Questions and statements: At 14:30, Work and Pensions Ministers will respond to MPs’ questions. Topics include welfare spending, the level of unemployment, young people not in work or education, the Motability scheme, child poverty, pensioner poverty, Carer’s Allowance overpayments, commercial sexual exploitation of welfare claimants, health and disability benefits, Skills England, post-16 education, and mental health.

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.

Employment Rights Bill (Consideration of Lords Message): Despite several rounds of “ping-pong”, as set out in a previous edition of the Bulletin, five points of disagreement between the two Houses remain unresolved:

• Right to guaranteed hours: The Commons must once again respond to the Lords proposal to allow workers who have been offered and have refused guaranteed hours to indicate that they do not wish to receive further offers. The Lords has insisted on its proposal after the Commons rejected it at its last debate.

• Unfair dismissal: The Government proposed to eliminate the two-year qualifying period for unfair dismissal claims in favour of a right from day one of a person’s employment. The Lords are insisting on their proposed amendment to reduce the qualifying period from two years to six months. The Commons must now decide whether to accept or reject this Lords amendment, or propose an alternative.

• Seasonal work: The Lords are insisting on their amendment that there be a definition of seasonal work that must be taken into account, but which can be amended by the Secretary of State through regulations. The Commons disagreed with this in the previous round of ping-pong but did not propose an alternative. Now that the House of Lords has insisted on its amendment, the Commons must decide whether to accept the amendment, insist on their previous rejection or offer an alternative proposal.

• Trade union political fund: A third version of the original proposal to require trade union members to opt out of political fund contributions has now been put by the Lords to the Commons. MPs must decide whether to accept this latest amendment proposing that trade union members opt in to contributions, but that the choice between opting in and opting out must be made when they apply for membership.

• Threshold for industrial action: The Lords is insisting on its original amendment that would reinstate the requirement that at least 50% of eligible trade union members must vote in favour of industrial action. The Commons previously disagreed with this and offered an alternative but the Lords are insisting on their proposal. The Commons must decide whether to insist on their rejection, accept the Lords proposal, or propose an alternative.

Unless the Government is now willing to accept the Lords’ position, Ministers will need to propose alternative amendments in relation to guaranteed hours and seasonal work to avoid “double insistence”. This arises when one House agrees an amendment, the other rejects it, the first House insists on its original amendment, and the second House insists on its rejection, and neither House proposes an alternative. Conventionally this parliamentary deadlock results in the loss of the Bill.

On unfair dismissal, the Government has tabled a motion stating that the Commons insists on its disagreement with the Lords amendments but proposes six ‘amendments in lieu’ to replace the Lords amendments. Similarly to the original Lords amendment, the Government’s amendments would reduce the qualifying period for unfair dismissal to six months. In contrast, Labour backbenchers opposed to the concession have tabled their own motion: they also ask the House to insist on its disagreement with the Lords amendments, but they propose no amendments in lieu – effectively urging the House to hold its ground without offering a compromise.

The Government has also offered alternative proposals on guaranteed hours, seasonal work, trade union political funds, and industrial action ballot thresholds, which can be found on the most recent amendment paper.

In accordance with the programme order agreed by the House on 15 September, the debate will conclude no later than one hour after it begins. Standing Order No 83G stipulates that if a debate on a Lords Message is brought to a conclusion in accordance with a programme order – that is, if the debate lasts the full one hour – then the only motions that can be put to the House are those moved by a Minister. Unless the debate finishes early, those MPs opposed to the Government’s concession on unfair dismissal may therefore not be able to move their own motion.

Planning and Infrastructure Bill (Consideration of Lords Message): The Government’s planning legislation is expected to have its final debate in the Commons today.

There is just one outstanding issue to be resolved in relation to the local planning process and it is one that the Hansard Society highlighted as an issue of concern when the Bill was first published earlier this year. Whereas each council can currently determine what kinds of planning decisions are taken by council committees and what kinds are taken by council officers, the Bill would allow the Government to make regulations to provide for a national scheme of delegation that would apply to all councils. The Bill initially provided that these regulations would be subject to the negative scrutiny procedure, under which Ministers could sign the regulations into law prior to laying them before Parliament and would remain in law unless either House actively voted to reject them within 40 days.

