House of Commons
Parliament

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Shadow women and equalities minister Dawn Butler says she hopes that at the six month review stage the Commons will consider removing the discretion policy, which could see "unconscious bias seeping in".

Everyone involved in the delivery of sanctions "need to be fully trained" - and she adds "training is vital". The bar for investigating MPs has been "lowered" which is a "necessary step forward," but this will in turn increase the workload for the Commissioner, she says.

She adds that exit questionnaires "are a vital tool to help the culture of an organisation".

"Parliament needs to have an official recognition agreement" with trade unions, she says.

House of Commons
Parliament

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MPs move on to a debate on the proposed independent complaints and grievance policy.

"The principles of that report will today become reality," she says, by asking the House to abide by a new code of behaviour.

There are two new helplines for staff, one for bullying and one for sexual allegations, she says, and this new policy "puts the complainant at the very heart" while making sure that the principle of innocent until proven guilty "is upheld".

"This is the first step, and not the final step" towards the change, and there will be a review in six and 18 months into how the policy is working.

House of Lords
Parliament

Lord Parekh says thinking of international students as primarily a way to make money is a "civilised form of slavery" and warns against the danger of this. He says they should be valued educationally.

He acknowledges the financial case but says the courses taught by overseas graduates students and the research projects they undertake are more important.

He says there is also a cultural case. International students "open the minds of local students", create opportunities for cultural fusion and cement Britain's multiculturalism.

House of Commons
Parliament

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Shadow education secretary Angela Rayner asks how much of this mandatory subject "is actually mandatory" and asks how the department will ensure this is available to all.

She says that all students "need to know that it is okay to be LGBT" and asks for assurances on confidential help for young people.

"Children must know their rights if they are to exercise them throughout their lives," she says, adding that bullying leads students to skip school, while "two in five" LGBT students are never taught about LGBT issues, she adds.

She asks if there will be additional resources for school mental health.

Mr Hinds says that the only part which is possible to withdraw from is the sex part of sex and relationships education.

"Schools have an obligation" to teach these areas and Ofsted will ensure they are, he says.

"There will continue to be a parental right to withdraw," he states.

In terms of bullying of LGBT children, he says it is important to have "those core building blocks" from an early age. He adds that the government "are putting considerable resource behind the mental health strategy".

House of Lords
Parliament

Baroness Deech says visas do pose a problem for students, but the experience they are offered is more important.

She says the choice for a bright EU student remains the UK; but the UK does not take into account students' educational backgrounds. She says universities need to help international students to settle in and prevent the forming of social groups based on nationality.

She raises the issues faced by international students who cannot afford to go home during holidays and she says more needs to be done for inclusion. She also raises high profile cases of anti-Semitism in universities.

She says the UK's international education sector "could be called the highest level of special if that phrase hadn't been commandeered by someone else".

She calls on the government to maintain and extend scholarships for international students.

Select Committee
Parliament

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Sir Bernard Jenkin asks how ready the UK is for a no-deal Brexit.

"The political certainty needs to be clarified," says Mr Manzoni, "we will be ready for a no deal Brexit, not everything will be perfect".

With that, the session finishes.

House of Commons
Parliament

Education Secretary Damian Hinds is now making a statement on relationship and sex education.

The government has announced today that sex education will become compulsory for school children from September 2020, with pupils as young as four being given lessons in well-being and healthy living.

"Children and young people are growing up in an increasingly complex world," he says, warning this presents both opportunities and risks.

"The aim is to put in place the building blocks for safe relationships of all kinds."

LGBT relationships will be a strong feature of the educations, he says, with compulsory health education and emphasis on mental illness.

Parents will be able to request that children don't receive sex education three terms before pupils reach the age of 16.

Select Committee
Parliament

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"This was the prime minister's proposal" says Sir Mark, replying to questions from Conservative David Jones on the Chequers agreement.

Mr Jones asks how the prime minister was working with the Department for Exiting the EU without, seemingly, the knowledge of David Davis.

Sir Mark says that Mrs May was working on a proposal "which she believed was the right approach".

He adds that he believes that David Davis did see the proposal before Chequers, but is not sure how long before it was.

House of Lords
Parliament

Peers move on to debate Lord Norton's motion on the value to the UK economy of higher education as an export.

He says that the value of a cohort of first year international students is £20bn. He tells peers the government wants to increase this to £30bn, but is pursuing policies to the contrary.

He adds that an increase in enrolment from China is hiding a fall in students from other countries, and this is unsustainable.

He criticises the inclusion of students in general migration figures, adding that the public understands the difference between students and other migrants.

They pay to be here and almost always return home, he says.

He says the UK is falling behind competitors in opportunity for graduate work for international students and blames the uncertainty of Brexit for making UK study less attractive.

He calls for a major "culture shift" at the Home Office to show that the UK welcomes international students.

House of Commons
Parliament

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SNP MP Chris Law says "regardless of whether we voted or debated to remain or leave", the Brexit result may "have been bought and sold" and is now being considered as a very serious criminal matter.

He requests a debate on "the validity, the legitimacy and indeed the legality of upholding the result of the EU referendum."

Ms Leadsom says it is the policy of the House not to comment on ongoing criminal investigations, but "there will be many opportunities to raise this issue over the forthcoming weeks".

House of Commons
Parliament

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Liberal Democrat whip Alistair Carmichael says he accepted the apology of the Conservative Chief Whip yesterday over the broken pair, but despite meeting with him still does not "understand how this highly regrettable state of affairs came to pass in this way".

