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Prime Minister's Questions has begun and Conservative Michael Fabricant is talking about his general 'well man' check up. He said a blood test suggested he could have a prostate problem - "but hey, I'm now fine".

He said he wanted to thank the whole medical team "but in the next 10 years there will be a shortage of prostate" nurses through retirement. He asks what can be done to alleviate this problem.

Theresa May says she is glad to see Mr Fabricant back to "his normal exuberant self" and says money is being put into training nurses.

House of Commons
Parliament

Image source, HoC

House of Commons
Parliament

Labour has, in effect two spokesmen on Scottish affairs at present.

Shadow Scottish secretary David Anderson, an MP for an English constituency, calls for Scottish business to be offered "the same deal" as Nissan in Sunderland, which has called for compensation for losses incurred by leaving the EU.

David Mundell says there will be "a common response across the United Kingdom".

Meanwhile, Scottish Labour leader Kezia Dugdale has appointed Scotland's only Labour MP, Ian Murray, as Scottish Labour's Westminster spokesman.

Mr Murray calls for protection of financial services in Scotland and for the UK government to say "yes to the single market".

House of Commons
Parliament

SNP Westminster leader Angus Roberston says the Conservatives' 2015 election manifesto promised to protect the UK's interests in the single market.

He calls on the government to "respect the 62% of Scottish voters who voted to remain in the European Union" and protect Scottish interests.

Scottish Secretary David Mundell says the UK government needs to respect leave voters too, telling Mr Robertson that a "higher proportion of voters in his constituency voted to leave the EU than voted for him".

Mr Mundell says the government is committed to the "best possible deal".

House of Commons
Parliament

Scotland questions opens with Scottish Secretary David Mundell answering the same question from three SNP MPs, on "the potential effect of the UK leaving the EU on the economy of Scotland".

Mr Mundell says leaving the EU is an "opportunity" for Scotland.

The SNP's Carol Monaghan wants to know which powers repatriated from the EU will be reserved to the UK Parliament and which will be devolved.

Mr Mundell says Brexit will "change the devolution settlement" but tells the SNP that no powers currently devolved to the Scottish Parliament will be brought back to Westminster.

BBC assistant political editor Norman Smith has expanded on the government's reasons for allowing the Labour-initiated debate on Brexit today. (The Labour motion has also been signed by Lib Dem MPs including former deputy PM Nick Clegg.)

Norman said that in normal times "the government would put a thick red pen through the Labour motion", but instead it has accepted it - but with the proviso that there should be nothing that compromises its negotiations.

Norman says ministers are trying to avoid the possibility of a revolt by some of its own MPs. 

He says the issue is the first real tension over Brexit "and it's over the role of Parliament and whether MPs should have a vote" on the decision for the UK to leave the EU.

However, as today's votes will take place in opposition time, rather than on legislation put forward by the government, whatever is decided is not binding on the government.

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Reuters

According to Reuters, Prime Minister Theresa May always wanted Parliament to play "an important role" in Britain's departure from the European Union - and her agreement to demands for a "full and transparent" debate in the chamber reflects that, her spokeswoman said.

House of Commons
Parliament

The House of Commons allocates debating days in each session to enable opposition parties to table the motion for debate.

Today is in the hands of the main opposition party, Labour, which is calling for "a full and transparent debate on the government's plan for leaving the EU" and for the House of Commons to be "able properly to scrutinise that plan for leaving the EU before Article 50 is invoked".

The SNP has proposed an amendment calling for the devolved administrations in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland to be involved in scrutiny as well.

The government has also tabled its own amendment, calling for the referendum vote to leave the EU to be respected - and for any parliamentary process not to "undermine the negotiating position of the government" in talks with the EU on the UK's exit.

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Parliament

MPs meet from 11:30am to put questions to the Secretary of State for Scotland.

At noon, Theresa May and Jeremy Corbyn have their weekly clash at Prime Minister's Questions - the first since the party conferences and Mr Corbyn's re-election as Labour leader.

Conservative MP Alex Chalk follows that with a ten minute rule bill to increase the maximum sentences for stalking offences.

Then Labour will lead an opposition day debate on "parliamentary scrutiny of the UK leaving the EU". Labour is pressing ministers to set out their Brexit strategy to MPs before formal negotiations begin.

After 7pm, Conservative Andrew Selous will lead a short debate on policies towards gypsies and travellers.

Select Committee
Parliament

Chair Maria Miller asks all the witnesses to answer yes or no on whether a 50-50 gender balance in Parliament would be a good thing. 

All three witnesses answer "yes", and the evidence session draws to a close.

Select Committee
Parliament

Labour's Jess Phillips challenges Tim Farron over what she calls "sexist" language used by her predecessor, John Hemming, and asks what he is doing to stamp out sexism. 

Mr Farron says leaders should "distance themselves" from any such comments and give the message it's not acceptable.

Select Committee
Parliament

Labour's Gavin Shuker asks whether there's anything inherent in liberalism which prevents positive discrimination. 

Mr Farron says he doesn't think so, describing his philosophy as "muscular liberalism" and arguing there's no contradiction between being a liberal and wanting your party to look more like the country. 

Select Committee
Parliament

Conservative Ben Howlett makes a number of claims about "disgraceful" comments made about gay Conservative candidates. 

He goes on to tell the committee that there were reports Mr Farron told other MPs he would "pray for them" if they voted for same-sex marriage. 

Mr Farron strenuously objects to this as an "untruth" and asks Mr Howlett to withdraw it. 

Select Committee
Parliament

Lib Dem leader Tim Farron argues female representation is better in countries with proportional representation. 

He says boosting the number of female candidates is easier in a party with a large number of seats, which the Lib Dems don't have. 

He specifies they are aiming for a 50-50 division between male and female candidates in regions where they got over 20% of the vote in the last election.

Select Committee
Parliament

Labour's Gill Furniss charges the Lib Dems with having a "lamentable record" on gender balance.

Lib Dem leader Tim Farron says it's even worse than she describes. 

He suggests what he can change is the make-up of shortlists but "if you don't shift the culture at the grassroots you don't deal with the cause only the symptom".

Select Committee
Parliament

Asked about other under-represented groups, the SNP's Angus Robertson declares himself "very proud to be leader of the gayest party in Parliament".

He notes that ethnic minorities make up a smaller proportion of the Scottish population than in the rest of the UK, arguing there's a "structural" difference between women's representation and others'.

Select Committee
Parliament

The SNP's Westminster leader Angus Robertson tells the committee that when his party looked at measures to redress the gender balance it was met with some "reticence".

However, he says the steps taken in local government elections could be replicated at a parliamentary level. 

He elaborates that representation must be considered at office and cabinet level, not just individual seats.