The House of Lords amendment proposes instead to apply the affirmative procedure but only to the first set of regulations enacting a national scheme of delegation. This would ensure the regulations must be actively debated and approved by both Houses before they can be signed by the Minister and become law. The Government previously sought to remove this Lords amendment, but it has since conceded. Today’s sitting is necessary for the Commons to formally agree to re-insert the Lords proposal, subject to a minor drafting change.

In accordance with the programme order agreed by the House on 13 November, the debate will conclude no later than one hour after it begins, after which the questions on Lords amendments will be put to the House. However, since the Government has conceded on the amendment and will only put forward a drafting change, no divisions are expected.

After this debate, the Bill will be sent back to the Lords, where Peers will be asked to agree to the Government’s drafting change, after which the Bill will be sent for Royal Assent.

Mental Health Bill (Consideration of Lords Message): Again, there is just one outstanding area of disagreement between the two Houses in relation to parental responsibility for children. As outlined in more detail in a previous edition of the Bulletin, the Lords originally made an amendment to the Bill to allow someone other than a person with parental responsibility – such as a guardian or person with a childcare court order – to represent children detained under the 1983 Mental Health Act, which was then removed by the Commons.

At its sitting on 24 November, the Lords proposed some alternative amendments, which would still allow a guardian or person with a childcare court order to be appointed, but would leave the decision to the relevant mental health professional. The Commons must decide how to respond to the new Lords amendments. It can either insist on its position, accept the Lords position, or propose an alternative of its own.

In accordance with the programme motion to be moved at the start of today’s sitting, the debate will conclude no later than one hour after it begins, after which the questions on Lords amendments will be put to the House.

Statutory Instrument: The House will be asked to approve without further debate a draft Statutory Instrument that has been considered by a Delegated Legislation Committee:

• Infected Blood Compensation Scheme (Amendment) Regulations 2025.

Presentation of Public Petition: Labour MP Tracy Gilbert will present a public petition, on pornography and violence against women.

Adjournment: Conservative MP Rebecca Smith will give a speech on statutory support for self-employed adoptive parents. A Minister will then give a response.

Westminster Hall

16:30: MPs will debate e-petition 730194, which calls for the Government to abandon plans for digital ID. The petition has nearly three million signatures, by far the largest number of signatures of all currently open e-petitions. (House of Commons Library briefing)

Delegated Legislation Committees:

18:00: The draft International Development Association (Twenty-First Replenishment) Order 2025

18:00: The Customs Tariff (Establishment) (EU Exit) (Amendment) Regulations 2025

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Oral questions: At 14:30, Peers will begin the day by questioning Ministers for 40 minutes, on the Strategic Defence Review; changes to Employee Car Ownership Schemes; young people not in employment, education or training; and problems with Royal Navy submarines.

Select Committees motion: The House of Lords typically appoints four ‘special inquiry committees’ each session or calendar year (depending on the sessional timetable) devoted to a single subject. Normally at least one of the four committees is a post-legislative scrutiny committee, to review the operation of an Act of Parliament to assess whether it has achieved the intended policy objective(s), to identify any problems in implementation and to recommend how these might be addressed.

Peers propose topics for these Committees to the Lords Liaison Committee which, following a shortlisting process, recommends four proposals to the wider House. The House must then formally approve the motion.

In a report published on 26 November the Liaison Committee recommended the following Committees be established for the 2026 calendar year:

• Domestic Abuse Act 2021 (post-legislative scrutiny);

• Childhood Vaccination Rates;

• National Resilience;

• Numeracy.

The motion will be put to the House today for approval, following which the House will then need to appoint the Chair and members of each committee.

Conduct motions (Lord Dannatt and Lord Evans of Watford): The House must decide whether it agrees with two reports from the Conduct Committee, concerning Lord Dannatt and Lord Evans of Watford.

An investigation by the Commissioner for Standards found that Lord Dannatt breached the Code of Conduct by contacting Ministers and officials about three companies in which he held a financial interest, and by suggesting to undercover reporters that he could introduce them to people within Government. The Commissioner recommended a four-month suspension from the House of Lords. Lord Dannatt did not appeal the findings or the recommended sanction.

