

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

Ten Minute Rule Motion: Labour MP Catherine McKinnell will seek to introduce a Clinical Negligence 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 establish a fixed recoverable costs scheme to limit the costs that may be recovered in respect of certain cases of clinical negligence, provide for regular review of those limits, amend the Law Reform (Personal Injuries) Act 1948, and require the Government to report on options for reform of clinical negligence compensation relating to obstetrics. See our Hansard Society guide for more information about the parliamentary procedure for Ten Minute Rule Bills.

Catherine McKinnell is a member of the Health and Social Care Committee, which published a report on the costs of clinical negligence in January. The provisions of her Bill are expected to reflect the content of that report. In particular, the report called on the Government to “clarify its position on a fixed recoverable costs scheme for lower-value clinical negligence cases”, explained that the 1948 Act required damages to be settled “on the basis of costs of care in the private sector” rather than through the NHS or local government, and argued that recent increases in clinical negligence costs “have been driven mainly by rising damages, particularly for a small number of very-high-value cases in obstetrics”.

Ministerial Salaries (Amendment) Bill (All Stages): Another Bill will be fast-tracked through all its Commons stages today, with MPs set to debate this new Bill to increase the total number of ministerial salaries from 109 to 120. Since 2010, successive governments have appointed more Ministers than the current salary limit allows. The present Labour Government has appointed 120 Ministers, of whom two in the House of Commons and nine in the House of Lords currently serve without pay. There is no legal limit on the number of Peers who may serve as unpaid Ministers, and the House of Commons Disqualification Act 1975 caps the number of ministers who may sit in the House of Commons at 95. As a result, increasing the overall number of ministerial salaries to 120 will effectively raise the minimum number of paid ministerial posts available in the House of Lords to 25, including seven Whips. (House of Commons Library briefing)

There have long been calls in the House of Lords to address the anomaly that some of its Ministers are not paid. But as explained in last week’s Bulletin, the Bill has been introduced specifically in response to an amendment made by Peers to the House of Lords (Hereditary Peers) Bill, which would have barred any unsalaried Lords Ministers from continuing to sit in the House. On Wednesday, in large part because the Government had made this concession, the Lords agreed not to insist on their amendment.

Before this Bill can be debated, the Government will move an Allocation of Time motion providing that all stages of the Bill be taken at today’s sitting within a maximum of four hours. The motion specifies that Second Reading must conclude no later than three hours after the Allocation of Time motion is moved and that Committee, Report and Third Reading must then conclude no later than four hours after the motion is moved (or one hour after the latest permitted end-time for Second Reading, whichever is later).

When the Committee of the Whole House and Report Stage of a Bill take place on the same day, amendments are tabled for Committee Stage rather than Report Stage. Typically, amendments for Committee Stage cannot be tabled until after Second Reading. However, since Second Reading will take place on the day, the House agreed a motion on 3 March allowing amendments to be tabled in advance of Second Reading. No amendments have been tabled so far, and so unless this changes, the only questions that will be put at the end of Committee Stage will be whether the clauses should “stand part” of the Bill.

Once the Commons has passed the Bill, it will be sent to the House of Lords. It is not yet clear whether the Bill will be similarly fast-tracked in a single sitting in the Lords; the Upper House is typically more reluctant to agree to such arrangements.

Adjournment: Liberal Democrat MP Andrew George will give a speech on the Isles of Scilly transport provision. A Minister will then give a response.

Westminster Hall

09:30: Productivity and economic growth in the East Midlands (House of Commons Library briefing)

11:00: Government support for the Croydon Area Remodelling Scheme

14:30: Immigration reforms (House of Commons Library briefing)

16:00: Effectiveness of the Child Maintenance Service (House of Commons Library briefing)

16:30: Condition of roads in rural areas (House of Commons Library briefing)

Delegated Legislation Committees

09:25: The draft Armed Forces Commissioner (Family Definition, and Consequential and Transitional Provision etc.) Regulations 2026

14:30: The draft Grants to the Churches Conservation Trust Order 2026

14:30: The draft Contracts for Difference (Sustainable Industry Rewards and Contract Budget Notice Amendments) Regulations 2026

16:30: The draft Tertiary Education and Research (Wales) Act 2022 (Consequential Amendments) Order 2026

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Oral questions: At 14:30, Peers will begin the day by questioning Ministers for 40 minutes, on Plan 2 student loans; the BBC World Service; the dispute between Birmingham City Council and Unite over refuse workers; and representations to Fujitsu on making an interim payment towards the costs of investigation and redress in the Post Office Horizon case.

