Week ahead

It's Budget week, which means that the first couple of days are devoted to parliamentary loose ends, chores and time-marking, until the Chancellor rises from his seat on Wednesday.

This will be George Osborne's first Budget as a Chancellor for a majority Tory government

So MPs will round off their detailed consideration of the Scotland Bill (watch out for the cross-party amendment on powers over abortion) and debate some, as yet, unannounced Opposition motions. All of which will leave time for plenty of ferment, plotting and manoeuvre. And there's plenty going on in the undergrowth.

First up: what's with the Speaker? In the last Parliament, there were plenty of backbenchers who deplored his appearance in simple gown, worn over a suit "like a prep-school geography master at prize-giving".

Suddenly he's wearing a smart topcoat, although the colourful ties, much deplored by traditionalists, remain dazzlingly in evidence. Commons kremlinologists suggest this is evidence of an ambition to serve beyond his pre-advertised departure time of some point in 2018. The thinking is that, having survived the Conservative coup attempt at the end of the last parliament, Mr Speaker has come to an accommodation with his former party - certainly his trademark savagings of (mostly Conservative) MPs have become less frequent.

Second, there's a whole lot of plotting going on: Conservative "outers" (Eurosceptic is a pretty obsolete term these days) are busy networking to ensure they return from their summer holiday ready to do battle over the terms of the EU membership referendum, when detailed debate on the Referendum Bill resumes.

They are quite determined not to be caught unawares if the amendments promised by ministers on issues like government campaigning and "purdah" don't meet their expectations.

And there's plenty of internal intriguing too. Who should chair the Commons Liaison Committee - the super-committee of select committee chairs, best known for its once-a-term sessions quizzing the prime minister? At the moment, as the senior member (he entered Parliament in 1979), Labour veteran Frank Field is performing this particular chore. But Treasury Committee Chair Andrew Tyrie and Public Administration Chair Bernard Jenkin are candidates for the longer term. Both disclaim ambition, and, in truth, the chair of the Liaison Committee is hardly the most exciting gig in politics.

But apart from its sessions with the PM it does have considerable behind the scenes clout on the committee corridor; it controls the travel budget for committees, for example. And both Mr Tyrie and Mr Jenkin have strong ideas about strengthening the committee system. Mr Jenkin was rebuffed by the prime minister when he called for a powerful parliamentary commission to be set up (along the lines of the one on Banking Standards Mr Tyrie chaired) to look at the future of the Civil Service.

And Mr Tyrie has long argued for more back-up for committees. The electorate's the committee membership and insiders tell me the winner will be the one most likely to keep meetings to an hour or less.

Inside the machine, I hear that the interviews begin next week for the newly-created head of the Commons admin, the director general. This was the post created out of the kerfuffle, last year, over the attempt to install the Australian Parliament official Carol Mills as the new Clerk of the House. The D-G will be ever so slightly below the Clerk in the official pecking order, but with a right of access to the Speaker and the Commons Commission in the event of a disagreement; their actual working relationship with the Clerk will be crucial to the running of the Commons. There are rumours of an all-women short list.

Here's my rundown of the week ahead:

Monday

The Commons opens at 2.30pm with Home Office questions - with the usual caveat that any ministerial statements or urgent questions arising out of events at the weekend will follow at 3.30pm.

Then it's the fourth and final committee stage day on the Scotland Bill - with amendments and new clauses down on everything from rescuing the monarchy to preventing parking on pavements: the Conservative Jacob Rees-Mogg has several amendments designed to ensure that the Scottish Parliament continues to contribute to the cost of the monarchy.

Other highlights are a new clause proposed by the SNP to take full legislative competence over the management of the Crown Estate in Scotland - this is a big deal involving control of the coasts and tidal energy and offshore wind.

There are a series of SNP amendments and new clauses devolving powers over emergency vehicles, industrial relations, equal opportunities, agricultural levies, rail services, party political broadcasts and health and safety and broadcasting to the Scottish Parliament

Labour have an amendment requiring gender balance among the MSPs and members of boards of Scottish public authorities. And the Labour MP Graham Allen has a number of clauses seeking to strengthen the power of local authorities in Scotland.

Perhaps the most intriguing is a cross party amendment from Right-to-Lifers John Pugh, Fiona Bruce and Robert Flello transferring competence over abortion to the Scottish Parliament. The Conservative Edward Leigh has a similar amendment but, in addition to abortion, it also devolves xenotransplantation, embryology, surrogacy, genetics and medical supplies.

In the Lords (2.30pm), oral question include one from the Tory constitutionalist Lord Lexden on extending full voting rights to all UK citizens overseas before the referendum on UK membership of the EU.

A couple of short debates are scheduled - Labour's Baroness Berridge on the contribution of Britain's ethnic minorities to faith communities and public institutions in the UK and the Lib Dem Baroness Tonge on the political situation in the Gaza strip.

The subject of the day's legislating is the European Union (Approvals) Bill, where the key issues are the draft decision in relation to the Tripartite Social Summit for Growth & Employment; and on FYR Macedonia having observer status in the work of the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights.