An investigation by the Commissioner for Standards found that Lord Evans of Watford breached the Code of Conduct by sponsoring events in Parliament for a company owned by his son, in which he held a one-third stake. He was also found to have told undercover journalists that he could introduce them to MPs. The Commissioner recommended a five-month suspension from the House. Lord Evans did not appeal the findings or the recommended sanction.

If the House agrees with the Committee’s reports, then further motions will be moved to formally suspend Lord Dannatt for four months and Lord Evans for five months.

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.

Statutory Instruments: Motions will be put to the House to approve three draft instruments without debate as they have already been considered in Grand Committee:

• Health and Care Act 2022 (Consequential Amendments) Regulations 2025;

• Victims and Prisoners Act 2024 (Permitted Disclosures) Regulations 2025;

• Unmanned Aircraft (Offences and Consequential Amendments) Regulations 2025.

Sustainable Aviation Bill (Order of Commitment): After the Bill’s Second Reading, the House agreed that the Bill’s Committee Stage would be in Grand Committee – which takes place in a large Committee room known as the Moses Room – rather than a Committee of the Whole House in the Lords Chamber. The Government now intends to move that this order of commitment be set aside, so the Bill can instead begin its Committee Stage in a Committee of the Whole House on Wednesday 10 December. Any additional Committee Stage required after that first day would then take place in Grand Committee.

English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill (Second Reading): Peers will debate the Government’s legislation to reform the structure of local government in England, which has already passed through the House of Commons. The Bill’s central provisions were outlined in an earlier edition of the Bulletin. Significant new amendments that the Government put forward in the Commons were also discussed in an earlier edition. (House of Lords Library briefing)

At Second Reading, Peers 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 usually proceed without a division. Once the Bill has received its Second Reading, it will be committed for detailed clause-by-clause scrutiny in Grand Committee.

Grand Committee: From 15:45, there will be debates on seven draft Statutory Instruments:

• Financial Services and Markets Act 2023 (Prudential Regulation of Credit Institutions) (Consequential Amendments) Regulations 2025;

• Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (Regulated Activities) (ESG Ratings) Order 2025;

• Procurement Act 2023 (Specified International Trade Agreements) (Amendment) Regulations 2025;

• Occupational Pension Schemes (Collective Money Purchase Schemes) (Extension to Unconnected Multiple Employer Schemes and Miscellaneous Provisions) Regulations 2025;

• Education (Scotland) Act 2025 (Consequential Provisions and Modifications) Order 2025;

• Infrastructure (Wales) Act 2024 (Consequential Amendments) Order 2025; and

• Judicial Appointments Commission (Amendment) Regulations 2025.

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Highlights include:

House of Commons

15:00: Environmental Audit Committee – COP30 and International Climate Negotiations: Energy Security and Net Zero Secretary Ed Miliband MP and senior officials from his Department will give evidence.

15:30: Public Accounts Committee – Home-to-school transport: The Department for Education’s Permanent Secretary and other senior officials will give evidence, alongside representatives from the sector.

House of Lords

16:00: Finance Bill Sub-Committee of the Economic Affairs Committee – Draft Finance Bill 2025-26: Exchequer Secretary Dan Tomlinson MP will give evidence on draft legislative provisions to implement certain tax changes.

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, the Chancellor of the Exchequer and other Treasury Ministers will respond to MPs’ questions. Topics include low-income households, the impact of Brexit, the freeze in income tax thresholds, work incentives, changes to business rates, financial inclusion, commuting costs, support for entrepreneurs, rural growth, the OBR’s Budget report, and energy bills.

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

Ten Minute Rule Motion: Liberal Democrat MP Dr Al Pinkerton will seek to introduce the UK–EU Customs Union (Duty to Negotiate) Bill under the Ten Minute Rule which allows MPs to give a ten-minute speech in favour of a Bill before seeking the House’s permission to introduce it. The Bill would require the Government to enter into negotiations with the EU to agree a customs union. See our Hansard Society guide for more information about the parliamentary procedure for Ten Minute Rule Bills.