Victims and Courts Bill (Third Reading): The House of Lords is expected to conclude proceedings on this Government Bill to reform the experience of victims within the criminal justice system. Third Reading debates in the House of Lords are typically very short. (House of Lords Library briefing)

During the Bill’s Report Stage, Peers defeated the Government on five amendments:

• court transcripts: giving victims the right to receive free transcripts of Route to Verdict and bail decisions relevant to their case;

• relatives of victims of homicide abroad: requiring the Victims’ Code to include an appendix outlining how the code applies to victims whose close relative was a victim of homicide outside the UK;

• sentencing remarks: requiring the free online publication of Crown Court sentencing remarks;

• maximum sentences for certain offences: removing Clause 12 from the Bill, which would have increased the maximum sentence for certain offences (including breach of various court orders and unlawful sub-letting) when tried in a magistrates’ court from 6 months to “the general limit in a magistrates’ court”, currently 12 months; and

• unduly lenient sentences: allowing for the 28-day timeframe for applications to the Unduly Lenient Sentences Scheme to be extended in exceptional circumstances.

The Bill will therefore need to return to the House of Commons so that MPs can consider their response. For each Lords amendment, the Commons can either agree with the amendment, reject it outright, or propose an alternative of its own. Only once both Houses agree the same version of the Bill can it be sent for Royal Assent.

Motion on the Spring Forecast Statement: Treasury Minister Lord Livermore will move a motion that the House “takes note” of the Statement delivered by the Chancellor of the Exchequer in the House of Commons on 3 March. It is expected that debate on this motion will be combined with debate on the Finance Bill below.

Finance (No. 2) Bill (All Stages): This Bill gives statutory effect to certain tax changes announced in the Autumn Budget, as well as some measures announced in earlier Budgets. We provided a summary of the contents of the Bill, and its relation to the Autumn Budget, in a previous Bulletin. (House of Lords Library briefing)

The Bill has completed its passage through the House of Commons and is now scheduled to go through all its Lords stages at today’s sitting. The Speaker of the House of Commons has certified that the Bill is a Money Bill – that is, a bill that only contains provision relating to taxation or public expenditure. The ability of the Lords to amend Money Bills is restricted, which usually means that the Committee and Report Stages are taken as a formality and debate only takes place at Second Reading. For more information, see the Hansard Society’s guide to Money Bills.

Once the Bill passes the Lords, it will be sent to receive Royal Assent.

Grand Committee

From 15:45, Peers will debate seven draft Statutory Instruments:

• Higher Education (Fee Limits and Fee Limit Condition) (England) (Amendment) Regulations 2026;

• Further Education (Initial Teacher Training) Regulations 2026;

• Data (Use and Access) Act 2025 (Consequential Amendments and Transitional Provision) Regulations 2026;

• National Minimum Wage (Amendment) Regulations 2026;

• Renewables Obligation (Amendment) Order 2026;

• Electricity Supplier Payments (Amendment) Regulations 2026; and

• Tertiary Education and Research (Wales) Act 2022 (Consequential Amendments) Order 2026.

The first set of regulations, relating to higher education fee limits, would increase the limits on tuition fees that higher education providers can charge for full-time undergraduate courses from £9,535 to £9,790 in 2026/27 and £10,050 in 2027/28.

↖ Contents · Skip to Wednesday’s Lords ↘

Highlights include:

House of Commons

09:45: Treasury Committee – The OBR 15 years on: Economists – including Ruth Curtice, Chief Executive at the Resolution Foundation, and Julian Jessop, Economics Fellow at the Institute for Economic Affairs – will give evidence.

