Questions and statements: At 14:30, Defence Ministers will respond to MPs’ questions. Topics include the defence industrial base, service family accommodation, procurement from small and medium-sized enterprises, innovation in the defence sector, military support for Ukraine, drones, economic growth, the impact of low-flying aircraft on local residents, the cadet force, and army recruitment.

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. The Government is expected to make a statement to the House following Saturday evening’s multiple-stabbing incident aboard the LNER train service near Huntingdon (1 November).

Public Office (Accountability) Bill (Second Reading): This Bill – popularly known as the Hillsborough Law – will have its first debate in the House of Commons at today’s sitting. (House of Commons Library briefing)

The Bill makes a number of changes to the legislation on accountability of public officials, including:

• Duty of candour: Placing legal duties of candour on public servants and officials, requiring them to assist inquiries, inquests and other investigations candidly, promptly and proactively, with full disclosure, and without favour to their own position. Criminal sanctions will apply in cases of non-compliance.

• Ethical conduct: Placing a duty on public authorities to promote and maintain ethical conduct, including by producing a code of ethics.

• Misconduct in public office: Replacing the common law offence of misconduct in public office with two new statutory offences.

• Legal aid: Extending eligibility for non-means-tested legal aid to victims (and families of victims) of disasters or state-related deaths.

At Second Reading, MPs will only debate the general principles underlying the Bill. No amendments to the text can be made at this stage. However, MPs opposed to the Bill could table a “reasoned amendment”, which, if agreed, would constitute a rejection of the Bill while putting on record their reasons for doing so.

The programme motion tabled by the Government specifies that the Bill will be committed to a Public Bill Committee, made up of around 16 to 20 MPs, which will scrutinise the Bill clause by clause until Thursday 11 December at the latest.

Statutory Instruments: The House will be asked to approve without further debate two draft Statutory Instruments that have been considered by Delegated Legislation Committees:

• the Broadcasting (Independent Productions) Regulations 2025; and

• the Broadcasting (Regional Programme-making and Original Productions) (Amendment) Regulations 2025.

Select committee motions: Last month’s reshuffle led to the appointment of several dozen select committee members to Ministerial and Parliamentary Private Secretary roles, requiring them to relinquish their committee places. As a result, vacancies have arisen among the Labour seats on select committees. Two motions have been tabled by the Committee of Selection to replace two Labour members of the Energy Security and Net Zero Committee and one Labour member of the Women and Equalities Committee.

Presentation of Public Petitions: Labour MP Emma Lewell will present a public petition on regulation of houses in multiple occupation.

Adjournment: Labour MP Sally Jameson will give a speech on Government support for care leavers. A Minister will then give a response. (House of Commons Library briefing)

Westminster Hall:

16:30: MPs will debate e-petition 702074, which calls on the Government to prohibit publishers from disabling video games they have already sold. The petition has around 190,000 signatures. (House of Commons Library briefing)

Delegated Legislation Committee

18:00: draft Environmental Protection (Wet Wipes Containing Plastic) (England) Regulations 2025

↖ Contents · Skip to Tuesday’s Commons ↘

Oral questions: At 14:30, Peers will begin the day by questioning Ministers for 40 minutes, on young people moving from the Youth Custody Service into the adult prison estate; financial support for London boroughs; public-private partnerships with shares open to the public, and AI training in the UK’s workforce.

Urgent Question repeat: Baroness Chapman of Darlington, Minister of State (Development) at the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, will repeat the Government statement on securing the elimination of Hamas from Gaza and the preservation of the ceasefire that was given in the House of Commons last Wednesday, 29 October.

Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill (Report, day 2): At Report Stage, the whole House debates and decides on amendments to the Bill, with related amendments grouped together for debate. The next groups of amendments to be debated relate to the age-assessment of illegal entrants and asylum seekers; the Nationality and Borders Act 2022; legal aid for detained persons; deportation of criminals from overseas; student visas; the EU Settlement Scheme; financial and accommodation support for refugees; conditions on immigration status; and asylum seekers’ right to work.

