On Monday 31 March, this section was amended to clarify that the Business of the House motion tabled in the House of Lords is a standard motion moved each session, which is not expected to generate any opposition from the non-Government parties, and to remove the suggestion that it was linked to frustrations within the Government over delays to the legislative timetable.

Questions and statements: At 14:30, Home Office Ministers will respond to MPs’ questions. Topics include the pause in Syrian asylum claims, violence against women and girls, the Defending Democracy Taskforce, shoplifting, violence against shopworkers, and anti-social behaviour.

Any Urgent Questions or Ministerial Statements will follow.

Main business: Non-Domestic Rating (Multipliers and Private Schools) Bill (Consideration of Lords Message). This Bill would give the Government new powers to adjust business rates. Specifically, it allows Ministers to prescribe a lower multiplier in the calculation for retail and hospitality properties, reducing their rates below the standard multiplier level. It also enables the prescribing of a higher multiplier for other business properties having an annual rental value over £500,000. Additionally, the Bill proposes removing charitable business rates relief from private schools.

Following its passage through the House of Commons, Peers amended the Bill in six key areas (outlined in a recent edition of the Bulletin). When the Bill was sent back to the Commons, MPs disagreed with all of the Lords amendments and sent the Bill back to the Lords. Last week Peers chose not to insist on any of their original amendments but agreed a number of alternative “amendments in lieu”, which have now been sent back to the Commons for consideration. Four outstanding areas of disagreement between the two Houses remain:

• Healthcare providers: The Commons rejected Lords amendments to exempt hospitals, medical schools and other healthcare from the proposed higher business rates multiplier. In response, the Lords have proposed two amendments in lieu, specifying that the Secretary of State would have the authority to exclude these healthcare entities from the higher multiplier.

• Anchor stores: The Commons disagreed with Lords amendments seeking to exempt major retail outlets (‘anchor stores’) from the higher multiplier. The Lords have countered with revised amendments specifying that the Secretary of State could choose to exclude anchor stores from the higher multiplier.

• Threshold effects: The Commons opposed Lords amendments that would require a Government review of how the £500,000 rateable value threshold impacts businesses near this limit. The Lords have introduced a new amendment maintaining the review requirement and adding that it should also evaluate the potential for a separate multiplier for warehouses lacking a significant high street presence.

• Private schools: The Commons reinstated Clause 5, which removes charitable rate relief from private schools, after rejecting Lords amendments that sought its removal. The Lords have responded with amendments that would change the immediate elimination of rate relief into a discretionary power for the Secretary of State to do so by regulations subject to parliamentary approval.

The Government is expected to oppose these new amendments, likely resulting in four divisions. Or it may propose compromise amendments in lieu to try and resolve the disagreements between the two Houses.

• House of Commons Library briefing

Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education (Transfer of Functions etc) Bill [Lords] (Remaining Stages). This Bill would abolish the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education and transfer its functions to the Secretary of State, enabling the Government to delegate the functions to the newly established Skills England agency.

Several amendments have been proposed, primarily by Conservative MPs, which may be selected for a division. The Conservative amendments seek to:

• require the Government to publish a report assessing the Act’s impact on T-Level qualifications;

• put Skills England on a statutory footing, rather than being an agency of the Department for Education;

• require the group responsible for developing occupational standards for apprenticeships to include representatives from relevant sector organisations;

• require the Government, when approving occupational standards, to consider the requirements of industries, professions, employers and prospective trainees;

• include an evaluation of the Act’s effects on Level 7 apprenticeships in the Government’s mandatory six-month post-enactment report; and

• bring the whole Act into force one year after Skills England is established.

A further amendment from the Liberal Democrat spokesperson for Universities and Skills, Ian Sollom MP, would require the Government to bring forward draft proposals for the establishment of Skills England within six months of Act’s passage. The Labour backbencher, Gareth Snell MP, has tabled two amendments requiring the Government to report on how the Bill would affect the provision of degree apprenticeships.

The Bill has already passed through the House of Lords. During Committee Stage in the House of Commons, minor technical amendments were made. If the Commons grants the Bill a Third Reading, it will return to the Lords to consider these changes. Given their technical nature, significant opposition from the Lords is unlikely, paving the way for the Bill to receive Royal Assent.