Railways Bill (Second Reading): The House will debate, for the first time, the Government’s proposed legislation to reform railway services. (House of Commons Library briefing)

At Second Reading, the House will debate the general principles underlying the Bill. Its central provision is to enable the creation of a new publicly owned body – Great British Railways (GBR) – to manage and operate the railway network. The Bill:

• sets out GBR’s functions, including managing the network (tracks and stations), operating passenger railway services, and selling tickets;

• imposes duties on GBR, including acting in the interest of passengers and using public funds efficiently;

• requires the Government to produce a long-term rail strategy;

• sets out GBR’s funding arrangements;

• specifies GBR’s ticketing arrangements, including a requirement that it provide discount fares for young, elderly and disabled people and combine the existing 14 rail operator websites and apps into one; and

• establishes a new Passenger Watchdog, consolidating consumer functions from several existing bodies.

No amendments to the text can be made at this stage. Once the Bill has received its Second Reading, it will move on to Committee Stage.

Presentation of Public Petition: Conservative Shadow Justice Secretary Robert Jenrick MP will present a public petition, on the proposed local government reorganisation in Rushcliffe.

Adjournment: Independent MP Rupert Lowe will give a speech on levels of illegal migrants whose whereabouts are unknown. A Minister will then give a response.

Westminster Hall

09:30: Consumer-led flexibility for a just transition towards environmental targets (House of Commons Library briefing / Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology note)

11:00: The potential merits of a medal for service personnel wounded in combat

14:30: Water scarcity (House of Commons Library briefing / Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology note)

16:00: Creative education in schools (House of Commons Library briefing)

16:30: The impact of Network Rail timetable changes on rural communities

Delegated Legislation Committees

09:25: The draft Enterprise Act 2002 (Mergers Involving Newspaper Enterprises and Foreign Powers) (No. 2) Regulations 2025

14:30: The draft Producer Responsibility Obligations (Packaging and Packaging Waste) (Amendment) Regulations 2025

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Introduction of new Peer: At 14:30, Polly Neate, the former Chief Executive of Shelter and Women’s Aid, will be introduced to the House as Baroness Neate and will join the crossbench.

Oral questions: Peers will question Ministers for 40 minutes, on price increases by mobile phone and broadband companies; the Tropical Forest Forever Facility; the support offered to victims of sexual violence in the armed services; and safeguards for police use of facial recognition technology.

Statutory Instrument approvals: Two Statutory Instruments will be put to the House for approval. Because they have already been debated in Grand Committee, no further debate will take place:

• the draft Motor Fuel Price (Open Data) Regulations 2025; and

• the draft Online Safety Act 2023 (Priority Offences) (Amendment) Regulations 2025.

• Crime and Policing Bill (Committee, day 5): This is the fifth of 12 days currently allocated for Committee Stage on the Government’s Bill to reform the criminal justice and policing system. (House of Lords Library briefing) At Committee Stage, the House examines the Bill clause-by-clause and decides whether each clause should “stand part” of the Bill. The next clauses and groups of amendments to be debated relate to child sexual abuse.

Church of England Measures: The debate on the Crime and Policing Bill will be interrupted at around 7:30pm for a one-hour debate – known as dinner-break business – on two Church Measures:

• Armed Forces Chaplains (Licensing) Measure: At present, military chaplains must have permission to officiate from the local bishop in the area where they are posted and must secure new permission when they are re-deployed to a new area. This Measure would enable them to be licensed nationally by the Archbishop of Canterbury, removing the need for fresh permission from local bishops.

• Abuse Redress Measure: This makes provision for the architecture of a national redress scheme for victims and survivors of Church-related abuse.

Church Measures are a special form of legislation made by the General Synod of the Church of England but subject to approval by Parliament.

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Highlights include:

House of Commons

09:30: Science, Innovation and Technology Committee – Digital inclusion and telecoms: Minister for Digital Economy Baroness Lloyd of Effra and senior officials will give evidence.

10:00: Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee – Baroness Deech, the Chair of the House of Lords Appointments Commission, will give evidence on the Commission’s work.

10:00: Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee – Animal and plant health: Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs junior minister Baroness Hayman of Ullcock and officials will give evidence.

10:00: Foreign Affairs Committee – Sir Oliver Robbins, Permanent Secretary at the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) and senior officials will give evidence on the department’s work.