10:30: Defence Committee – MoD Annual Report and Accounts 2024-25: The Ministry of Defence’s Permanent Secretary and other senior MoD officials will give evidence. Two topics arising from the 2024-25 Accounts may be discussed in today’s session. The first concerns the Comptroller and Auditor General’s (C&AG’s) decision to issue a “qualified opinion” on the MoD’s financial statements, meaning the accounts are considered reliable except for certain specified issues. The main concern relates to £6.13 billion of “assets under construction” tied to the Atomic Weapons Establishment, an arms-length body that helps to deliver the UK’s nuclear deterrent. The C&AG noted that the value of these projects had “remained unchanged for several years” and that he had been “unable to obtain sufficient appropriate audit evidence” that those assets are “free from material misstatement”, because the department did not have appropriate accounting records. A second issue was £2.56 billion in spending above the limits authorised by Parliament through the annual Estimates Cycle. Much of this relates to Afghan Response Route costs that were withheld from the 2023-24 Accounts and had to be restated in the 2024-25 Accounts. This overspend required the MoD to seek retrospective approval for the spending via an Excess Vote earlier this month. For more information on the Estimates and Excess Votes see our guide to the Estimates Cycle. We also discussed the issues arising from the MoD’s Estimates in a recent episode of our Parliament Matters podcast.

14:00: International Development Committee – Post-Assad Syria: development challenges and opportunities: Minister for the Middle East Hamish Falconer MP will give evidence, followed by Syria’s Deputy Minister for Emergency and Disaster Management.

14:30: Justice Committee – Legislative scrutiny: Courts and Tribunals Bill: Lawyers and the Victims’ Commissioner will give evidence on the Bill, which has been informed by Sir Brian Leveson’s Independent Review of the Criminal Courts, particularly around the use of jury trials. We discuss the Bill with the former Director of Public Prosecutions Lord (Ken) Macdonald of River Glaven on this week’s episode of our Parliament Matters podcast.

15:00: Culture, Media and Sport Committee – Review of Arts Council England: Baroness (Margaret) Hodge of Barking will give evidence on her review of Arts Council England.

15:00: Energy Security and Net Zero Committee – The cost of energy: Energy Minister Michael Shanks MP will give evidence.

House of Lords

10:30: Industry and Regulators Committee – Regulators and growth: Financial Secretary to the Treasury Lord Livermore will give evidence.

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

↖ Contents · Skip to Wednesday’s Select Committees ↘

Details of Wednesday’s business can be found below.

Questions and statements: At 11:30, Science, Innovation and Technology Ministers will respond to MPs’ questions. Topics include digital ID, broadband in rural areas, regulation of pornography, AI growth zones, children’s online safety, UK Research and Innovation funding, online misinformation, Science and Technology Facilities Council funding, defence research and innovation, and the Sovereign AI Strategy.

At 12:00, Sir Keir Starmer is set to face the Leader of the Opposition, Kemi Badenoch, at Prime Minister’s Questions.

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

Ten Minute Rule Motion: Labour MP Abena Oppong-Asare will seek to introduce a Menstrual and Gynaecological Health 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 provide for teaching of menstrual and gynaecological health.

Opposition Day (Conservatives): This is the 19th of 20 Opposition Days scheduled this Session – days when Government business does not have priority and precedence is instead given to motions tabled by opposition parties. As this is a Conservative Opposition Day, the subject will be chosen by the Leader of the Opposition, Kemi Badenoch. Specific details of the motion(s) to be debated may not be made known until Wednesday’s Order Paper is published.

Presentation of Public Petitions: Liberal Democrat MP Dr Danny Chambers will present a public petition, on the school bus service from Kings Worthy to Henry Beaufort School.

Adjournment: Conservative MP Alicia Kearns will give a speech on flooding support for rural communities. A Minister will then give a response. (House of Commons Library briefing)

Westminster Hall

09:30: Performance of Royal Mail (House of Commons Library briefing)

11:00: Government support for domestic abuse survivors

14:30: Government support for freedom of religion or belief in China (House of Commons Library briefing)

16:00: Future of Cheadle train station

16:30: Social enterprises and community ownership (House of Commons Library briefing)

Public Bill Committee

09:25 and 14:00: Representation of the People Bill (Committee, day 1): The Public Bill Committee appointed to consider this Bill will meet today to hear oral evidence from witnesses. The witnesses will have been agreed in advance between the Government and Opposition Whips.