• House of Commons Library briefing

Adjournment: The Labour MP Natasha Irons has the adjournment debate on funding for the Croydon Area Remodelling Scheme and increasing capacity on the Brighton Mainline.

Westminster Hall: MPs will debate e-petition 707189, which calls on the Government to tighten the rules on political donations, by removing loopholes that allow wealthy overseas individuals to make donations to UK political parties through UK-registered companies and by imposing a cap on donations. The petition has acquired just over 140,000 signatures.

• House of Commons Library briefing

Legislative committees:

• A Delegated Legislation Committee will debate the draft Genetic Technology (Precision Breeding) Regulations 2025, which implement the new regulatory framework for precision bred plants and associated food and feed products. These regulations implement provisions from the Genetic Technology (Precision Breeding) Act 2023, which introduced precision bred organisms (PBOs) as a new class of product distinct from genetically modified organisms. The House of Lords Secondary Legislation Scrutiny Committee drew these regulations to the special attention of the House of Lords. The Committee said that key questions remain unanswered regarding the Government’s rationale for its policy choices. Specifically, the Committee highlighted concerns around the absence of labelling requirements for PBOs; a lack of clarity on the potential impact of the new framework on the UK internal market, on EU trade and on organic producers; and in relation to the Government’s use of data to support its claims.

• One other Delegated Legislation Committee meets today: to consider the draft Ecodesign for Energy-Related Products and Energy Information (Amendment) (Northern Ireland) Regulations 2025.

Oral questions: Peers will begin the day at 14:30 by questioning Ministers for 40 minutes, on Apple’s decision to withdraw their advanced data protection service in the UK; the Auditing Reporting and Governance Authority; the expiry of the current fishing agreement with the European Union; and the impact of the Employment Rights Bill on productivity.

Business of the House Motion: The Lords Future Business Paper indicates that the Government plans to suspend Standing Orders 38(4) and (5) until the end of the Session. These Standing Orders give precedence to debates on motions over debates on legislation on all sitting Thursdays, which mean that business in the Lords Chamber on Thursdays is normally devoted to general debates on topics chosen by the Opposition frontbench, crossbenchers, or backbench Peers, rather than Government bills.

This is a standard motion, typically agreed several months into each session, and is unlikely to generate opposition from non-Government Peers.

Main business:

National Insurance Contributions (Secondary Class 1 Contributions) Bill (Consideration of Commons Reasons): After several rounds of ping-pong, this Bill is currently navigating a legislative logjam between the two Houses. There remain four outstanding areas of disagreement between them:

• Health and care providers (rate): The Lords initially sought to exempt health and social care employers from the proposed increase in the rate of National Insurance contributions (NICs). After the Commons rejected this amendment, the Lords proposed an alternative, granting Ministers the power to exempt these employers via regulations. The Commons also disagreed with this revised amendment, leaving the Lords to now decide their next course of action: whether to insist on their amendment, propose another amendment in lieu, or give in and accept the Commons’ position.

• Health and care providers (threshold): Similar to the rate exemption, the Lords sought to exclude health and social care employers from the lower NICs threshold. Following the Commons’ rejection, the Lords suggested an amendment allowing Ministers to exempt these employers through regulations. This, too, was declined by the Commons and the Lords will again need to decide how to respond.

• Small employers (threshold): The Lords proposed that businesses with fewer than 25 employees be exempt from the reduced NICs threshold. After the Commons disagreed, the Lords introduced an amendment empowering Ministers to grant such exemptions via regulations. The Commons rejected this proposal as well, requiring the Lords to now determine their response.

• Review of the impact: The Lords initially called for a Government review of the Bill’s impact on specified sectors. Upon the Commons’ rejection, the Lords reduced the number of sectors from 13 to eight in a subsequent amendment. The Commons disagreed with this revision, leaving the matter unresolved.

Mental Health Bill (Report, Day 1 of 2): The key provisions of the Act were outlined in a previous edition of the Bulletin. The second and final day for consideration of amendments is scheduled to take place on Wednesday. Thirty-two pages of amendments have been tabled so far, including several amendments from the Government which focus on refining the Bill’s implementation. They would clarify the procedure for authorising life-saving electro-convulsive therapy (ECT), enable remote assessments for certain people for the purpose of non-urgent ECT, change the process for a patient to appoint a ‘nominated person’ with a role in their decision-making, and require the Government to review the circumstances in which incidents involving child mental health patients should be notified to the Care Quality Commission.