Planning and Infrastructure Bill (Report, day 5): Although four days were initially scheduled for Report Stage, the Government has now allocated a fifth, largely due to the heavy workload faced by the House in scrutinising an exceptionally large volume of amendments (including 67 Government amendments) across the four earlier sittings.

The decision is particularly notable given that the Government had already taken the unusual step of scheduling two of those sittings to begin in the morning, contrary to the usual practice of the House. Those sitting days each ran for around 11 hours.

Ultimately, even those extended sittings proved insufficient, and the House of Lords will now spend five days on Report Stage after all. The Government will no doubt argue that the extra day stems from slow progress at the earlier sittings, while the Conservatives will point to the sheer volume of Government amendments and argue that five days was necessary all along (as they argued when the motion to facilitate morning sittings was put to the House).

The length of this Report Stage – the longest this session – highlights the significant pressures on the Government’s legislative programme in the House of Lords, and helps to explain its decision to prolong the length of the current parliamentary session until the Spring.

At today’s sitting, the House will scrutinise the final groups of amendments, which relate to New Towns and development corporations; green and blue spaces; compulsory purchase and land compensation; land banking; the impact of local government reorganisation; and health and wellbeing. (House of Lords Library briefing)

Grand Committee:

15:45: Tobacco and Vapes Bill (Committee, day 3). The House will continue its Committee Stage scrutiny of the Tobacco and Vapes Bill. At Committee Stage, the House debates whether each clause should be included in the Bill, and considers potential amendments to its provisions.

This scrutiny is taking place in Grand Committee, which meets in a large committee room called the Moses Room rather than the main Chamber. In Grand Committee, all Peers may attend and speak, but no formal votes (divisions) take place. Amendments can only be agreed by unanimous consent. Consequently, debates at this stage are typically probing in nature – designed to elicit the Government’s position or to explore issues in greater detail. Substantive changes to the Bill are then usually considered and voted upon at the Bill’s Report Stage.

The next clauses and amendments to be debated relate to retail and distribution licensing; restricted premises; cigarette filters; offences and enforcement; and requirements to produce impact assessments.

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Highlights include:

House of Commons

13:30: Foreign Affairs Committee – Cabinet Secretary Chris Wormald and Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) Permanent Secretary Sir Oliver Robbins will give evidence on the work of the FCDO. The Committee has indicated that the session will particularly focus on “the processes behind the clearance and vetting of Lord Mandelson” prior to his appointment as Ambassador to the US. Whether the Committee should undertake pre-appointment hearings for political ambassadorial appointments is a question that is likely to be explored.

15:00: Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee – Cabinet Office Minister Josh Simons MP and Cat Little, the Permanent Secretary to the Cabinet Office and Chief Operating Officer for the Civil Service will give evidence on the work of the UK Statistics Authority.

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

Help keep this Bulletin free for everyone. The Bulletin is free and we want to keep it that way. But as a charity we rely on donations to fund the research and production costs that make it possible. A small regular donation – even £3 a month, less than a cup of coffee – helps us keep this Bulletin freely available to everyone interested in Parliament. Donate here

↖ Contents · Skip to Tuesday’s Select Committees ↘

Questions and statements: At 11:30, the Chancellor of the Exchequer and other Treasury Ministers will respond to MPs’ questions. Topics include the impact of Inheritance Tax changes, economic growth, access to banking in rural areas, HMRC customer service, the impact of National Insurance changes, the Scotch whisky industry, business rates, betting and gaming taxes, financial inclusion, and the circular economy.

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

Ten Minute Rule Motion: Labour MP Alice Macdonald will seek to introduce the Fertility Treatment (Right to Time Off) 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 create a right to paid time off work for fertility treatment. See our Hansard Society guide for more information about the parliamentary procedure for Ten Minute Rule Bills.