10:30: Defence Committee – Afghan Data Breach and Resettlement Schemes: A former Afghan interpreter, an academic specialising in migration and Afghanistan, and the Daily Mail journalist who first became aware of the data breach will give evidence.

14:00: International Development Committee – FCDO Annual Report and Accounts 2024-25: Permanent Secretary Sir Oliver Robbins and other senior FCDO officials will give evidence.

14:15: Treasury Committee – Bank of England Monetary Policy Reports: Four members of the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) will give evidence, following the MPC’s recent close vote on the Bank’s interest rate.

14:30: Business and Trade Committee – Financing the real economy: Minister for Investment Lord Stockwood, Minister for Small Business and Economic Transformation Blair McDougall MP, Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Mayor Paul Bristow, and South Yorkshire Mayor Oliver Coppard will give evidence.

House of Lords

15:00: Economic Affairs Committee – The UK’s fiscal framework: Rupert Harrison, a former Special Adviser to George Osborne and now at investment management company PIMCO, Simon French, Chief Economist at Panmure Liberum, and Sanjay Raja, Chief UK Economist at Deutsche Bank, will give evidence.

16:00: International Agreements Committee – The UK–India Free Trade Agreement: Minister for Trade Chris Bryant MP and the Agreement’s Chief Negotiator Kate Thornley will give evidence.

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

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Details of Wednesday’s business can be found below.

Questions and statements: At 11:30, Women and Equalities Ministers will respond to MPs’ questions. Topics include conversion therapy, the Equality and Human Rights Commission’s code of practice, violence against women and girls, unfair dismissal, women’s economic empowerment, ethnic minority pay disparities, LGBTQ+ discrimination in the armed forces, and children in poverty.

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: Conservative MP Katie Lam will seek to introduce the Data Publication and Quality (Immigration, Nationality and Country of Birth) Bill under the Ten Minute Rule which allows MPs to give a ten-minute speech in favour of a Bill before seeking the House’s permission to introduce it. The Bill would require the collection of data on the immigration status, nationality and country of birth of users of public services, claimants of certain benefits, the prison population, and arrests, and to require that such data is published at least once a year.

Opposition Day (Conservatives): This is the 14th 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. However, Opposition Day topics are typically not announced in advance, so the motion may not be known until Wednesday’s Order Paper is published.

Adjournment: Labour MP Kim Johnson will give a speech on the potential merits of a public inquiry into Cammell Laird workers imprisoned in 1984. A Minister will then give a response.

Westminster Hall

09:30: Government support for self-determination in Kashmir (House of Commons Library briefing)

11:00: The potential merits of banning small-scale fracking operations (House of Commons Library briefing)

14:30: AI safety (House of Commons Library briefing)

16:00: Village schools

16:30: International Human Rights Day 2025 (House of Commons Library briefing)

Delegated Legislation Committees

16:30: The draft Building Safety Regulator (Establishment of New Body and Transfer of Functions etc.) Regulations 2026

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Oral questions: At 15:00, Peers will begin the day by questioning Ministers for 40 minutes, on the two-child limit on Universal Credit; Drax biofuels; and the 2026 Review of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons. The topic of a fourth question will be decided by a ballot drawn at lunchtime on Monday 8 December.

Planning and Infrastructure Bill (Consideration of Commons Amendments): Assuming the House of Commons agrees the Government’s drafting amendment relating to a national scheme of planning delegation on Monday, it will then need to be agreed by the House of Lords. This is unlikely to require a division, since it relates to a limited drafting change to a Government concession.

Once the House of Lords has agreed the amendment, the Bill can then be sent for Royal Assent.

Employment Rights Bill (Consideration of Commons Amendments and Reasons): The Government has tabled a series of alternative amendments on the five issues of disagreement outlined above in relation to Monday’s business. For each issue, Peers will need to decide whether to insist on their earlier position, accept the Commons’ position, or propose an alternative of their own.

The Lords are unlikely to insist on their amendments relating to unfair dismissal, since the Government has offered a concession which resembles the Lords’ original amendment.

Only if the Lords accepts the Commons’ position on all five issues will the Bill be sent for Royal Assent. Otherwise, it will return to the House of Commons, where MPs will once again need to decide how to respond.

