House of Commons
Parliament

Conservative MP John Baron asks if the government is still convinced their are 70,000 Syrian moderates on the ground and if their any plans to utilise them.

Foreign Office Minister Tobias Ellwood admits the number is "an estimate". 

While conceding the group are not "united in the sense we want them to be" he says the peace process is "moving forward now and we need them to be part of the process to work out what the country looks like post-Assad". 

House of Commons
Parliament

Chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee Crispin Blunt supports Russia's efforts in bringing about and end to the Syrian conflict and tells MPs that the ceasefire "wouldn't have happened if it hadn't been pushed for quite hard by Russia and the United States".

He asks if "military to military co-ordination is going on between Russia and the coalition to ensure any breaches to the ceasefire is brought to an end as soon as possible".

Foreign Office Minster Tobias Ellwood says that a "verification process on breaches of the ceasefire" has yet to be put in place, but adds he hopes to announce details of this soon. 

Reality Check

Last week, Michael Gove said: "Our share of trade with the European Union has actually diminished during the time that we've been in the EU." (It's in this interview - about 4:30 in when he's talking about Britain's mojo.)

UK trade figures for 1972 are jolly hard to get hold of - I've had to visit libraries and everything - but with the help of economic historians at the LSE, I can say that the proportion of our trade with the EU has actually increased since 1972, the year before the UK joined.

That is the case looking on the UN Comtrade, external database at either trade with the 15 countries that were in the EU from 1995, or indeed the 28 countries that are currently members. 

House of Commons
Parliament

Labour MP Jo Cox, who tabled the urgent question, asks: "How it's even conceivable that the monitoring of this agreement is being jointly conducted by Russia, the same party who have been responsible for the vast majority of civilian deaths."

She asks what the government will do "to force a change in the calculations in both Putin and Assad" if "these reports of breaks in the ceasefire are verified".

Foreign Office Minster Tobias Ellwood replies that he agrees it is "important" that Russia and President al-Assad understand they cannot break the ceasefire.

House of Commons
Parliament

Foreign Office Minister Tobias Ellwood says the government has received a "number of reports" of violations of the ceasefire, which have been passed on to the United Nations.

He continues that all parties involved in the peace talks must ensure that the ceasefire is held, but adds the government "looks to Russia in particular" to use its influence over Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad to "end the violence".

Mr Ellwood says at the next round of peace negotiations, tabled for 7 March, he will call for a "move away from Assad and towards a legitimate government".

Paul Moss speaks to British expats living in Spain about their feelings on the EU referendum.

The ceasefire came into force on Friday night and was widely thought to have held on the first day, but air attacks on behalf of the Syrian regime look to have resumed on Sunday in the Aleppo area and in Idlib province.

The Syrian High Negotiating Council (HNC), which represents rebel factions, claim breaches of the ceasefire have nullified the process.

The International Syria Support Group (ISSG) will meet in Geneva at the request of the French to examine whether the alleged breaches were deliberate, the product of competing misinterpretations of the ceasefire, or military error.

House of Commons
Parliament

MPs now move to the urgent question on the Syria ceasefire, asked by Co-chair of the Friends of Syria All Party Parliamentary Group Jo Cox, a Labour MP.

Foreign Office Minister Tobais Ellwood is responding.

Speaker John Bercow was not impressed with the answer given by minister Greg Hands to a Conservative MP during Treasury Questions. After Mr Hands included a dig at Labour in his response, Mr Bercow told him to sit down, describing his answer as "a terrible waste of time - long-winded, boring and unnecessary". He later explained ministers were supposed to "answer on government policy, not that of the opposition".

House of Commons
Parliament

SNP MP John McNally argues that the UK's productivity is "deteriorating under this government". 

He tells MPs that productivity is "18% below the average for the rest of the G7 economies.The widest recorded gap."

Chief Secretary to the Treasury Greg Hands disagrees. He counters that productivity is "higher than its pre-crisis peak and productivity is improving".

Mr Hands admits the government "need to do more" which is why they published the National Productivity Plan, external, he says.

House of Commons
Parliament

Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Greg Hands, is reprimanded for baiting the Labour party through his responses to a question, by Speaker John Bercow.

Mr Hands was making comments about Labour taking advice from Greece's former finance minister, Yanis Varoufakis when Mr Bercow intervened calling the responses "a terrible waste of time, long-winded, boring and unnecessary".