Opposition Day (Conservatives): On 20 days in each parliamentary session, the usual precedence given to Government business is set aside, and opposition parties are able to choose the topic of debate. Seventeen of these days are allocated to the Official Opposition, the Conservatives, and the remaining three are given to the third party, the Liberal Democrats. Opposition parties are not obliged to give advance notice of the debate’s topic, so it may not be known until Tuesday’s Order Paper is published late on Monday night.

Adjournment: Liberal Democrat MP Brian Matthew will give a speech on Government support for Sudan. A Minister will then give a response.

Westminster Hall

09:30: The impact of planned reductions in Official Development Assistance on international development (House of Commons Library briefing)

11:00: Royal Mail and the universal service obligation (House of Commons Library briefing)

14:30: Cross-border healthcare

16:00: Government support for the Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria

16:30: Planning consent for houses in multiple occupation

Delegated Legislation Committees

09:25: draft Trade Act 2021 (Power to Implement International Trade Agreements) (Extension to Expiry) Regulations 2025

14:30: draft Motor Fuel Price (Open Data) Regulations 2025

16:30: draft Product Security and Telecommunications Infrastructure (Security Requirements for Relevant Connectable Products) (Amendment) (No. 2) Regulations 2025

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Oral questions: At 14:30, Peers will begin the day by questioning Ministers for 40 minutes, on comments made by Elon Musk during his speech at a rally in London on Saturday 13 September; energy market reforms following the Government’s decision not to implement zonal pricing; Official Development Assistance Programme allocations for 2027-27; and safeguarding individuals who exhibit signs of suicidal ideation or other mental health emergencies while messaging generative AI chatbots.

Space Industry (Indemnities) Bill (Committee): The House will begin clause-by-clause scrutiny of this Private Member’s Bill to require spaceflight operator licences to specify a limit on the licensee’s liability to indemnify the UK Government and others against claims for losses or damages. It has completed all its Commons stages and is supported by the Government. (House of Lords Library briefing)

Although Private Members’ Bills are usually considered on Fridays, uncontroversial bills may progress on other sitting days, with the co-operation of the Government. So far, no amendments have been tabled. If none are submitted by Tuesday and no Peer signals an intention to speak, the Bill’s sponsor in the Lords, Baroness Anelay of St Johns, may move at the start of proceedings “that the order of commitment (or re-commitment) be discharged” enabling the Bill to bypass Committee Stage entirely. However, if any amendments are tabled before the sitting, the Government may reschedule the debate to a Friday sitting to allow time for fuller consideration.

Diego Garcia Military Base and British Indian Ocean Territory Bill (Second Reading): This Bill gives legislative effect to the UK–Mauritius Treaty on the Chagos Archipelago. In accordance with the treaty, the Bill terminates UK sovereignty over the British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT) and amends legislation to reflect that the BIOT will cease to exist as an overseas territory. (House of Lords Library briefing)

At Second Reading, the House will debate the general principles underlying the Bill. No amendments to the text can be made at this stage. The House of Lords rarely votes against Government Bills at Second Reading, and they therefore usually proceed without a division.

Once the Bill has received its Second Reading, it will be committed to a Committee of the Whole House for detailed clause-by-clause scrutiny at the next stage.

By convention, the Government does not ratify a treaty until the necessary implementing legislation – like this Bill – has been passed by Parliament. But legislation alone is not sufficient. Under the Constitutional Reform and Governance Act 2010 (CRaG) a treaty must be laid before Parliament for 21 sitting days before it can be ratified. During that 21-day period, either House may pass a resolution blocking ratification. If no such resolution is agreed, the treaty may be ratified.

CRaG also provides that if the House of Commons agrees a resolution against ratification, the process is delayed for a further 21 sitting days, during which time the House of Commons can further resolve that the treaty not be ratified. This gives the House of Commons the theoretical power to indefinitely delay ratification of a treaty. However, if the House of Lords agrees a motion not to ratify, the Government can still insist on ratification.

