Defence Secretary Michael Fallon has said he is "increasingly disturbed" by Russian air strikes on moderate opposition forces and civilians in Syria, ahead of a defence ministers' meeting in Paris to assess US-led coalition efforts in Syria and Iraq.

Eleanor Bradford
BBC Scotland health correspondent

Image source, PA

Scotland's new food body has urged the Scottish government to make plans for the introduction of a tax on sugar.

Food Standards Scotland (FSS) said the food industry should be given 12 months to come up with alternative ways of reducing sugar consumption.

A report from FSS said radical change was needed to address Scottish eating habits.

More here.

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Unemployment fell by 99,000 between September and November to 1.68 million, official figures showed today.

The number of people on the claimant count last month fell by 4,300 to 785,900, said the Office for National Statistics.

Average earnings increased by 2% in the year to November, 0.4% down on the previous month. 

Image source, Getty Images

The first meeting of a group set up to tackle the fallout from more than 1,000 steelworkers losing their jobs will take place on Wednesday.

Economy Minister Edwina Hart will chair a taskforce which was created following Tata Steel's announcement that 1,050 jobs will go across the UK.

Port Talbot will bear the brunt of these cuts, with 750 jobs going at the south Wales plant.

An action plan is set to be drawn up on how to help the workers affected.

More here.

Image source, Getty Images

The political implications of the polling errors at the 2015 general election were quite profound.

The six-week campaign was dominated by 92 voting intention polls, very few of which came anywhere near the actual outcome of a Conservative victory.

The fact that most polls suggested a hung parliament shaped the entire campaign.

Detailed interrogation of party policies took a back seat to endless discussion about who would go into coalition with whom.

More here.

The Scottish government is to move 49 amendments to the Land Reform Bill amid calls for it to be made more "radical".

The legislation as it stands is concerned with management of land and ending tax relief for shooting estates.

MSPs had said the bill needed "more work", while SNP conference delegates backed making it more "robust".

Land Reform Minister Aileen McLeod said the changes would make the bill "the most radical and ambitious land reform legislation possible".

Read more.

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MSPs are to begin an inquiry into the closure of the Forth Road Bridge.

The bridge was closed for much of December after damaged steelwork was discovered. It remains closed to HGVs.

The infrastructure and capital investment committee is holding a "focused" inquiry into maintenance in recent years and the structural defect behind the closure.

The first session will take evidence from Transport Scotland and bridge operators Amey.

More here.

An attack by suspected Taliban militants on a university in north-west Pakistan has killed at least 19 people and injured 50.

An army official said firing had stopped several hours after the attack but troops were still searching Bacha Khan University campus in Charsadda.

Four attackers were killed, the army reported, as the Taliban said four of its suicide attackers were involved.

Taliban gunmen killed 130 students at a school in nearby Peshawar in 2014.

More here.

Provided there are no urgent questions or ministerial statements, this is what the Commons agenda is looking like today:

Image source, parliament.uk

The front doors of houses used by asylum seekers are to be repainted, after claims they were targeted because nearly all of the doors were red.

Asylum seekers in Middlesbrough told The Times, external eggs and stones had been thrown at their houses because the doors made them easy to identify.

The immigration minister said he was "deeply concerned" about the issue.

G4S said there was no policy to house asylum seekers behind red doors but its subcontractor would be repainting them.

More here.

Image source, Reuters

Turning our attention away from Westminster for a moment... Donald Trump's Republican presidential bid has received the backing of Sarah Palin, the populist ex-governor of Alaska who was the Republican vice-presidential candidate in 2008.

"Are you ready to stump for Trump?" Ms Palin asked cheering supporters at a campaign rally in Iowa.

She was John McCain's running mate in 2008 before they lost to Barack Obama.

Despite retiring from politics in favour of a media career, she remains an influential conservative voice.

More here.

Today Programme
BBC Radio 4

Rhun Ap Iorwerth, Plaid's economy spokesperson, told BBC Radio 4's Today that the government's top priority must be to come up with a "comprehensive package" to help the Welsh steel workers who will lose their jobs.

On the wider future of the UK steel industry, he says the taskforce must be empowered to look at "every option" to support the industry.

Today Programme
BBC Radio 4

Image source, Getty Images

Later, a Welsh government taskforce, chaired by Economy Minister Edwina Hart, will meet to discuss a plan to help Welsh steel workers and local supply chains, following the news that more than 1,000 jobs are being cut at Tata Steel - the majority at the Port Talbot plant in south Wales.

Wales First Minister Carwyn Jones says the taskforce will focus on helping the workers who are going to be affected to find new jobs and to provide them with training.

He says there's a "state of the art" plan for Port Talbot but cautions that there are "unique factors" that disadvantage the UK steel industry, citing the strong pound, which he says make exports more expensive, and high energy prices. 

"We're asking for a level playing field," he adds, and says action is needed by the UK government and at an EU level.

Laura Kuenssberg
BBC political editor

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Margaret Beckett is a consummate professional. What jumps out from her report into what went wrong for the Labour Party at the general election is just how careful she has been not to offend.

She stops short of saying baldly that Ed Miliband wasn't really up to it. She stops short of giving succour to Jeremy Corbyn's detractors by saying the party wasn't too left wing in 2015.

She spends a lot of time laying out how big an ask it was for Labour to get back into power in 2015 after only five years in opposition.

What she does not shy away from though is perhaps what will be hardest for the party's supporters to read - how difficult the 2015 defeat makes it the next time.

Carry on reading.

Image source, Gett

The sale of the UK government's stake in the Eurostar train service is "further evidence" of assets being undervalued, according to MPs.

The government eventually sold its 40% stake in early 2015 for almost double the estimate by financial advisers.

That was good news for the taxpayer, but it underlined a "repeated tendency" to undervalue assets, the Public Accounts Committee said in a report.

The PAC also criticised delays in publishing data on the HS1 rail line.

More here.

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New civilian recruits will help police solve cybercrime under an expansion of the role of volunteers, due to be unveiled by the home secretary.

Theresa May's proposals are set to include a whole raft of measures to give more power to support staff and volunteers.

Forces will be able to identify volunteers who specialise in accountancy or computing for cyber and finance inquiries, she said.

She was "committed to finishing the job of police reform", she added.

Read more.

Norman Smith
Assistant political editor

Defence Secretary Michael Fallon will today call for a "new phase" and "an intensification" in the military campaign against so-called Islamic State.

Mr Fallon wants to shift the focus to IS targets inside Syria rather than Iraq. He also wants a marked increase in the level of coalition air strikes.

 At a meeting of coaltion defence ministers in Paris - he will call for a "tightening of the noose" around IS in its heartlands in Syria.

At present air strikes have been focused on helping Iraqi and Kurdish troops on the ground in Iraq.

Mr Fallon now wants to shift the focus to IS command centres, logistics depots, communication centres and supply lines in Syria itself.

This carries with it a greater risk of civilian casualties as such centres are often sited in population centres in towns and cities. 

So far MoD officials say there have been no civilian casualties linked to RAF air strikes agains IS. It is thought the UK's Brimstone missiles with their greater accuracy will also minimise the danger of civilian casualties.

Mr Fallon will also call for a significant increase in the level of air raids.

Last year there were on average 29 RAF air strikes against IS every month. In December alone there were 80, and last week there were 31.

Mr Fallon believes the coalition is now beginning to make significant progress against IS.

His aides point to recent coalition success in Sinjar and Ramadi in Iraq; and in pushing IS forces back from the Tishrin dam in Syria itself.

Mr Fallon wants coalition forces to begin pushing IS back along the Tigris river in the north and along the Euphrates in the west.