Seven amendments have also been tabled by the Conservative frontbenchers Earl Howe (Shadow Deputy Leader of the House) and Lord Kamall (Shadow Minister for Health). These seek to minimise the use of medical treatment as a form of coercive control; introduce new safeguards for providing artificial nutrition for those detained under the Act; mandate the de-briefing of mental health patients after they leave hospital; give all eligible patients the statutory right to an “advance choice document” that records their care and treatment preferences; seek to ensure that children are only placed on adult wards in exceptional circumstances; and impose a duty on the Government to review the regulatory authority’s role.

• Amendment paper

• House of Lords Library briefing

If necessary, there will be further consideration of Commons amendments and reasons. This is likely to be in relation to Non-Domestic Rating (Multipliers and Private Schools) Bill, with respect to which the Commons is considering Lords amendments earlier in the day.

There will be a one-hour interruption for “dinner break business”, when Peers will debate two draft Church Measures, a special form of legislation made by the General Synod of the Church of England but subject to approval by Parliament:

• the Chancel Repair (Church Commissioners’ Liability) Measure; and

• the Church Funds Investment Measure.

The changes made by these Measures were outlined in an earlier edition of the Bulletin.

Highlights include:

House of Commons

Public Accounts Committee (15:30): The Permanent Secretary at the Cabinet Office, Cat Little, will give evidence with other senior civil servants on the condition of Government properties. The hearing follows a National Audit Office report published in January which concluded that the Government had accumulated a maintenance backlog of at least £49 billion, of which around £43 billion arises from Ministry of Defence properties, NHS sites, and schools. The report warned: “the scale of the challenge will become intractable unless the Office of Government Property (OGP) urgently addresses strategic planning gaps across government.”

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, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs Ministers will face questions from MPs. Topics include the situation in Syria; the proposed agreement with Mauritius over the Chagos Islands; the maintenance of overseas Government properties; Bosnia and Herzegovina; Israeli settlements in the West Bank; and overseas aid.

Any Urgent Questions or Ministerial Statements will follow.

Ten Minute Rule Motion: Conservative MP Dr Ben Spencer will introduce a Ten Minute Rule Bill titled the Transport (Duty to Cooperate) Bill. The Bill would impose a duty on transport authorities to cooperate to reduce transport disruption and ensure the effective operation of transport networks. See our Hansard Society guide for more information about the parliamentary procedure for Ten Minute Rule Bills.

Main business:

If necessary, Consideration of Lords Messages: This unspecified business is likely to be in relation to the National Insurance Contributions (Secondary Class 1 Contributions) Bill, on which the Lords may propose further amendments on Monday afternoon, or the Non-Domestic Rating (Multipliers and Private Schools) Bill, on which the Lords may propose further amendments late in the evening on Monday. It may also cover the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education (Transfer of Functions etc) Bill, since some minor technical amendments were made to the Bill in the House of Commons which the Lords will need to consider, but these amendments are not likely to generate any response from the Lords.

Product Regulation and Metrology Bill (Second Reading): Two House of Lords committees – the Delegated Powers and Regulatory Reform Committee (DPRRC) and the Constitution Committee – have strongly criticised this Bill for being a ‘skeleton’ or ‘framework’ piece of legislation (DPRRC report; Constitution Committee report). In other words, it lacks detailed policy content, instead granting Ministers broad powers to fill in the details later through regulations. The DPRRC called for six clauses to be removed because they provided an inappropriate delegation of power and raised concerns about an unacceptable shift of legislative power from Parliament to the executive.

At the heart of the Bill is a broad power that would allow Ministers to make regulations relating to the marketing and use of all products – both consumer and industrial. Only a few categories are specifically excluded, such as food, animal products, aircraft, military equipment, medicines and medical devices. While Ministers may only exercise this power for certain purposes, those purposes are strikingly broad: to reduce or mitigate risks associated with the products, or to ensure they function efficiently or effectively.

Although the Bill makes some changes to existing primary legislation, it notably omits any of the Government’s planned amendments to existing product requirements found in secondary legislation. As a result, it is difficult to grasp the full extent of the policy change that the Government intends to implement through the powers granted by the Bill.

