House of Lords
Parliament

Lib Dem peer Baroness Pinnock raises the issue of data sharing and national security. 

She says we're told that data sharing is essential to security, so what happens if after leaving the EU, directives such as those requiring airlines to share passenger data are no longer available to the UK?

Brandon Lewis says the UK's cooperation in this area is global, via agencies such as Interpol, and not just about EU partners.

Baroness Pinnock responds, saying that evidence presented to the EU Home Affairs Sub-Committee last week suggested Interpol was "nowhere near as effective as Europol", because the participation of countries such as Russia in Interpol places an effective limit on what data can or should be shared. 

Brandon Lewis says that similar issues exist within Europol, although he accepts that Interpol is not as well integrated with its member countries.

David Jones adds that it's worth remembering the UK has a lot to offer the rest of the EU and that there is reason to assume the "continuing EU" would want to continue, if not with the current arrangements with the UK, then with something very similar. 

Select Committee
Parliament

Chair Frank Field has the last question and asks Chris Martin if he has any news on BHS (Mr Martin is an independent trustee for the BHS pension scheme).

Mr Martin says discussions are ongoing but the trustees were hoping that BHS employees could get a deal short of the full benefits of their original pension, but better than that provide by the Pension Protection Fund.

"Thank you," says Mr Field, "that was fascinating" and brings the committee to a close. 

Select Committee
Parliament

Chair Frank Field asks all the witnesses if the culture within the pensions regulation system needs to change. 

Chris Martin, from Independent Trustee Services Limited, believes the regulator wants to avoid being challenged and so is reluctant to use its powers. He argues that challenges would help strengthen the regulator. 

Andrew Bradshaw says the regulator is at its best when working on clear objectives such as policing auto-enrollment but is less effective when taking a general view on governance.

Janice Turner from the Association of Member Nominated Trustees agrees, arguing that the regulator should have a "strong focus" on member outcomes.

The Daily Politics

Jo Coburn and Andrew Neil present live coverage of Prime Minister’s Questions and there will be talk of how Brexit has even made its way on to the virtual football field.

They will be joined on the Daily  Politics by Conservative Foreign Office Minister Tobias Ellwood and shadow environment secretary Rachael Maskell to discuss child migrants arriving in the UK from Calais and airports expansion.

House of Lords
Parliament

Lord Condon asks how the government might replicate the benefits of Eurojust (an EU agency dealing with judicial cooperation) post-Brexit.

Brandon Lewis says the Home Office is exploring options, but that it's too early to speculate.

He adds that Eurojust's future framework will allow it to work with non-EU partners, and mentions current cooperation with non-EU states Norway, Switzerland and the United States.

Lewis says Eurojust forms an important part of the UK and EU's bilateral relationship on justice, but that it's "not the only thing going on in this area".

House of Lords
Parliament

Lord Condon brings up the National Crime Agency, which he says hopes the government will negotiate a "bespoke arrangement" on police cooperation. He asks: "Is that close to your thinking?"

Brandon Lewis responds saying EU countries like Denmark already have specific close relationships with Europol.

He continues, saying that like the prime minister he won't be giving a "running commentary" on the Home Office's negotiating position. 

Lewis says that the PM supports the idea of a "bespoke solution" for the UK, saying that as we leave the EU we remain a "known commodity" and therefore are in a strong position to seek a bespoke solution to policing cooperation. 

House of Lords
Parliament

Brandon Lewis says: "We're leaving the EU, but we're not leaving our position as a partner of countries across Europe."

Lord Condon asks about the UK's continuing membership of Europol, described by police as "mission critical".

Brandon Lewis responds saying that the Home office is considering opting in to new Europol regulations and will inform parliament of their decision "very shortly".

He says if the UK doesn't opt in, it will remain a member of Europol by default unless the European Commission decides to eject it. 

House of Lords
Parliament

The sub-committee's oral evidence session on policing and security cooperation between the UK and the EU post-Brexit has started.

Giving evidence are MPs Brandon Lewis, Minister of State for Policing and the Fire Service at the Home Office and David Jones, Minister of State at the Department for Exiting the European Union. 

Brandon Lewis starts off by saying there will be "no immediate changes" but they're planning for after Brexit.

House of Commons
Parliament

Business in the Commons gets underway from 11:30am with Wales questions, followed at noon by Prime Minister's Questions.

Following that is an urgent question on the government's u-turn on plans to allow pensioners to sell their annuities for a cash lump sum.

The main business of the day is two opposition day debates on subjects decided by the Scottish National Party. MPs will debate the rights of EU citizens and then House of Lords reform.

Select Committee
Parliament

The next set of witnesses take their seats and Labour's Stephen McCabe asks if trustee powers should be defined in law. 