The Government is under no obligation to make time for debates on motions not to ratify treaties. In the case of the UK–Mauritius Treaty, such motions were tabled in both Houses. However, the Government only allocated time for debate on the motion in the House of Lords – the one that did not carry the risk of blocking ratification. Although the Lords ultimately voted against the motion not to ratify, this approach meant that the elected House of Commons – unlike the unelected Lords – had no opportunity to express its view on ratification of the Treaty itself. In the Hansard Society’s recent evidence to the House of Lords International Agreements Committee, we argued that all significant treaties should be subject to a parliamentary consent vote. We noted that where implementing legislation is required, it is preferable to secure parliamentary support for the agreement before it is signed. The argument, advanced by successive governments, that a treaty has already been properly and comprehensively scrutinised by Parliament simply because implementing legislation is required, is flawed. Scrutinising the detailed legal provisions of implementing legislation is a fundamentally different exercise from scrutinising the public policy decision to enter into the treaty itself.

Grand Committee: From 15:45, there will be debates on two select committee reports:

• 1st Report of the Public Services Committee, Think Work First: The transition from education to work for young disabled people. The Government has also published a response to the report. (House of Lords Library briefing)

• 1st Report of the Industry and Regulators Committee, Power struggle: Delivering Great Britain’s electricity grid infrastructure. The Government has published a response to this report as well. (House of Lords Library briefing)

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Highlights include:

House of Commons

10:00: Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee – Housing conditions in England: Campaign groups and representatives of tenants and landlords will give evidence on the potential effectiveness of the Government’s policies to improve conditions in the private rented sector and the likely impact of the Renters’ Rights Act.

10:30: Defence Committee – Afghan data breach and resettlement schemes: Evidence will be given by three journalists who were involved in court proceedings on the super-injunction that prohibited reporting of the Afghan data breach for two years: Times Defence editor Larisa Brown, The Independent’s Home Affairs correspondent Holly Bancroft, and Daily Mail chief reporter Sam Greenhill. The Committee has indicated they may be asked about the risk of Afghans who worked with UK forces being targeted for reprisals due to the data breach.

14:15: Treasury Committee – AI in financial services: Economic Secretary to the Treasury Lucy Rigby KC MP and Treasury officials will give evidence.

14:30: Home Affairs Committee – The work of the Migration Advisory Committee (MAC): The Chair and Deputy Chair of the MAC will give evidence.

House of Lords

10:00: Industry and Regulators Committee – Regulators and growth: Experts in law, regulation and competition will give evidence.

15:00: Economic Affairs Committee – The UK’s fiscal framework: The Resolution Foundation and Institute for Government 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, the Minister for Women and Equalities (Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson) will respond to MPs’ questions. Topics include violence against women and girls; women in STEM; diversity, equality and inclusion schemes; female whistle-blowers; and matricide.

At 12:00, Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy is set to stand in for Sir Keir Starmer at Prime Minister’s Questions, while the Prime Minister attends the COP30 summit. Lammy will make history as the first black man to take Prime Minister’s Questions. As is customary when the Prime Minister is away, the Leader of the Opposition is also expected to send a stand-in from the Shadow Cabinet to lead the questioning.

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

Ten Minute Rule Motion: Conservative MP Joe Robertson will seek to introduce the Ferry Services (Integration and Regulation) 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 make provision about the regulation of ferries and integration with other transport services.

Employment Rights Bill (Consideration of a Lords Message): The Bill was passed by the Commons, but the Government suffered defeats on 12 groups of amendments during the Bill’s passage in the Lords, as outlined in a previous edition of the Bulletin. When the Bill returned to the Commons, MPs disagreed outright with all but one of the Lords amendments (each detailed in the linked Bulletin above). On the issue of special constables, the Commons proposed an alternative amendment. The Commons also proposed an amendment to one of the Lords amendments that had been originally proposed by the Government. A message setting out these disagreements, and alternative amendments, was sent to the Lords.