Delegated Legislation Committees

14:30: The draft Warm Home Discount (England and Wales) Regulations 2026

14:30: The draft Ministerial and other Salaries Act 1975 (Amendment) Order 2026

16:30: The draft Further Education (Initial Teacher Training) Regulations 2026

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Oral questions: At 15:00, Peers will begin the day by questioning Ministers for 40 minutes, on the contribution of trail hunting to the rural economy; the EU Directive on Adequate Minimum Wages; and supporting councils with high street regeneration. The topic of a fourth question will be decided by a ballot drawn at lunchtime on Monday 16 March.

Crime and Policing Bill (Report, day 6 of 6): This Government Bill seeks to reform the law relating to anti-social behaviour, crime, policing, public order, and national security. (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 will be grouped together for debate, to prevent repetition and create a focused debate. It is at Report Stage that the Government is most frequently defeated on amendments.

The House is expected to conclude its scrutiny of all the clauses and amendments. Topics likely to be considered today include:

• terrorism offences: non-Government amendments to remove certain conditions from the offence of encouraging terrorism, and to add an intentionality requirement to certain offences under the Terrorism Act 2000;

• proscription: non-Government amendments to allow only one organisation to be included in each proscription order under the Terrorism Act; to limit the power of courts to allow an appeal against a proscription order; to allow persons arrested while a group was proscribed to be prosecuted even if the group has been de-proscribed; and to boost the role of the Intelligence and Security Committee in the proscription process;

• decriminalisation of abortion: non-Government amendments to entirely remove the clause to decriminalise abortion; to limit the decriminalisation of abortion only to cases where a woman was suffering from a mental disturbance or was a victim of domestic abuse, and require senior police officers to authorise investigations in other cases; to require in-person consultation prior to an abortion; to require mandatory investigation of abortions performed on girls under 16; to extend the decriminalisation to offences committed before the legal change, ensuring that ongoing investigations cease; and to pardon and expunge the records of women previously prosecuted under abortion law;

• assisted dying in Scotland and the Crown Dependencies: an amendment from the sponsor of the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill, Lord Falconer of Thoroton, that would create an exception to the existing offence of encouraging or assisting suicide, so that the offence does not apply where a person facilitates, or performs an official function in connection with, someone seeking to end their own life in accordance with relevant legislation in Scotland or the Crown Dependencies (including Jersey and the Isle of Man);

• information law enforcement data-sharing: non-Government amendments requiring a privacy assessment to be carried out before regulations are made to implement relevant information-sharing agreements; to require enhanced protective measures where highly sensitive information is transferred under those agreements; and to require an annual report on the operation of the data-sharing arrangements;

• AI and online safety: a Government amendment to give Ministers the power to amend the Online Safety Act in any way, in order to reduce the risk of harm from illegal AI content; and a series of amendments from Baroness Kidron to specify on the face of the Bill a new offence for developing or distributing an AI chatbot or search service that produces illegal content or certain content that is harmful or misleading to children;

• underwater cables: non-Government amendments to increase the penalties for sabotage of underwater cables;

• water pollution: non-Government amendments to create a new offence where a water company fails to meet pollution performance commitments; and making senior managers liable for the failure to meet those commitments; and

• criminal responsibility: non-Government amendments to raise the age of criminal responsibility in England and Wales from 10 to 12.

In the past week, the Hansard Society published a briefing highlighting two Government amendments to bills currently before Parliament that would grant Ministers significant powers to reshape key parts of existing online safety legislation. One of those amendments – relating to AI and online safety – is listed above. Our briefing explains that the proposed power is exceptionally broad. It would allow the Government to amend any provision of the Online Safety Act, constrained only by the requirement that the changes must be for the purpose of reducing harms arising from illegal AI content. In theory, this could enable changes that go well beyond the Government’s stated intentions. The breadth of the power raises serious constitutional questions about parliamentary scrutiny, particularly given the late stage at which the amendment is being introduced. By tabling it at Report Stage in the House of Lords, the Government limits the House of Commons’ opportunity to debate or amend the proposal. As a result there is a risk that neither the power itself nor the regulations made under it will receive adequate scrutiny. For more information, read our briefing here.