Sustainable Aviation Fuel Bill (Committee, day 1): If the House approves the Government motion on Monday, the Sustainable Aviation Fuel Bill will begin its Committee Stage. (House of Lords Library briefing) Peers will examine the Bill clause-by-clause and decide whether each clause should “stand part” of the Bill.

In accordance with Monday’s motion, if the Committee Stage is not completed by the end of today’s sitting, consideration of the Bill will resume in Grand Committee, with a second sitting scheduled for Wednesday 17 December.

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Highlights include:

House of Commons

10:00: Treasury Committee – Budget 2025: Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves MP will give evidence. It is conventional for the Chancellor to appear before the Treasury Committee soon after delivering their Budget Statement. The Chancellor is likely to be asked about the tax changes announced in the Budget, the economic situation more generally, the resignation of OBR chair Richard Hughes, and pre-Budget leaks.

10:15: Procedure Committee – Leader of the House of Commons Sir Alan Campbell MP will give evidence about his work.

14:20: Women and Equalities Committee – The Chair and the Director of the Social Mobility Commission will give evidence on the Commission’s work.

House of Lords

11:00: Public Services Committee – Medicines security: Junior health minister Dr Zubir Ahmed MP will give evidence.

Joint

14:15: Joint Committee on Human Rights – The human rights of children in the social care system: Representatives of the children’s social care sector, as well as relevant senior lawyers, will give evidence.

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

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Questions and statements: At 09:30, Department for Business and Trade Ministers will face questions from MPs. Topics include support for small and medium-sized businesses; impact of the Industrial Strategy; Royal Mail service levels; regulation of e-bike batteries; support for businesses with energy costs; steps to help create economic growth; uptake of paternity leave; the secondary ticketing market; and support for the hospitality sector.

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.

General debate on St. Andrew’s Day and Scottish affairs: This debate was proposed by Graeme Downie, the Labour MP for Dunfermline and Dollar. In his application to the Backbench Business Committee, he argued that it would be “an opportunity for all political parties to come together and share the excellent things that Scotland has done in the past and could continue to do in the future.”

Select Committee Statement: Northern Ireland Affairs Select Committee chair Tonia Antoniazzi MP will make a statement about the Committee’s new report published last week about the approach taken by recent Governments to the Troubles and the current Government’s proposals in the Northern Ireland Troubles Bill published in October.

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

General debate on the impact of foreign interference on security, trade and democracy: Liberal Democrat MP James MacCleary proposed this debate to discuss the “changing and sophisticated threats from hostile foreign actors” and “the deliberate targeting of democratic institutions, the spread of disinformation to sow division, and cyber-attacks designed to weaken and undermine Governments around the world”. In his application to the Backbench Business Committee, he said the broad-ranging debate would “offer Parliament an opportunity to send a clear and united message to the rest of the world, and to people across this country, that foreign attempts to erode our sovereignty will not be tolerated”. It would also be an opportunity for “a lot of Back Benchers who do not necessarily get a lot of time to speak on foreign affairs, to express individual views”.

Adjournment: Liberal Democrat MP Claire Young will give a speech on historic interim development orders. A Minister will then give a response.

Westminster Hall

13:30: The role of Fairtrade certification in UK business and trade

15:00: The future of the oil refining sector (House of Commons Library briefing)

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Oral questions: At 11:00, Peers will begin the day by questioning Ministers for 40 minutes, on powers and fiscal instruments to business improvement districts to accelerate town-centre renewal and local growth; intelligence sharing with the United States of America; and the role social media platforms play in enabling scam adverts and fraudulent content. The topic of a fourth question will be decided by a ballot drawn at lunchtime on Tuesday 9 December.

Immigration Skills Charge (Amendment) Regulations 2025: Peers will be asked to approve these draft Regulations which were debated in Grand Committee on 4 December. The Immigration Skills Charge (ISC) is a mandatory fee that must be paid when a UK employer sponsors a foreign worker for a visa. These regulations will increase ISC rates by 32%. This step-change is because the rates have not been reviewed since the ISC was introduced in 2017. The regulations have been drawn to the attention of the House by the Secondary Legislation Scrutiny Committee. It asked the Government why the ISC rates had not been increased since 2018 and what plans were being put in place to ensure that the rates were reviewed and updated more regularly in future. It described the Minister’s response as “unhelpfully vague” and called on the Home Office to “to keep the ISC under regular review so that it retains its real terms value and to avoid large step-changes in the amounts payable in the future”.