Having disagreed outright with some Lords amendments and proposed alternatives to others, the Commons sent the Bill back for further consideration. The Lords then had to decide, for each of their original amendments, whether to accept the Commons position, insist on their original amendment, or propose an alternative. At last Tuesday’s sitting, the Lords accepted the Commons position on all but six issues. On one of these – relating to the exemption of voluntary work on heritage railways from restrictions on child employment – the Government supported a compromise amendment requiring it to issue guidance on the matter. This was agreed without a division and is therefore unlikely to cause difficulties in the Commons. On the remaining five issues, however, the Lords either insisted on their original amendments or proposed alternative versions opposed by the Government. These five issues are expected to generate further disagreement when the Bill returns to the Commons for the next round of ping-pong:

• Right to guaranteed hours: The Lords originally amended the Bill to make the right to guaranteed hours a right for employees to request rather than a duty on employers to offer. The Commons disagreed. The Lords did not insist on their original amendment, but instead proposed an alternative – allowing workers who have been offered and have refused guaranteed hours to indicate that they do not wish to receive further offers.

• Unfair dismissal: The Lords amended the Bill to replace the Government’s proposal to abolish the two-year qualifying period for unfair dismissal with a reduction from two years to six months. The Commons disagreed, and the Lords have now insisted on their original amendment.

• Seasonal work: The Lords amended the Bill to introduce a definition of seasonal work and require the Secretary of State to have regard to its specific characteristics and requirements. The Commons disagreed. Lords did not insist on their original amendment but proposed an alternative amendment that still defines seasonal work and requires it to be taken into account, while also allowing the Secretary of State to amend the definition through regulations.

• Trade union political fund: The Lords amended the Bill to replace the clause allowing trade union members to opt out of political fund contributions with a requirement that members must opt in. The Commons disagreed, and the Lords have now insisted on their original amendment.

• Threshold for industrial action: The Lords amended the Bill to reinstate the requirement that at least 50% of eligible trade union members must vote in favour of industrial action. The Commons disagreed and the Lords have insisted on their original amendment.

Where the Lords have insisted on an amendment that the Commons has already rejected once, the Commons cannot simply reiterate its disagreement without creating a situation known as “double insistence”, which by convention results in the Bill being lost. Therefore, in relation to unfair dismissal, trade union political funds, and industrial action thresholds, the Government must either propose an alternative amendment or accept the Lords position. It cannot simply disagree again.

Where the Lords have instead proposed an alternative amendment, the Commons may choose to agree, disagree, or put forward another alternative of its own.

Public Authorities (Fraud, Error and Recovery) Bill (Consideration of Lords Amendments): This Bill to tackle public sector fraud and social security fraud has also passed through both the Commons and the Lords. The Government suffered five defeats during the Bill’s passage through the Upper House:

• Initiation of investigations of fraud against public authorities: An amendment to enable Cabinet Office Ministers to initiate proactive investigations or recovery actions into suspected fraud against a public authority, without requiring a prior request from that authority.

• Oversight of officials recovering money lost to fraud: An amendment to provide greater ministerial and parliamentary oversight when authorised officers exercise ministerial powers to investigate and recover money lost to public sector fraud – such as by direct deductions from accounts, recovery notices, or deductions from earnings.

• Limits to benefit-eligibility verification powers: An amendment to clarify that, when banks are required to scan their accounts to identify benefit recipients and test them against specific ‘eligibility indicators’, the presence of an indicator does not alone constitute reasonable grounds for suspicion. It also requires that any information flagged be reviewed by a suitably qualified person.

• Independent review of benefit-eligibility verification powers: An amendment to expand the scope of the independent review of social security eligibility verification powers, to ensure that the costs are proportionate and any unintended adverse consequences are identified.

• Use of force: An amendment to prohibit authorised Department for Work and Pensions officers from using force against individuals when exercising their entry, search and seizure powers.

The Commons must decide, for each Lords amendment, whether to agree with the amendment, disagree with it outright, or propose an alternative. Unless the House of Commons agrees to all the Lords amendments, the Bill will be sent back to the Lords for consideration of the Commons’ position.