The Bill’s regulation-making power is generally subject to the negative scrutiny procedure – whereby Ministers can sign regulations into law before laying them before Parliament, and no vote or debate in Parliament is required. However, in certain circumstances, such as when the power is used to amend primary legislation or to create new criminal offences, the affirmative procedure applies instead, requiring both Houses to debate and approve the regulations.

Controversially, the Bill gives Ministers the power to specify in product regulations that compliance with relevant EU requirements will be treated as compliance with UK law. In effect, this allows Ministers to establish “dynamic alignment” with EU standards – whereby UK regulations could automatically track changes in EU rules across a wide range of sectors. However, the Bill includes no guidance or limits on how this power will be used. Ministers could choose to align closely with EU rules in nearly all areas, or they could steer UK regulations in a very different direction. The choice – alignment or divergence – is left entirely to ministerial discretion. The Constitution Committee stated that this was not a technical matter and “such a significant policy decision should properly be scrutinised by Parliament and implemented by way of primary legislation.”

The Government justifies taking such broad powers on the grounds that existing product requirements form an extensive and highly technical body of law – mostly set out in secondary legislation – that must be updated quickly and regularly to keep pace with emerging risks and developments.

It is not inherently unreasonable for product requirements to be set out in delegated legislation, and for the Government to have the ability to update the requirements swiftly and regularly. However, the mere fact that existing product rules are largely found in delegated legislation does not itself justify granting Ministers such broad and largely unconstrained powers. The Bill offers no clarity about which specific regulations will be amended, instead giving Ministers free rein to make whatever changes they choose without proper parliamentary scrutiny.

Although the Government suffered no defeats during the Bill’s passage through the House of Lords, it did make a number of concessions to limit the powers in the Bill to some degree:

• it incorporated a requirement for Ministers to consult “such persons as [they] consider appropriate” before making regulations under the Bill;

• it extended the use of the affirmative procedure to cover more situations, including regulations concerning online marketplaces; and

• it removed all but one of the Henry VIII powers – powers allowing Ministers to amend primary legislation – by placing the relevant amendments directly in the Bill.

However, the DPRRC described these as “limited changes that do little to address our significant concerns” and expressed regret that the Government “has not taken the opportunity to add flesh to the bones of this skeleton Bill.”

House of Commons Library briefing

Adjournment: The Labour MP Perran Moon has the adjournment debate, on trail hunting.

Westminster Hall: There are five debates, on:

• eating order awareness (House of Commons Library briefing);

• access to dentistry in Somerset (House of Commons Library briefing);

• the contribution of the Royal British Legion (House of Commons Library briefing);

• rail services on the east Durham coastline; and

• relationship education in schools (House of Commons Library briefing).

Legislative committees:

• Public Bill Committee meeting today: Crime and Policing Bill.

• Delegated Legislation Committee meeting today: to consider together the draft Cornwall Council (Adult Education Functions) Regulations 2025, the draft East Midlands Combined County Authority (Adult Education Functions) Regulations 2025 and the draft York and North Yorkshire Combined Authority (Adult Education Functions) Order 2025.

Oral questions: Peers will begin the day at 14:30 by questioning Ministers for 40 minutes, on the results of the trials of e-scooters; disruption to RHS Garden Wisley because of M25 roadworks; the effectiveness of stop and search in tackling knife crime; and the Office for Students’ fining of Sussex University for breaching free speech obligations.

Main business: House of Lords (Hereditary Peers) Bill (Committee Stage, Day 5). While the Whips can group amendments together for consideration in the interests of making the Committee Stage debate comprehensible and efficient, Peers are free to insist that their amendments be removed from a group and debated separately. But this has the effect of creating a larger number of groups that need to be debated, extending the time needed to scrutinise the Bill and potentially slowing its progress through the House.

Baroness Smith of Basildon, Leader of the House of Lords, has noted that when the list of amendments for this Bill was first published, there were 18 groups of amendments, but by the morning of the first day of debate, there were 43 groups. More groups have since been created. The Government has suggested that the Opposition are engaging in “procedural shenanigans”.

The House has so far debated 45 groups of amendments, with debates and votes often extending late into the night to keep the Bill on track. Only nine groups of amendments remain, on the following themes:

• Life peers: requiring 87 new life Peers to be appointed to replace the departing hereditary Peers, with the new Peers reflecting the party composition of the departing hereditaries.