Infected Blood Compensation Scheme (Amendment) Regulations 2025: Peers will then be asked to debate and approve these regulations which make changes to the Scheme in line with the recommendations of the Infected Blood Inquiry.

Question for Short Debate (QSD): Labour Peer Lord Hunt of Kings Heath will ask about the Government’s plans to publish a strategy for ensuring high-quality and equitable wheelchair and community equipment provision by NHS and social care services. QSDs are drawn from a ballot every five sitting weeks. The first four entries drawn from the ballot are debated in Grand Committee on a Thursday, with the other entries appearing on a supplementary list in the order they were drawn. Questions on the supplementary list can be taken in the Chamber as short debates between items of business, either in the lunch break, dinner break, or as the last business of the day. (House of Lords Library briefing)

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House of Commons

10:00: Public Accounts Committee – Whole of Government Accounts 2023-24: James Bowler, the Permanent Secretary at HM Treasury, will give evidence alongside other senior officials from the Treasury and the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government. The Whole of Government Accounts (WGA) are the consolidated accounts of thousands of national, regional and local public organisations. In 2022-23, the National Audit Office (NAO) was unable to sign off the WGA because only 10% of local councils submitted reliable audit data. The NAO report on the WGA for 2023-24 was published in June and the Comptroller and Auditor General was again unable to provide assurance to Parliament about the accounts due to the “severe backlogs in English local authority accounts and audits”.

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 ↘

The House will not be sitting.

↖ Contents · Skip to Looking ahead ↘

Private Members’ Bills (PMBs): The House will meet at 10:00 to further consider non-Government Bills.

Space Industry (Indemnities) Bill (Third Reading): This Bill, which has been passed by the Commons, had no amendments to it tabled in the Lords, so is set for its final stage prior to becoming law. (House of Lords Library briefing)

Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill (Committee, day 4): This is the fourth day of Committee Stage for 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.

At the time of writing, 1,110 amendments have been tabled, and Peers may continue tabling amendments right up to the final sitting. As we outlined in our recent blog, this is an unprecedented volume of amendments for any Bill in the past 20 years.

At Committee Stage, 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 1,110 amendments into 84 groups. Across the three sittings so far, the House has debated:

• First sitting (14 November 2025): 2 groups;

• Second sitting (21 November 2025): 1 group;

• Third sitting (5 December 2025): 3 groups.

In total, this means the House has debated just six of the 84 groups, covering 80 (7%) of the amendments tabled, leaving over 1,000 amendments still to be considered. Ten additional days have been scheduled in the New Year. It is not yet clear how these days will be allocated between Committee Stage, Report Stage and any subsequent stages. However, even if all ten days were devoted exclusively to Committee Stage, the current pace – advancing by only two or three groups per sitting – would far fall short of what is needed to complete the remaining groups in time.

Lord Falconer has set a target of debating ten groups at each sitting, but each time the House has fallen significantly short. At the end of the last sitting (Friday 5 December), the Government Chief Whip, Lord Kennedy of Southwark, said that three groups was “less than I had hoped for” and urged that “all noble Lords need to reflect on that before we resume our consideration of this Bill next Friday”.

The next groups of amendments to be considered relate to:

• Group 7: proposals to prevent a person who has been recently deprived of liberty under the Mental Capacity Act 2005 from being regarded as having capacity;

• Group 8: persons resident in England registered with a GP in Scotland;

• Group 9: proposals to require an eligible person to have met with their GP twice in the last year, and allow GPs to consult with family members or professional agencies;

• Group 10: proposals to require an eligible person to have an established relationship with their GP who has good knowledge of their personal circumstances;

• Group 11: a group of 52 amendments relating to various issues all tabled by Lord Carlile of Berriew, as well as debates on whether 17 of the Bill’s clauses should be included in the Bill; and

• Group 12: the role of palliative and end-of-life care in the process.

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Both Houses will resume at 14:30 on Monday 15 December 2025. Our next Bulletin will therefore be published on Sunday 14 December.

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