The remainder of the Childcare Bill committee stage will follow.

Tuesday

The Commons gathers at 11.30am for Health questions and then there is the first ten minute rule bill of the new Parliament, on Football Governance (Supporters' Participation) - Labour MP Clive Efford's bill would require football clubs to offer their supporters a proportion of their shares, when the club changes ownership, and that a minimum number of places on the club board should be reserved for directors elected by a qualifying supporters organisation.

That will be followed by Opposition Day debate - subject to be announced.

In Westminster Hall, Grimsby MP Melanie Onn leads a debate on coastal flood risk (9.30am - 11am) - 4,000 properties in her constituency are under threat.

The next subject (11am - 11.30am) sees SNP MP Margaret Ferrier raise the transportation of nuclear warheads - there was concern when it emerged that in January nuclear weapons had been transported through the centre of Glasgow in spite of gale force winds and weather warnings.

And in the main afternoon session (2.30pm - 4pm), Bob Stewart, who was the former British UN Commander in Bosnia a few years before the Srebrenica massacre, leads a debate on the 20th anniversary of the Srebrenica genocide.

In the Lords from 2.30pm there are debates on two reports from Lords select committees - first on the Constitution Committee report on office of the Lord Chancellor, and then on the European Union Committee report on a post-crisis EU regulatory framework.

Wednesday

The Commons meets at 11.30am for International Development questions, followed at noon by prime minister's question time.

Then, George Osborne delivers his first un-coalitioned Budget Statement. By ancient tradition dating back to the Stuart kings, the Budget session is chaired by the Deputy Speaker, Lindsay Hoyle, in his capacity as Chairman of Ways and Means (apparently the then Speaker was seen as the King's placeman, so the House voted to bypass him and resolve itself into a Ways and Means Committee to debate taxation - and the tradition has persisted.)

The day's adjournment features cabinet exile Dr Liam Fox on the long-term economic plan for the south-west of England.

In Westminster Hall, Sussex Conservative Nick Herbert leads a debate (9.30am - 11am) on the performance of Southern Railways, the company which serves his constituency. He's followed by Keith Simpson (11am - 11.30am) on the Norfolk and Suffolk Broads - he's called for greater accountability at the Broads Authority in the past.

The big afternoon debate (2.30pm - 4pm) is on the Report of the UN Independent Commission of Inquiry on the 2014 Gaza conflict - led by Labour MP Holly Lynch.

And the final debate, led by the Conservative Daniel Kawczynski, (4.30pm - 5.30pm) is on the distressing subject of the cremation of infants in England. Between 1996 - 2012 a new cremation technique at the Emstrey crematorium in Shrewsbury meant that families did not receive the ashes of their deceased babies.

In the Lords (3pm) questions to ministers include one from Viscount Hanworth on stocks of plutonium at Sellafield.

The main debate is on reports into investigatory powers - a parallel debate to the one held in the Commons recently. Essentially this is a voice-taking exercise on the report from David Anderson QC on giving the intelligence services powers to monitor activity on the internet.

The Lords may be the place where any bill to enact these powers runs into real trouble, so will Anderson's proposal to give judges rather than ministers the power to sign warrants mollify the legion of human rights lawyers in the Upper House? Inquiring minds will want to know. If anything this debate may give a better indication of what can be put through Parliament than the one in the Commons.

Peers will then canter through all stages of the European Union (Finance) Bill: as a money bill, they're not expected to do much more than rubber-stamp it.

Thursday

At the very start of Commons business (9.30am) the long-running guerrilla war over the Transport for London Bill will resume.

Don't blink, it'll be over very quickly, but the bill to give TfL additional powers to form partnerships with developers for its property portfolio has long been opposed by a small cross-party group of MPs. Normally this kind of private bill is simply nodded through to detailed consideration by a committee, but they have objected every time it has appeared, and already in the new parliament they have blocked one attempt to nod through a "revival motion" to allow it to be re-introduced. All that has to happen is that someone has to shout "object," and the bill is blocked...this could go on for quite a while.

Then MPs move on to Culture, Media and Sport questions, and a short session of questions about in-house matters to the House of Commons Commission and Leader of the House - the first since the publication of a huge report on the state of the parliamentary buildings and the options for refurbishment, a subject which may well dominate the session. That's followed by the Leader's weekly Commons Business Statement

The main event is the second day of the Budget debate - on a theme to be announced.

In the Lords (11am), questions include an eye-catching offering from the Lib Dem ex-minister Lord Wallace of Saltaire on the security risks of converting former government buildings into private hotels along the State Procession route.

Then peers move on to a series of debates on subjects chosen by backbenchers, starting with the obstetrician and cross bench peer, Lord Patel's debate on the sustainability of the NHS as a free public service.

Lord Alton of Liverpool raises the subject of the displacement of refugees and migrants from Asia and Africa. Finally there's the Lib Dem Lord Storey on mental health services in schools and colleges.

Neither House is scheduled to sit on Friday