Adjournment: Labour MP Charlotte Nichols will give a speech on drug-related deaths. A Minister will then give a response.

Westminster Hall

09:30: The impact of financial secrecy in the overseas territories on UK communities

11:00: Government support for Bronze Age heritage in Cambridgeshire

14:30: Government support for housebuilding in London (House of Commons Library briefing)

16:00: Inequality of access to fresh and nutritious food (Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology briefing)

16:30: UK participation in the Council of Europe and the European Convention on Human Rights (House of Commons Library briefing)

↖ Contents · Skip to Looking ahead ↘

Oral questions: At 11:00, Peers will begin the day by questioning Ministers for 40 minutes, on the economic and industrial impact in Scotland of the UK’s recent defence agreement with Norway; the insourcing of prison services; and law enforcement efforts against perpetrators of online hate and racism. The topic of a fourth question will be decided by a ballot drawn at lunchtime on Monday 3 November. Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill (Report, day 3): The House will resume its clause-by-clause scrutiny of this Bill from the point it reached at the end of the previous sitting on Monday. (House of Lords Library briefing).

↖ Contents · Skip to Looking ahead ↘

Highlights include:

House of Commons

09:15: Transport Committee – Skills for transport manufacturing: Local Transport Minister Lilian Greenwood MP, the Skills England Chief Executive, and trade union representatives will give evidence.

09:30: Scottish Affairs Committee – Secretary of State for Scotland Douglas Alexander MP and Scotland Office Minister Kirsty McNeill MP will answer questions on their work.

09:30: Northern Ireland Affairs Committee – The Government’s new approach to addressing the legacy of the past in Northern Ireland: The Chief Commissioner for the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission, the Commissioner for Victims and Survivors Northern Ireland, and the Northern Ireland Veterans Commissioner will give evidence.

09:45: Treasury Committee – Budget 2025: Former Chancellor George Osborne and former Business Secretary Sir Vince Cable will give evidence.

14:45: Procedure Committee – Call lists: SNP Chief Whip Kirsty Blackman MP will give evidence, followed at 15:15 by the Hansard Society’s Director Ruth Fox (editor of this Bulletin) alongside Dr Helen Pankhurst, the Convener of Centenary Action.

House of Lords

10:10: Financial Services Regulation Committee – The growth of private markets in the UK following reforms introduced after 2008: The chief executives of Lloyds Banking Group and NatWest and a director of the Bank of England will give evidence.

10:15: Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill – Representatives of the legal and pharmaceutical sectors will give evidence on the Bill. The Committee will hold a further session at 14:10 with Health Minister Stephen Kinnock MP, Chief Medical Officer Sir Chris Whitty, senior NHS and Department of Health and Social Care officials, Children’s Commissioner Dame Rachel de Souza, and others yet to be announced.

15:30: International Relations and Defence Committee – former CIA Director John Brennan, former Director of GCHQ Professor Sir David Omand, and academic experts will give evidence on the UK’s future relationship with the US.

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

↖ Contents · Skip to Looking ahead ↘

Neither House is scheduled to sit on Thursday 6 or Friday 7 November 2025, as Parliament takes a brief Autumn recess.

However, the select committee appointed to scrutinise the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill is expected to publish its report on or before Friday 7 November. Unusually, the motion establishing the Committee requires only that the evidence it has considered be published, rather than the Committee make any recommendations.

The Commons will not return until 14:30 on Tuesday 11 November 2025. But the Lords will resume at 14:30 on Monday 10 November 2025.

Our next Bulletin will therefore be published on Sunday 9 November.

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Help keep this Bulletin free for everyone. The Bulletin is free and we want to keep it that way. But as a charity we rely on donations to fund the research and production costs that make it possible. A small regular donation – even £3 a month, less than a cup of coffee – helps us keep this Bulletin freely available to everyone interested in Parliament. Donate here