With the progation of Parliament approaching fast, it’s something of a “hanging around” week for those on the red benches, waiting for the Commons to respond to Lords amendments, either by rejecting them outright, accepting them in part, or negotiating a settlement. You can never be entirely certain how it might all work out, and with the Government distracted by events elsewhere…

Bills

As it was last week, the week is dominated by “ping pong”, starting on Monday with what is described as “consideration of Commons amendment and/or reasons” on the Tobacco and Vapes Bill, the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill and the Pension Schemes Bill. Will the Lords press their amendments? Does the Salisbury Convention apply? We can only wait and see…

Tuesday is a day for Orders, with a curiosity being the Draft Ministerial and other Salaries Act 1975 (Amendment) Order 2026, which seeks to make good an error in calculating Ministerial and other salaries. The Secondary Legislation Scrutiny Committee takes up the story with its usual dry humour…

The Cabinet Office says the issue was identified when calculating entitled salary increases for 2023/24 and that work “immediately began to find a suitable way to address it”. It added that this was a “complex and technical issue that took time to work through”, particularly due to challenges in tracing historic paper records and applying the formula using historic Permanent Secretary pay. Nevertheless, we are surprised that it took three years to address the issue and that the nature of the problem—the law not being followed correctly and people being paid the wrong sums of money—did not result in the Cabinet Office taking steps to resolve it sooner.

More ping pong on Wednesday, with the Crime and Policing Bill and, potentially, the Pension Schemes Bill, facing further scrutiny from Peers.

It’s the English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill on Thursday, with a second day set aside for the Victims and Courts Bill if needed.

And, to wrap up the week, Friday sees further debate on the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill. It’s probably the last day of debate before the Bill formally runs into the sands. I’ve said all that I really can on this but can only repeat how much I regret the lack of a resolution.

Oral Questions

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

• Joan Walmsley on progress towards achieving the graduate guarantee for newly qualified midwives (Tuesday), and;
• Shaffaq Mohammed on burial provisions in England and Wales (Wednesday);

Debates

Angie Harris is sponsoring a debate on the United Kingdom’s civil preparedness for war on Monday, and there are expected contributions from Malcolm Bruce and regular LDV contributor, William Wallace.

* Mark Valladares is Liberal Democrat Voice’s Monday Editor and, of late, its slightly less erratic Lords Correspondent.