• Northern Ireland: requiring the Government to review the desirability of increased representation of Peers from Northern Ireland in the House.

• Claims to a hereditary peerage: clarifying the future of claims to a hereditary peerage, once the House of Lords’ jurisdiction over those claims is abolished.

• Impact of the Act and establishing a constitutional conference: requiring the Government to review the impact of the Act on the House of Lords’ effectiveness and preventing the Act coming into force until a Constitutional Conference of the two Houses has been convoked to consider the composition of the House of Lords.

• Publishing a draft Bill: delaying commencement of the Act until a draft Bill containing proposals for further reform has been published.

• Referendum: delaying commencement of the Act until a referendum on options for House of Lords reform has taken place.

• Delaying implementation: postponing implementation of the Act from the end of the Session to the following Session or to the next Parliament.

Highlights include:

House of Commons

• Work and Pensions Committee (9:00): Andy Burnham, Mayor of Greater Manchester, will give evidence to the Committee on reforming jobcentres, in a special public evidence session in Manchester Town Hall.

• Science, Innovation and Technology Committee (9:30): Dan Norris MP, the Mayor of the West of England, Kim McGuinness, the Mayor of the North East of England, and Greg Clark, the former Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (and also a former chair of this Science, Innovation and Technology Committee in the last Parliament) will give evidence on innovation, growth and the regions.

• Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (10:00): Daniel Zeichner MP, the Minister for Food Security and Rural Affairs, will give evidence on the future of farming.

• Housing, Communities and Local Government (10:00): Alex Norris MP, the Minister for Local Growth and Building Safety, will give evidence on Grenfell and building safety.

• Treasury Committee (10:00): Richard Hughes, the Chair of the Office for Budget Responsibility, as well as two other OBR officials, will give evidence on the Spring Statement.

• Treasury Committee (14:05): The Director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies, Paul Johnson, the Chief Executive of the Resolution Foundation, Ruth Curtice, and the Chief Economist at Vanguard Asset Management, Dr Jumana Saleheen, will give evidence on the Spring Statement.

• Home Affairs Committee (14:30): Tom Crowther KC, who was appointed by the Government in January to develop a framework for locally led inquiries into child sexual exploitation, will give evidence on the implementation of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse.

• Modernisation Committee (14:45): MPs and former MPs with disabilities will give evidence to the Committee on access to the House of Commons and its procedures. The Committee’s inquiry covers both the physical accessibility of the parliamentary estate and the comprehensibility of House of Commons procedures and language.

House of Lords

• Justice and Home Affairs Committee (10:30): Lord Timpson, the Minister for Prisons, Probation and Reoffending, will give evidence on prison culture.

• International Agreements Committee (15:00): Academics and legal experts will give evidence on the review of treaty scrutiny. Witnesses include former parliamentary lawyer Alexander Horne, who co-authored a blog for the Hansard Society last year on the reform of treaty scrutiny.

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

Details of Wednesday’s business can be found below.

Questions and statements: At 11:30, Northern Ireland Office Ministers will face questions from MPs. Topics include preparing a new UK industrial strategy, the defence industry in Northern Ireland, Great British Energy funding in Northern Ireland, and the impact of the Autumn Budget in Northern Ireland.

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

Any Urgent Questions or Ministerial Statements will follow.

Ten Minute Rule Motion: The Labour MP Andrew Pakes will introduce a Ten Minute Rule Bill titled the Co-operative Housing Tenure Bill. The Bill would recognise co-operative housing in law.

Main business: MPs will debate and vote on three draft Statutory Instruments, with each debate limited, in accordance with Standing Orders, to 90 minutes.

• Infrastructure Planning (Onshore Wind and Solar Generation) Order 2025: This Instrument brings onshore wind stations with a capacity above 100MW back into the Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects (NSIP) regime by which large scale projects can obtain planning consent via the Secretary of State rather than local councils. The Instrument will also raise the capacity threshold above which solar farms must go through the NSIP process from 50MW to 100MW.

• Motor Vehicles (Driving Licences) (Amendment) (No. 2) Regulations 2025: This Instrument will allow holders of car and van licences to drive certain zero-emission vehicles with a mass of up to 4.25 tonnes, subject to certain conditions, and removes some additional training requirements.

