House of Commons
Parliament

Brexit Secretary David Davis opens his speech asking MPs to reject the Lords' amendment to the bill enabling Article 50. 

He says the government came up with "the most straightforward possible bill" and he wants to see it pass "with no strings attached". 

He tells MPs he doesn't disagree with the end of protecting EU citizens' rights but the means.

House of Lords
Parliament

The amendment on student loans is defeated.

Contents: 235

Not Contents: 248

Majority: 13

Select Committee
Parliament

Image source, HoC

The Public Accounts Committee is now hearing evidence on school funding half an hour late due to votes in the Commons. 

First to give evidence are: 

• Craig Knowles, Acting Headteacher, Hetton School, Sunderland
• Phil Keay, Former Headteacher, Hetton School Sunderland
• Peter Colenutt, Chairman, Educational Building and Development Officers Group

House of Lords
Parliament

Image source, HoL

Minister Lord Young explains that the government froze the repayment threshold to reflect a weaker than expected rise in average earnings.

He says that increasing the threshold would have cost the taxpayer £4bn.

He also adds that Labour's amendment would prevent the government from changing the terms of the loans in a way which might benefit the borrower.

Lord Watson of Invergowrie replies that the due to the changes made by the government students will be worse off financially and pushes the amendment to a vote.

House of Commons
Parliament

MPs vote 331 to 102 to approve the timetable for the Brexit bill today, which limits debate on Lords amendments to two hours. 

House of Lords
Parliament

Conservative Lord Willetts argues that the repayment scheme is not conventional public spending nor a commercial loan.

Treating the loan like a private one will, he says, have consequences that the government "and the party opposite will come to regret".

House of Lords
Parliament

Image source, PA

The next amendment for peers to get their teeth into concerns student loan repayment.

Labour’s amendment 145 would prevent any changes relating to the repayment of a student loan after the terms and conditions of the repayment have been agreed.

Labour's Lord Watson Of Invergowrie tells peers that when tuition fees were increased in 2012 students were told that the repayment threshold would be increased annually in line with average earnings.

He adds that parents were reassured of this in a letter from the then Universities Minister Lord Willetts. "They knew were they stood. Or at least they thought they did."

He then tells peers that in 2015 this threshold was frozen for five years.

He argues that Labour's amendment would ensure that this could not happen again. 

House of Commons
Parliament

MPs are now forcing a vote on the timetable for the Brexit bill today, which is due to take place over two hours.

House of Commons
Parliament

MPs vote by 172 to 142 to back Labour MP Diana Johnson's bill which would decriminalise abortion in certain circumstances in England and Wales.

House of Lords
Parliament

Image source, HoL

The amendment has been defeated as peers vote to reject the amendment on Sharia-compliant funding.

Contents: 225

Not Contents: 227

Majority: 2

House of Commons
Parliament

MPs now voting on Labour MP Diana Johnson's bill which would decriminalise abortion in certain circumstances in England and Wales.

Select Committee
Parliament

Image source, Getty Images

The Public Accounts Committee will be taking evidence on the state of capital funding for schools. The session will start shortly after MPs finish voting.

The inquiry is exploring whether public authorities have the funding to manage and supply school places for every child of statutory school age who wants one.

The Department of Education is in charge of allocating those funds and is investing £23bn in school buildings between 2016 and 2021.

The money is supposedly enough to meet growing demand for places, address the maintenance needs of the school estate and to support the department’s wider reforms, in particular by delivering buildings for the expanding Free Schools programme.

Giving evidence are:

• Craig Knowles, Acting Headteacher, Hetton School, Sunderland
• Phil Keay, Former Headteacher, Hetton School Sunderland
• Peter Colenutt, Chairman, Educational Building and Development Officers Group
• Jonathan Slater, Permanent Secretary, Department for Education
• Peter Lauener, Chief Executive, Education Funding Agency

House of Commons
Parliament

Conservative Maria Caulfield, opposing the bill to decriminalise abortion, calls it "a charter for unsafe abortions" that could lead to the return of backstreet abortions. 

She says she wants to see legislation that protects "not only the rights of women but the rights of the unborn child". 

House of Lords
Parliament

Image source, HoL

Lord Young hopes that the assurances he has given will encourage Lord Sharkey not to push his amendment to a vote.

The amendment (144) requires the government to produce a quarterly report on its progress towards the introducing a Sharia-compliant scheme.   

The Lib Dem peer argues that there has already been a "very long delay" and Muslim communities need reassurance that the government is making progress.

He pushes the amendment to a vote. 

House of Lords
Parliament

Lib Dem Lord Newby suggests that the reason a Sharia-compliant scheme has not yet been introduced is because civil servant resources have been diverted to dealing with Brexit. 

Labour's Lord Stevenson says that the case against introduce such a scheme is "unanswerable" and urges the minister to make a firm commitment.

I detect a note of impatience, responds the minister Lord Young of Cookham. 

He tells peers that the government hopes to make alternative student finance available within the lifetime of this Parliament.

House of Commons
Parliament

MPs move on to the ten minute rule bill, which is from Labour's Diana Johnson.

Under current laws, it's illegal for a woman to have an abortion after 24 weeks for non-medical reasons. Each procedure must also be signed off by two doctors.

The bill seeks to decriminalise abortion in these circumstances.

She says the current maximum penalty in the UK is the "harshest" in Europe and underpinned by "Victorian criminal law".