He requests that the government Chief Whip come to the dispatch box to make a statement.

"I know the convention is that the government Chief Whip does not speak in the House, but conventions are exactly that. Ours is a system of checks and balances, if you take out a check then you have to adjust a balance.

"What happened on Tuesday night did serious damage... it is for that reason that I suggest it is necessary in order to reestablish the basis of trust.

"It is not a suggestion that I make lightly."

Ms Leadsom repeats that it the breaking of the pairing was done in error and apologises for it.

"I will absolutely redoubled my efforts to ensure that the pairing system remains in place."

Select Committee
Parliament

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Labour's Dr Rupa Huq asks a question on how much Brexit preparations have affected the civil service's ability to deal with other matters.

Mr Manzoni tells the committee that Brexit has had an impact of increasing the capacity and size of the civil service. This is something BBC Reality Check, external has explored, the cost looks to be billions of pounds.

Conservative David Jones asks what department has the "ultimate responsibility" for a "smooth Brexit".

Mr Manzoni says that "nothing has changed" in terms of responsibilities held by departments. It requires a lot of "deft management" to ensure that the departments are working together, he states.

Traditionally, the responsibility for speaking with Europe was the Foreign Office, he adds.

House of Commons
Parliament

Labour MP Wes Streeting says the Leader of the House risks misleading the House if reports in the Times newspaper that the broken pair was not done in error are correct.

"The idea that pregnant and new mothers would be cheated out of their vote and representation to save the skin of this shambolic government is an absolute disgrace," he says.

He says it adds "an insult to injury" that there is a delay in a debate on proxy voting and calls for "actions rather than words".

Ms Leadsom says Mr Streeting's words are "abhorrent" to be calling her out in particular, "I assured the House yesterday that it was an error".

"I hope that he will accept that because he is calling me something that is not acceptable parliamentary language, I have made absolutely clear my personal commitment to resolving this issue."

"The honorable gentleman should be ashamed of himself."

Speaker John Bercow says no unparliamentary language has been used in the exchange.

House of Commons
Parliament

SNP spokesperson Pete Wishart asks for "an urgent and timely debate on what all this mad no deal actually means", with a chance of no deal Brexit "raised from possible to likely".

He says he is pleased the House is sitting next week, saying: "I don't know what the Leader of the House was thinking about trying to adjourn this house five days early and how she thought she would get away with it.

"Apparently we can't plan a recess to accommodate school holidays around the United Kingdom, but we can go into an early recess to help a beleaguered prime minister."

He calls for a full inquiry into the "broken whipping arrangement", with stories in the press, external raising concern.

Ms Leadsom says early recess was considered "by representatives from a number of political parties" and it became clear that is wasn't supported.

House of Commons
Parliament

Conservative MP Peter Bone says "this House relies on tradition and trust" and says he is "very concerned" that a pair was broken this week and that "we tried to end Parliament early, which I think was for party political reasons".

He asks for a statement from the Leader of the House on the issue.

He says: "We must uphold the rights of this House and not hide behind small print, because otherwise this place won't work."

Ms Leadsom says he's right to raise concerns and that the breaking of a pair was "in error", and that she upholds the rights of this House at all times.

House of Lords
Parliament

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Peers are putting questions to government ministers.

Liberal Democrat Lord Scriven asks the government whether it has any plans to grant powers to Transport for the North to manage all northern railway infrastructure, following the timetable chaos on Northern Rail.

He asks if the minister believes that Northern and GTR should lose their franchises.

The minister Lord Young says the franchise is under review by the government, but that suddenly ending the franchise and splitting it would lose the stability passengers need.

He says that the railway cannot be completely devolved to TfN because there is a need to protect the integrity of the national network.

House of Commons
Parliament

Shadow leader of the House Valerie Vaz says she feels the debate on proxy voting could have happened sooner than the second week of September, but she welcomes it anyway.

She says she doesn't know why "our opposition day was taken from us last week, when the business seems so light for next week".

Ms Vaz congratulates everyone involved with the Independent Complaints Grievance Policy, which will be debated later today and thanks the Leader of the House for her "determination and commitment for seeing this through... the culture will change for this place."

The Liberal Democrats are calling for the government's chief whip, Julian Smith, to give a statement to the House following reports that he encouraged MPs to break pairing arrangements during Tuesday's trade bill debate.

Pairing arrangements are made when an MP is absent from the House - often for maternity or paternity leave - to ensure that their absence does not count against them. Under pairing, an MP who would have voted differently to the absent MP also does not vote.

On Tuesday, Liberal Democrat Jo Swinson, who is on maternity leave, accused Conservative Chairman Brandon Lewis of breaking their pairing agreement to vote with the government against a customs union amendment.

A spokesperson for the Liberal Democrats said: "The Conservative government's account of Tuesday's pairing collapse is at complete odds with The Times story today.

"The Conservatives have clearly broken the pairing convention and possibly misled Parliament in calling the vote 'a mistake'.

"The breaking of that convention means we must break another. The Tory chief whip must make a statement to the House and be accountable for this mess."

Here's the story from The Times, as tweeted by the deputy political editor:

House of Commons
Parliament

The Leader of the House is now giving a statement on business of the house, announcing business following the summer recess.

Andrea Leadsom announces that there will be a debate on proxy voting in second week of the September sitting.