• Whiplash Injury (Amendment) Regulations 2025: This Instrument will increase the damages payable for whiplash injuries occurring after 31 May 2025.

Adjournment: The Conservative MP Sir David Davis has the adjournment debate on the impact of Clonoe inquest findings on Government policy.

Westminster Hall: There are five debates, on:

• Government policy on the use of non-disclosure agreements in civil harassment, discrimination and abuse cases (House of Commons Library briefing);

• the impact of the switch to digital landlines on rural communities (House of Commons Library briefing);

• the impact of university finances on jobs in higher education (House of Commons Library briefing);

• the 125th anniversary of the Irish Guards; and

• the Green Book review.

Legislative committees: None meeting today.

Oral questions: Peers will begin the day by questioning Ministers for 40 minutes, on mathematical sciences; the ease of checking eligibility for free school meals; and the Chagos Islands. The topic of a fourth question will be decided by a ballot drawn at lunchtime on Monday 31 March.

Main business:

Mental Health Bill (Report, Day 2). Report Stage scrutiny is expected to continue and conclude today, following the first day of consideration on Monday.

Bus Services (No. 2) Bill (Report, Day 2). On the first day of Report Stage, Peers agreed to three amendments proposed by the Conservative Peer Lord Moylan, all of which were opposed by the Government. The three amendments agreed would:

• specify that the purpose of the Act is to improve the performance, accessibility and quality of bus passenger services and place a duty on the Secretary of State to have regard to that aim;

• require the Government to assess the impact of ending the £2 bus fare cap on access to socially necessary local bus services; and

• require a similar assessment of the impact of higher rate National Insurance contributions on the provision of socially necessary bus services, including transport for children with special educational needs and disabilities.

The remaining groups of amendments to be debated concern the accessibility of buses to the disabled and others; the construction of floating bus stops; concessionary and child passengers; collective bargaining in the bus service sector; preventing injuries on buses; recording data about assaults on buses; and requiring the Government to establish an opt-in scheme that caps bus fares at £2 in return for preferential treatment in relation to grants. Lord Moylan also has one further amendment which would require the Government to publish a proposed bus funding formula within six months of the Act’s passage.

• Amendment paper

• House of Lords Library briefing

Highlights include:

House of Commons

• Transport Committee (9:15): The Chief Executive of Heathrow Airport and the President of UK Electricity Transmission at the National Grid will give evidence on the Heathrow Airport power outage.

• Treasury Committee (14:30): The Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rachel Reeves MP, will give evidence on her Spring Statement.

• Environmental Audit Committee (15:00): Emma Hardy MP, the Minister for Water and Flooding, and Baroness Chapman of Darlington, the Minister for International Development, Latin America and Caribbean, will give evidence on governing the marine environment.

• Speaker’s Conference (17:05): Dan Jarvis MP, the Minister for Security, and Rushanara Ali MP, the Minister for Democracy, will give evidence as part of the Speaker’s Conference on the security of candidates, MPs and elections.

House of Lords

• Environment and Climate Change Committee (10:00): The CEO of the statutory Climate Change Committee will give evidence on the work of her Committee.

• Constitution Committee (10:30): Lord Sumption, former Justice of the Supreme Court, and Baroness Hale of Richmond, former President of the Supreme Court, will give evidence on the rule of law.

Joint

• Human Rights Committee (14:15): The Attorney General, Lord Hermer KC, will give evidence to the Committee on his work.

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

Questions and statements: At 09:30, Culture, Media and Sport Ministers will face questions from MPs. Topics on the Order Paper include rugby league; grassroots sports facilities; the use of AI in the creative industries; gambling harms; extending Ofcom’s list of events designated as free to air; support for musicians; the 2026 Commonwealth Games; and tourism.

At 10:10, MPs will then put questions to any of the four backbenchers nominated to represent the following four bodies.

• The Church Commissioners: nine of the 12 questions listed on the Order Paper are for Marsha de Cordova MP, and cover topics such as the Listed Places of Worship Scheme, safeguarding in the Church of England, and support for Christians overseas.

• The House of Commons Commission: there are no questions on the Order Paper for Nick Smith MP, who represents the Commission.

• The Restoration and Renewal (R&R) Client Board: two questions are directed to Nick Smith MP in his capacity as the Client Board’s representative. These focus on what recent progress has been made by the Board on consulting MPs on the restoration and renewal programme and about ensuring the use of contractors from all parts of the UK.