↖ Contents · Skip to Thursday’s Lords ↘

Highlights include:

House of Commons

09:15: Select Committee on the Armed Forces Bill – Armed Forces Minister Al Carns MP and senior Ministry of Defence officials will give evidence.

09:30: Work and Pensions Committee – Transition to State Pension age: Pensions Minister Torsten Bell MP will give evidence.

09:30: Northern Ireland Affairs Committee – Ending violence against women and girls in Northern Ireland: Jess Phillips MP, the Minister for Violence Against Women and Girls, will give evidence.

14:15: Treasury Committee – The Interim Chair, Interim CEO and Interim Chief Ombudsman at the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) will give evidence on the FOS’s work.

House of Lords

10:00: Environment and Climate Change Committee – Waste crime: Emma Reynolds MP, Secretary of State at the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, will give evidence accompanied by officials.

11:30: International Relations and Defence Committee – The UK’s future relationship with the US: Lord (Simon) McDonald, former Permanent Secretary at the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, will give evidence alongside Professor Sir Lawrence Freedman, Emeritus Professor of War Studies at King’s College London, and Laurel Rapp, Director of the US and North America Programme at Chatham House.

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

↖ Contents · Skip to Thursday’s Select Committees ↘

Questions and statements: At 09:30, Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Ministers will face questions from MPs. Topics include sea defences, snare traps, air pollution, food security, the Sustainable Farming Incentive, EU sanitary and phytosanitary negotiations, costs of energy in off-grid homes, male chick culling, flood protection, rights to food, littering, agricultural subsidies, the alternative protein sector, and nature improvement targets.

At 10:10, the Solicitor General on behalf of the Attorney General will face questions from MPs. Topics include the effectiveness of the Serious Fraud Office, the Courts and Tribunals Bill and jury trials, the Unduly Lenient Sentences Scheme, violence against women and girls, CPS communications with victims, the Victims’ Right to Review, and the Hillsborough Law.

Any Urgent Questions will follow.

The Leader of the House of Commons, Sir Alan Campbell MP, will present the weekly Business Statement, setting out the business in the House for the next couple of weeks and answering questions about anything that Members might want debated. Any Ministerial Statements will follow.

Backbench debate on progress in tackling climate change: The topic of this debate – on a motion to consider the UK’s progress towards achieving the goal of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius – was chosen by the Backbench Business Committee following an application from Labour MP Luke Murphy. Notably, his application was made in July 2025, eight months ago, underlining the significant backlog of bids awaiting a slot for a debate. In his application, he argued that the debate “would be an opportunity to speak for those who seek to slow or accelerate our progress towards meeting our climate targets”. (House of Commons Library briefing)

Backbench debate on online harms: The House will debate a motion stating that current legislation is falling short in preventing online harms and therefore calling on the Government to review whether it is necessary to introduce new legislation that is centred around harm reduction in this Parliament. The debate topic was chosen by the Backbench Business Committee following an application from Liberal Democrat MP Ian Sollom, also back in July 2025. In his application, Sollom argued that parliamentarians had “not had a huge amount of opportunity for Parliament to scrutinise” the illegal harms and children’s codes issued under the Online Safety Act 2023. (House of Commons Library briefings on an e-petition relating to the Online Safety Act; proposals to ban social media for children; tackling digital exploitation of women and girls.)

Adjournment: Labour MP Luke Akehurst will give a speech on Government policy on discretionary increases for pre-1997 pensions. A Minister will then give a response. (House of Commons Library briefing)

Westminster Hall

13:30: Northern Ireland Affairs Committee chair Tonia Antoniazzi MP will introduce a debate about her Committee’s recent report, The Government’s new approach to addressing the legacy of the past in Northern Ireland. The Committee has also published the Government’s response to the report. Select committees can ask the Backbench Business Committee for time to make statements on the launch of inquiries or the publication of a report in the Chamber. Committees can also ask the Liaison Committee for time in Westminster Hall, as is the case here.

