Select Committee
Parliament

Dame Lowell Goddard resigned as the head of the independent inquiry into historical child sex abuse in England and Wales last month.

Image source, Getty Images

The New Zealand judge was selected after two previous chairwomen quit, but on announcing that she too would be stepping down, she said it was "not an easy task".

Sources suggested there was friction between the Home Office-funded inquiry's officials and the chairwoman, adding that her resignation left the inquiry in crisis.

Select Committee
Parliament

Tim Loughton starts the questioning by asking about the resignation of Lowell Goddard.

Specifically he refers to her letter which said the inquiry was under resourced. Mr Loughton asks if, given that the inquiry underspent its allocated budget, this was an incorrect statement.

The home secretary agrees - "it does suggest that".

House of Lords
Parliament

Conservative peer Lord Lexden calls for the "skills and knowledge" of independent schools to be "fully involved in the development of improved arrangements for teacher training".

Independent schools excel in training "specialist subjects" such as languages and science.

Education Minister Lord Nash replies that "five independent schools" are already teaching schools.

Image source, Getty Images

Bank of England governor Mark Carney says he's "absolutely serene" about the Bank's forecasts about the potential impact of Brexit. 

He says he welcomes the signs of stabiilsation in the economy, but insists there has been an impact. 

One example he gives is commercial real estate transactions which he says have been more than cut in half since the start of the year. 

"I am absolutely serene about the ... judgments made both by the MPC and the FPC, more specifically market events. Liquidity pressures that were met because of contingency measures that we had taken in response to the judgments of the Financial Policy Committee absolutely validated the steps that we and other central banks and other authorities around the world had taken." 

House of Commons
Parliament

The statement on the G20 comes to a close and Labour's Melanie Onn rises to introduce her Workers' Right (Maintenance of EU Standards) Bill.

The bill aims to safeguard workers' rights derived from European legislation after the UK leaves the EU.

She worries that many ministers see workers' rights as "cumbersome bureaucracy" and says workers need certainty that their rights will not be undermined.

Select Committee
Parliament

Acting chair Tim Loughton opens the session by asking the home secretary for her priorities.

Amber Rudd says her primary objective is keeping the country safe.

After this she says her priority is "the vulnerable people" and assisting people "who are most left behind".

House of Lords
Parliament

Home Office Minister Baroness Williams of Trafford replies replies that the visa scheme "may be expanded".

The four universities chosen to participate have "had low visa refusal rates" with many students staying on in the UK post education.

She notes, however, that Scotland's population is due to increase by 3.1% by 2024 without an increase in student visas.

House of Lords
Parliament

Former First Minister of Scotland, Lord McConnell of Glenscorrodale, calls a pilot study on student visas in the UK a "slap in the face" to Scotland. 

On 25 July, the government announced more lenient visa regulations for non-EU masters students at four top English universities as part of a test run.

The two-year pilot program is only applicable to those applying for masters courses at Oxford, Cambridge, and Bath University, and Imperial College, London. 

The new scheme "directly discriminates against Scottish education" as it is not available there, the Labour peer argues.

The previous Fresh Talent scheme, started while he was first minister, granted students in Scotland post-study visas with "no abuse" he argues.

When the Bank cut interest rates by 0.25% in August, Mark Carney said banks would have "no excuse" not to pass the impact on to lenders.

Mr Carney says the Bank is keeping an eye on whether this has actually happened and notes five of the six banks, which account for most lending, have announced they will pass it on. 

And he says he's "highly confident" that the sixth bank will pass it on. 

Nonetheless, Mark Carney says it's important to keep the economic impact in perspective. 

He estimates the UK economy is currently growing at around half the rate it was ahead of the EU vote. 

And he notes that the Bank's forecasts ahead of the vote were still above consensus predictions.

Labour's shadow justice minister Jo Stevens, responding to Liz Truss’s appearance before the Justice Select Committee, said:

Ms Stevens said urgent action was "long overdue", claiming that the justice secretary had refused to confirm the fate of the Prison Reform Bill.

“By failing to tackle the prisons crisis which developed on their watch, the Tories have yet again demonstrated that they have no plan for the challenges this country faces," she added.

The World at One
BBC Radio 4

Labour's shadow justice secretary has said that Jeremy Corbyn was right to focus five questions on housing during PMQs.Richard Burgon told the World at One's Edward Stourton that it was part of "reconnecting" Parliament with what happens on the outside world.   

Mr Carney says the Bank was very clear in its Inflation Report that it expected economic indicators to bounce back after the first reaction to the Brexit vote, noting they tend to "overshoot in the first instance". 

Mr Carney has clearly done his homework. When pushed as to where exactly the Bank made this clear, the Bank governor answers "It's on p39".