House of Commons
Parliament

Conservative MP John Redwood rises as a "unionist" to ask Parliament to "listen to the new voice of the Scottish people", as after the referendum, there was a "definite shift" of the Scottish public's mood towards "home rule". 

He stands in this debate, he says, as an "advocate for home rule in the bill" but also an "advocate for England in these discussions". 

"It is very important that we have this debate on full fiscal autonomy," he says, but ask "how feasible that is for Scotland and England". 

House of Lords
Parliament

Referring to the anniversary of Magna Carta, Lib Dem Lord Clement-Jones says English law is one of the key reasons to do business with the UK today. But he warns that key to the UK remaining as a leading legal-services hub is remaining in the EU. He says last year a CBI survey showed that two-thirds of law firms said leaving the EU would have "serious negative consequences".

Moving on to speak about the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), Lord Clement-Jones says he is strongly in favour of TTIP provided there are exceptions for public policy reasons such as for public services. He adds that confusion and misunderstanding has been generated by "very un-transparent negotiating processes".

House of Commons
Parliament

The "SNP, Liberal Democrats and Labour have sought to deliver a stronger legal protection for permanence" for the Scottish Parliament, says Angus Robertson and he looks forward "to pressing that to a vote later this evening".

House of Lords
Parliament

Conservative peer Lord Risby says the UK has a "brilliant" service industry. He says the 2008 banking crisis shows that different regulation of the industry and a re-balancing of the economy is necessary. He also expresses concern about the UK's "over dependence" on the financial services industries.

Lord Risby says he is very interested in Baroness Mobarik's comments about trade with Pakistan and goes on to say that Algeria is the country with whom he would encourage trade.

House of Commons
Parliament

The Scotland Bill amends the Scotland Act 1998 to enact the recommendations of the Smith Commission, external set up after the 2014 independence referendum to plan further Scottish devolution and fulfil the promises made about increased powers for Scotland.

The SNP believe the bill falls short of the Smith Commission's recommendations and have sent a letter to the UK's Scottish Secretary David Mundell calling for an inclusion of more powers such as control of corporation tax, capital gains tax, the minimum wage and National Insurance.

This week, PMQs is going to look slightly different. Instead of PM David Cameron at the dispatch box, his place will be taken by George Osborne, Chancellor of the Exchequer and First Secretary of State. 

Mr Cameron will be in Europe lobbying leaders over EU reform.

House of Commons
Parliament

If you want to know what's going on in the Commons today - or indeed, any other day - take a look at the day's agenda and order of business published here, external.

House of Commons
Parliament

SNP Westminster leader Angus Robertson rises to move the SNP's amendments 58 and 59 which ensures that the Scottish Parliament and government can only be abolished with the consent of the Scottish Parliament and the Scottish people after a referendum.

House of Lords
Parliament

Baroness Mobarik is telling the House of Lords that the UK needs to engage with Pakistan in terms of trade. She says the benefits are clear because it is a country of predominantly young people, with "vast natural resources and a growing middle class". She also cites the relative ease of doing business and English as the language of business.

She tells peers: "I cannot say this emphatically enough. The UK cannot afford to ignore this market."

House of Commons
Parliament

MPs are currently debating amendments to Clause 1 of the Scotland Bill, which will recognise the Scottish Parliament and Scottish government as permanent fixtures of the UK constitution under the Scotland Act 1998. 

Liberal Democrat amendments 16, 17 and 18, Labour's amendments 37 and 38, and the SNP's amendments 58 and 59 are currently up for debate.

House of Lords
Parliament

Labour's Lord Davies of Stamford says that productivity is the most important task facing the government and he is worried that he's heard so little about it. He says he was "horrified" by hearing Lord O'Neill of Gatley say in the House that Germany's productivity has been weaker than the UK's. 

Lord Davies asks "how can he possibly have been so ill informed?" 

He goes on to say that the Office for National Statistics bulletin says UK productivity in 2013 was "lower than that of France, Germany and the United States by 27%-31% and lower than the rest of the G7 by 17%." 

Lord Davies says it is "a deeply worrying, deeply shameful record, but what is even more worrying and even more shameful is the government doesn't seem to realise it." He continues:

House of Commons
Parliament

The business of the house moves onto scrutiny of the Scotland Bill, external in a committee of the whole house.

Alistair Carmichael rises to his feet to move his "probing" amendments 16, 17 and 18 to recognise the permanence of the Scottish Parliament.

There's heckling from the floor at Education Minister Sam Gyimah's responses over Sure Start centre closures.

He was responding to Labour MPs Richard Burgon and Jo Cox, who were voicing their fears that cuts to the education budget since 2010 could lead to the closure of many Sure Start centres in their constituencies. 

The education minister assures them both that the funding to children's centres has not been cut and this has not caused closures. Raising his voice over catcalling MPs, he states: "We need to move on from this lie that we are perpetrating."

The Speaker is forced to intervene (accusations of lying are deemed 'unparliamentary' and against the Commons rules) and attempts to tell the House that the minister was speaking "generically" and says "nobody is lying to this House". 

Sure Start was one of the flagship policies of the previous Labour government and the coalition committed itself to continuing. It provides a range of support services for parents and children under the age of four who live in disadvantaged areas, with the aim of supporting parents from pregnancy and to give children the best start in life.

House of Lords
Parliament

Lord Stoneham of Droxford steps up to congratulate Lord Maude on his maiden speech and is taken aback to suddenly be speaking in the dark. The lights in the House of Lords then flash on and off a few times before settling back to full illumination.

House of Lords
Parliament

Peers are moving on to the main business of the day, a debate on trade and industry.

Lord Maude of Horsham - better known as Francis Maude - is making his maiden speech and opening the debate for the government.

He begins by saying: "I've been through a number of careers on my journey to your Lordships' House." 

He tells peers that he has been a barrister and investment banker but that "public service has always held a very strong allure".

House of Commons
Parliament

Shadow Education Minister Stephen McCabe steps up to the despatch box and starts by congratulating Edward Timpson on retaining his position as education minister. He jokes he "entertained the idea that we may swap places but what will be, will be".

He asks Mr Timpson for assurances that the government's adoption proposals will not create adverse impact on voluntary adoption agencies, to which the minister replies that he can give those assurances. Mr Timpson says they will be forming "part of the new landscape we are creating for adoption", and "central to the vision going forward".

The government's Education and Adoption Bill will give the education secretary new powers to force local councils to hand over their responsibilities for adoption to another authority or agency.  

House of Lords
Parliament

Lord Foulkes of Cumnock is asking what changes the government propose to the calculation of the block grant to Scotland, in the light of the recent and proposed increased tax-raising powers of the Scottish Parliament.He asks the minister if he agrees that as long as any part of the expenditure of the Scottish Government is covered by a block grant, "they will find a way of blaming Westminster either for cuts in expenditure or for increases taxes." He goes on to ask for a constitutional convention which would look at all aspects of the governance of the UK.

Treasury Minster Lord Dunlop says Lord Foulkes may be right about where the SNP government lay blame but that "the people of Scotland would blame the UK government more if we landed them with a £10 billion funding gap costing every family in Scotland £5,000 in higher taxes or spending cuts. That would be the price of full fiscal autonomy."

House of Commons
Parliament

SNP Public Services and Education spokesperson Carol Monaghan rises to speak on the subject of the government's planned childcare expansion, asking how much additional funding will be made available for more childcare to Scotland under the Barnett formula.

Education Minister Sam Gyimah replies that the UK government already gives 25 hours of free childcare under Barnett...but is happy to write to her with more details.