it looks like a relatively gentle week in the Lords, although there will be an opportunity for the Lords to ask the Commons to think again… again… on the Victims and Courts Bill and the Crime and Policing Bill. Yes, it’s ping-pong time in the Lords…

Bills

Today sees Day 3 of the Report stage of the English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill. Kath Pinnock has two amendments down promoting the Town and Parish Council sector, whilst John Shipley and Shaffaq Mohammed are attempting to persuade the Government that there are alternatives to the “strong leader” model of local government that Labour are so fond of. Meanwhile, former LDV team member, Mark Pack has an amendment in trying to take the Government further from the supplementary vote to the alternative vote for local government elections.

The Grenfell Tower Memorial (Expenditure) Bill and the Ministerial Salaries (Amendment) Bill will both have their Second Readings (and all subsequent stages!) on Tuesday.

The Lords get a week off from debating Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill – it’ll be back next week, apparently. Three weeks ago, I suggested that the only real positive I could draw from this is that the House of Lords is never actually going to get to a point where it votes down the legislation. On reflection, the lack of an outcome is the worst of both worlds, in that you wonder if either side of the debate has the votes to decide the issue one way or the other.

Oral Questions

There are currently four Oral Questions scheduled from the Liberal Democrat benches:

• Lindsay Northover on Government plans to implement the recommendations in the UK Gigafactory Commission report, Britain’s Battery Future (Monday);
• Mike Storey on the Government’s assessment of the extent, and risks, of use of nitrous oxide gas by young people (Monday);
• Floella Benjamin on the Government’s plans to celebrate the 80th anniversary in 2028 of HMT Empire Windrush arriving at Tilbury Docks, and to recognise the significant contribution the Caribbean community has made to Britain (Tuesday), and;
• John Russell on what steps the Government are taking to ensure that projected increases in energy demand from data centres do not compromise the achievement of their targets for clean power by 2030 and for net zero by 2050 (Thursday).

Debates

There is a Liberal Democrat sponsored Regret Motion on Tuesday evening, linked to the Government’s Statement of Changes in Immigration Rules, published on 5 March. Mike German notes that the changes:

fail to provide a credible plan for bringing down the asylum backlog and closing asylum hotels, including the provision of safe routes for refugees to enter the UK; risks increasing the bureaucratic burden on the Home Office and costs for taxpayers; further disincentivises proper integration of refugees; will force vulnerable asylum seekers into destitution and rough sleeping; and will place significant financial and operational burdens onto already overstretched local authorities.

And finally, until the House of Lords Reform Act 2014, it wasn’t possible for a Peer to formally resign, and the process as introduced requires a peer to notify the Clerk to the Parliaments in writing. But what happens if a Peer lacks capacity to do that? On Tuesday, the House considers a proposal to allow provision for the giving and signing of a notice of resignation by a person acting on behalf of a peer who lacks capacity to give or sign it. A necessary change, I’d suggest…

* Mark Valladares is the Monday Editor of Liberal Democrat Voice and its occasional Lords Correspondent.