• The Speaker’s Committee on the Electoral Commission: there is just one question on the Order Paper for Sir Jeremy Wright MP, who represents the Commission. The question concerns the Electoral Commission’s powers to enforce compliance with rules on political donations.

Any Urgent Questions will follow.

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

Select committee statement: Florence Eshalomi MP, Chair of the Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee, will make a statement on her Committee’s forthcoming first report of this Session, titled England’s Homeless Children: The crisis in temporary accommodation. Select committees can request time from the Backbench Business Committee to make such statements, either to announce the launch of an inquiry or to mark the publication of a report. The statement, presented by the Committee Chair or another designated member, consists of a 10-minute speech, during which interventions are not permitted, followed by a further 10 minutes during which the Committee member responds to questions from MPs.

Main business: Two backbench business debates:

• The impact of digital platforms on UK democracy: This topic was proposed by Alliance Party MP Sorcha Eastwood. In her application to the Backbench Business Committee, she said: “last year, we witnessed in real time the impact of the actions of individuals on social media platforms, and how that directly correlated to how we do our jobs as parliamentarians. We also saw the threat it posed, not only to democracy, decision making and even, in some regards, conduct in the House, but to our constituents’ lives.”

• Access to sport and PE in schools: This topic was proposed by Labour MP Leigh Ingham. In her application to the Backbench Business Committee, she said the debate was inspired by a conversation with a young person in her constituency, who spoke about the positive impact of sport on both mental and physical wellbeing. She also noted the timing of the debate, coming just after the conclusion of the Government’s curriculum review, offering a timely opportunity to reflect on the role of PE and sport in schools.

Adjournment: The Liberal Democrat MP Tom Gordon has the adjournment debate on adoption breakdown.

Westminster Hall: There are two debates today, on:

• waste incinerators; and

• Government support for Thames Water (House of Commons Library briefing).

Legislative committees:

• Public Bill Committee meeting today: Crime and Policing Bill.

Oral questions: Peers will begin the day at 11:00 by questioning Ministers for 40 minutes, on an opinion poll showing that one in five people aged 18 to 45 in the UK prefer unelected strong leaders to democracy; funeral delays resulting from changes in the provision of death certificates; and the impact of delaying the implementation of Basel 3.1 international banking security reforms. The topic of a fourth question will be decided by a ballot drawn at lunchtime on Tuesday 1 April.

Main business: There will be three debates, including two general debates proposed by the Conservatives:

• on the impact of the Government’s economic and planning measures on farming and rural communities – led by Lord Roborough, Shadow Minister for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (House of Lords Library briefing);

• a Question for Short Debate (QSD), time-limited to one hour, on the assessment made of the announcement by NATO allies that they intend to withdraw from the Ottawa Treaty on anti-personnel landmines and the Convention on Cluster Munitions – led by Lord Verdirame KC, a non-affiliated Peer; and

• on the affordability of achieving the net-zero emissions target by 2050 – led by Lord Offord of Garvel, the Shadow Minister for Energy Security and Net Zero.

House of Commons

• Public Accounts Committee (10:00): The Permanent Secretary and other senior officials from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government and the Treasury, as well as experts and practitioners in the field, will give evidence on local government financial sustainability. A National Audit Office report published in February gave an overview of local government finance, highlighting that, while funding has increased in recent years, “it has not kept pace with population growth or the demand for services, the complexity of need, or the cost of delivering services to people most in need of support.” The report further outlined that proposed reforms of the system “have been repeatedly delayed” with the result that “more local authorities are requesting financial support”.

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

The House will not be sitting today.

The House will not be sitting today.

The House of Lords will rise for the Easter recess at the close of business on Thursday 3 April and is scheduled to return on Tuesday 22 April.

The House of Commons, however, will sit on Monday 7 and Tuesday 8 April. This Bulletin will therefore be published next Sunday, 6 April, to outline the business for those two sitting days. MPs, like Peers, will then return from their Easter break on Tuesday 22 April.

The Hansard Society is a charity. If you find this Bulletin useful please help us cover the research and production costs. A small donation of just £3 per month – less than the cost of a cup of coffee – will help us keep you up-to-date on the issues that matter in Parliament. Donate here