Cheers and boos can be heard from around the chamber. 

He later clarifies: "I said what I said because minsters are responsible for answering for answering for government policy not for that of the opposition." 

He calls on all future supplementary questions to be "pithy".

House of Commons
Parliament

The SNP's Stewart Hosie calls on the government to "make the positive case for the European Union" rather than using a "negative campaign" - dubbed "project fear" - which he believes will "squander" the in campaign's chances.

George Osborne replies he is making the case that remaining the EU "will make us stronger, safer and better off. All positive outcomes," he says.

He argues that "pointing out there are questions marks on the alternatives is perfectly reasonable" but adds that he believes in "Ronald Reagan's 11th commandment that I won't speak ill of a conservative".

House of Commons
Parliament

Chancellor George Osborne announces he will publish a "comprehensive analysis" of the UK's membership of a "reformed EU and the alternatives" before the EU referendum on the 23 June.

Making the case that the UK stays in the EU, he tells MPs: 

The government's independent reviewer of terrorism legislation said there needs to be similar independent oversight of the Prevent strategy.

The Prevent strategy was designed to guard against home-grown terrorism, but has been blamed for alienating the communities with which it was supposed to be engaging.

In a Daily Politics film, David Anderson gives his assessment of whether the government is getting the right balance between civil liberties and security.

He also spoke to Lord Carlile, his predecessor in the position from 2001 to 2011, and to the Labour MP Yasmin Qureshi, who represents a multi-cultural community in Bolton.

House of Commons
Parliament

SNP MP Stuart Donaldson gets proceedings under way in the House of Commons asking what support the Treasury is giving to the the oil and gas industry.   

Investment in new offshore oil and gas projects is collapsing despite cost-cutting efforts, according to a report by Industry Body Oil and Gas UK, and Mr Donaldson calls on the government to "listen to the industry" and bring forward measures "in this years budget".

Exchequer Secretary Damian Hinds says the government is already working to "change the fiscal structure" of the industry.

House of Commons
Parliament

The day's business begins shortly with question to Chancellor George Osborne and his ministerial team in the Treasury.

MPs have tabled questions on the potential effect of the national living wage on wage growth, improving productivity and the potential effect on the economy of the UK leaving the EU.

House of Commons
Parliament

The biggest parliamentary news of the day will, somewhat ironically, not get an airing in the House of Commons today.

MPs will not get a chance to comment on the publication of the revised plans to give security services powers to monitor online communications, as the Investigatory Powers Bill gets its first reading today (under Standing Order 57, external).

The first reading, the first step on a bill's legislative journey to becoming law, is a formality where the short title of the bill is read out to the House of Commons and traditionally takes place without debate.

But after the first reading an order is made for the bill to be printed and made available for scrutiny for the first time.

The second reading, the first opportunity for MPs to debate the general principles and themes of the bill, is expected to come shortly before the Easter break.

Select Committee
Parliament

"I hope you didn't feel too uncomfortable Lord Hill," says chair Andrew Tyrie.

Mr Tyrie invites Lord Hill to return on a future date.  

And that's it - the session closes.

You don't have to wait long for your next fix of financial-related grilling though. Committee members are currently heading over to the Commons to quiz the Chancellor at Treasury questions, which will start in around 10 minutes time.

House of Commons
Parliament

Most of today will be taken up by the two Estimates day’s debates - debates on different aspects of government spending. 

First comes the Foreign Office and the 2015 Spending Review, and second is the reform of the police funding formula - which was the subject of this report from the Home Affairs Committee, external, which concluded that the current system is "widely recognised as being 'not fit for purpose'".

The House of Commons sets aside three 'estimates days' each year. The topic of debate on these days is chosen by the Liaison Committee.

This will be followed by the adjournment debate, today on job losses at Bombardier in East Belfast, led by DUP MP Gavin Robinson.

House of Commons
Parliament

Following the urgent question, Lib Dem MP Mark Williams has a Ten Minute Rule Bill, the Devolution (Bank Holidays) (Wales) Bill, which as you may have guessed devolves the power to determine when bank holidays take place in Wales to the Welsh Assembly.

Mark Williams, the deputy leader of the Welsh Lib Dems, hopes the new law will allow the Welsh government to create a new bank holiday for St David's Day - which is celebrated today.