15:00: Accessibility of banking services (House of Commons Library briefing)

Public Bill Committee

11:30 and 14:00: Representation of the People Bill (Committee, day 2): Having taken oral witnesses on Wednesday, the Public Bill Committee will begin its clause-by-clause scrutiny and consideration of amendments at today’s sitting. The Committee will decide on the Bill’s clauses and amendments in the order in which they appear, or would appear, in the Bill. Today’s debate is therefore likely to focus on the earliest clauses in the Bill, which relate to the extension of the right to vote to 16- and 17-year olds.

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Oral questions: At 11:00, Peers will begin the day by questioning Ministers for 40 minutes, on consulting unpaid carers when discharging patients from hospital; the use of technology for flood detection and prevention; and rail infrastructure resilience against future storms and floods. The topic of a fourth question will be decided by a ballot drawn at lunchtime on Tuesday 17 March.

Pension Schemes Bill (Report, day 2 of 3): The House will continue the Report Stage of the Government’s Bill to reform the pensions regime. (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 will be grouped together for debate, to prevent repetition and create a more focused debate. It is at Report Stage that the Government is most frequently defeated on amendments.

The House decides the amendments in the order in which they apply to the Bill. It will therefore resume its consideration of amendments from the point where the House reached at Monday’s sitting.

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Highlights include:

House of Commons

10:00: Public Accounts Committee – NAO financial audit insights 2024-25: The Permanent Secretary at HM Treasury and the Chief Executive at the Environment Agency will give evidence. Earlier this year, the NAO produced a report bringing together thematic insights from recent financial audits and wider assurance work. The report showed a range of common issues and areas for improvement: data and reporting quality, IT controls and implementing IT change, asset management, and the cost and delivery of compensation schemes. The report also noted a decline in the number of public bodies publishing their Annual Report and Accounts before the summer recess.

11:00: Public Accounts Committee – Restoration and Renewal (R&R) of Parliament: costing and governance: The Managing Director of the R&R Client Team and the Chief Executive of the R&R Delivery Authority will give evidence. The hearing is likely to focus on the R&R Client Board’s recent report on costed proposals for R&R. The report suggested that by 2030, Parliament should be presented with two options: a full decant from the Palace of Westminster costing between £11.1 billion and £15.6 billion for work taking 19 to 24 years, or Enhanced Maintenance and Improvement plus (EMI+) costing between £19.5 billion and £39.2 billion and taking 38 to 61 years. Under EMI+, the House of Lords would leave the Palace for 8 to 13 years, and the House of Commons would remain throughout the project but occupy the Lords Chamber for two years. The report recommended that the House vote this year on whether to provide £3 billion for an initial package of “phase one” works over seven years. Some, including the Shadow Leader of the House Jesse Norman MP, who is a member of the House of Commons Commission overseeing the governance of the R&R project, have expressed scepticism about the costs.

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.

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Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill (Committee, day 12): From 10:00, the House will meet to continue its consideration of the Bill to legalise assisted dying in England and Wales. At Committee Stage, the House must decide whether each clause and schedule should remain in the Bill, and whether any amendments should be made or new clauses and schedules added. (House of Lords Library briefing)

Amendments can be grouped and debated together to keep the discussion focussed and coherent and to avoid unnecessary repetition. To date, the Government Whips have organised the amendments into 90 groups, of which just 33 have been debated. The slow pace of progress has given rise to the suggestion that the Parliament Act might be deployed in the next Session to bring the Bill into law despite the opposition or indecision of the House of Lords. A recent episode of our Parliament Matters podcast includes a detailed discussion of how the Parliament Act works and how it might be utilised for this Private Member’s Bill.

A new marshalled list (a numbered list which sets out all the amendments to reflect their position in relation to where they apply to the Bill) will be published before today’s sitting starts (under the Amendment Paper section of the Publications tab on the Bill page on the parliamentary website). An updated list of the groups of amendments may also be published, and the sponsoring Peer, Lord Falconer of Thoroton, will indicate how many of these groups he hopes will be debated today.

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Both Houses will resume at 14:30 on Monday 23 March 2026. Our next Bulletin will therefore be published on Sunday 22 March.

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