Andrew Bradshaw, from the Association of Professional Pension Trustees, suggests this could be appropriate for schemes that are in distress. 

He says it would be useful if trustees could legally force employers to put more money into a scheme.

Select Committee
Parliament

Conservative Richard Graham suggests that the companies who do not respond to information requests from the pensions regulator should receive large fines - "that would focus the mind".

He notes that the maximum levy is currently £50,000 and suggests that the figure is "pretty small compared to the cost of sorting out the pensions deficit".

Baroness Altmann agrees and hopes that the Pension Bill will include greater powers for the regulator.

Select Committee
Parliament

Image source, -

Conservative Heidi Allen turns to the collapse of BHS.

Baroness Altmann sighs and offers three possible recommendations for preventing such a situation in the future.

Firstly, she suggests that any scheme with deficit must get clearance before a business is sold. She adds that this may be a bit draconian.

Secondly, she says the regulator should identify a number of businesses with large deficits that must first approach the regulator before selling a company.

Third, she says the regulator must have the power to issue notice to employers that they can't sell until they produce a plan demonstrating how the pensions defecit was going to be honoured.

"A new triple-lock," Chair Frank Field concludes.

Today Programme
BBC Radio 4

A range of "Brexit scenarios" will face players of the Football Manager 2017 game when it is released next month. Ciaran Brennan, communications director at Sports Interactive, explained on the Today programme why and how the Brexit scenarios would work.

Lib Dem treasury spokesperson Susan Kramer has commented on Office for National Statistics figures showing the number of unemployed people rose by 10,000 in the three month period to August.

Baroness Kramer said: "The Conservative government has undermined business in its ideological drive for hard Brexit, now it’s undermining people's jobs and wages as well.

"More and more data is showing that Brexit is beginning to have a real impact on our economy. As inflation increases, earnings are stagnating and unemployment is rising."

The ONS said: "These figures show that employment continued to grow over the summer and vacancies remain at high levels, suggesting continuing confidence in the economy."

Read more: UK unemployment rate holds steady

Select Committee
Parliament

Conservative Craig Mackinlay asks former pensions minister Ros Altmann about her thoughts on the triple lock.

The triple-lock policy has meant state pensions rise each year by the inflation rate, average earnings or 2.5% - whichever is highest.  

She says she believes the triple lock should be kept until 2020 - after which she recommends a double-lock (earnings and inflation only).

She describes the 2.5% figure as a "totemic political construct". It is, she says, "not relevant".

Coverage of Wednesday at the Northern Ireland Assembly, as the Finance Committee is briefed by HMRC and Department of Finance officials on the devolution of corporation tax powers.

The Daily Telegraph

Image source, PA

An article from the opinion pages of the Daily Telegraph says that UKIP voters could be Labour's knights in "red, white and blue armour", if leader Jeremy Corbyn would let them. 

In a slightly tongue-in-cheek assessment, the piece brands Mr Corbyn a potential UKIP leader in waiting, saying he's "an outspoken man of the people, who thinks modern society has let the working classes down and, albeit secretly, believes Britain is better off outside of the European Union."

It also notes that both Mr Corbyn and UKIP have campaigned on the premise that British politics is "broken."

There is a serious message behind all this: as Labour suffered defeat in 2015's general election, losing seats to the SNP in Scotland and votes to UKIP in northern England, it could stand to gain by appealing to UKIP voters put off by the party's current leadership challenges. 

Read more: Jeremy Corbyn may hate Ukip, but he's their true leader now , external

The Guardian

Image source, PA

Matt Davies, Tesco's chief executive, has warned that higher food prices caused by a weakening pound will hit the poorest families. 

His comments follow on from Tuesday's report by the Institute for Fiscal Studies, which said that a higher rate of inflation would reduce the incomes of families receiving working-age benefits frozen by the government in July 2015. 

Mr Davies said the supermarket's role would be to try to prevent food price inflation, saying it was "not good for business and highly toxic for consumers."

Read more: Tesco boss: 'Food price inflation could be lethal for struggling millions', external

Norman Smith
Assistant political editor

Home Office sources say migrant children arriving from Calais will be subject to additional age checks in the UK.

It's understood they will undergo further interviews about their background and their fingerprints will be taken to cross-check with other records which may contain their age details.

Their relatives in the UK may also be interviewed to assess their age.

However sources concede that it is extremely unlikely any would then be returned to Calais, as they would be able to claim asylum in the UK regardless of the age.

Sources say they are reliant on the French authorities to select the migrants who might be eligible to come to the UK.

They are then interviewed by French and British officials in "the Jungle".

If they have no birth certificate or passport or other documentation officials make an assessment of their age based on "physical appearance and demeanour."

Sources say they expect to have accepted more than a hundred migrant children with relatives in the UK by the end of the week.