What's happening in Parliament this week?

It's another week of finalising legislation, with bills bouncing between the Lords and Commons, and others grinding through the final detailed debates, with the deadline for the end of the current parliamentary session looming in November.

Any bills not passed when the music stops will fall (except for a limited number where a "carry-over" has been agreed) so the opposition has a bit more clout than usual over the details, to be exercised in behind the scenes talks with ministers.

There's also an extra helping of party-battling.

With three by-elections under way (in Rutherglen, Mid Bedfordshire and Tamworth) expect a suspicious level of interest in local issues in those areas from MPs on all sides.

And there will be more visible campaigning elsewhere, with three select committee chairs (Standards, Business and Trade, and Petitions) up for grabs after Keir Starmer promoted Chris Bryant, Darren Jones and Cath McKinnell to the front bench.

Watch out for candidates trying to cut a dash in the Chamber.

• By-election date is set for Nadine Dorries' seat

• Chris Bryant joins Labour frontbench in reshuffle

The Business Committee contest (where the chair has to be a Labour MP) looks lively with acting chair Andy McDonald, and former ministers Angela Eagle and Liam Byrne in the running and other hats may be thrown into the ring.

Having presided over its Boris Johnson Inquiry, Harriet Harman has tweeted her ambition to take over the Standards Committee.

All MPs have a vote in these elections, so pretty much any honourable member enjoying a coffee in Portcullis House could find themselves being lobbied. The elections to the Business and Petitions chairs will take place on Wednesday October 18th, with nominations closing the day before.

Meanwhile, the likelihood of a further election, for the chair of the Defence Committee, seems to be fading.

Before the Summer recess there was a strong move to no-confidence the current chair, the Conservative, Tobias Ellwood, in the wake of comments he made after a visit to Afghanistan and said it was "a country transformed" under Taliban rule.

The committee is due to meet in private after Defence Questions on Monday, but the word is that some Conservative MPs who had initially wanted to remove him would now be content with a stern final warning that he should only make public statements as Committee Chair, with their approval.

Monday 11 September

Commons: Defence Questions (14:30) - a debut for new Secretary of State Grant Shapps, who may then stay on for the main debate - a general debate on Ukraine (although any government statements or urgent questions may provide him with a break, since they normally follow Question Time).

Adjournment: Conservative MP Douglas Ross, a qualified football referee, leads a debate marking 150 years of the Scottish FA.

Westminster Hall: At 16:30 MPs debate three e-petitions on pay and support for student nurses and other healthcare students - Petitions 610557 and 619609 say they should be paid at least minimum wage for their placement hours. Petition 616557 calls for the 30 hours free childcare offer available to workers who meet the required minimum income level to be extended to student midwives, nurses, and paramedics.

Committees: Public Accounts recall top officials at the Department for Education to revisit the state of school buildings, following the spate of closures because of concerns about crumbling concrete. This is a follow up to their grilling of DfE officials in July and will revisit what they told the PAC then about the condition of school buildings. The Education Committee Chair, Robin Walker "guested" during that hearing and will be there for this one, too.

Lords: Economic Crime Bill and Corporate Transparency Bill at 14:30 - how will peers react after the Commons struck down a number of anti-fraud measures added in the Lords, as "disproportionate" or "blunt instruments." Votes look likely on detailed points around public information on trustees, failure to prevent fraud in small companies, cost caps, and disclosure of nominee shareholders.

And peers will also look at Commons Amendments to the Procurement Bill. Watch out for action around several China-related issues including a clampdown on Chinese-made surveillance equipment, involvement in forced organ harvesting, or where a supplier is involved in modern slavery or complicit in genocide.

MP and referee Douglas Ross will lead a debate on the Scottish FA

Tuesday 12 September

Commons: Justice Questions at 11:30

Ten Minute Rule Bill: Labour's Sam Tarry wants electricity suppliers to bring in more protection for vulnerable customers, including a fund to deal with dangerous electrical faults.

Main debate: MPs consider Lords amendments to the extensively paused and re-written Online Safety Bill. There are rather a lot of these; not only has the government lost a few votes in the Lords, but the thinking behind the bill has also morphed as the ministers responsible came and went - so the current incarnation is rather different to that proposed by Nadine Dorries, when she was in charge.

There are plenty of issues to thrash out - including the concession made in the Lords this week, where the government has sought to end a stand-off with tech companies including WhatsApp, that have threatened to pull their services from the UK, saying that the bill posed a threat to millions of users' privacy and security.

The government now says that the tech regulator, Ofcom, would only require companies to scan their networks for harmful material, like child sexual abuse and exploitation content, when a technology was developed that was capable of doing so - thus kicking the issue into the very long grass.

Committees: At 10:00 Education questions experts on how to solve the shortage of specialist teachers in subjects including maths, sciences, languages, religious education and DT, where the National Foundation for Educational Research has been warning of "historically low recruitment" in both primary and secondary schools.

Foreign Affairs (14:30), hears from witnesses including Richard Barrett, former Director of Global Counter-Terrorism at MI6, on the UK's international counter-terrorism policy.

Lords: (14:30) Another afternoon where peers consider a series of private members' bills - laws proposed by individual peers rather than the government: The Pensions (Extension of Automatic Enrolment) (No.2) Bill; the Firearms Bill; the Worker Protection (Amendment of Equality Act 2010) Bill; the Lifelong Learning (Higher Education Fee Limits) Bill and the Hunting Trophies (Import Prohibition) Bill Third Reading.

These are all bills which have passed the Commons, but any changes made would effectively kill them, because there would not be debating time available for MPs to consider Lords amendments - a point not lost on opponents of the Hunting Trophies Bill, who may seek to force some votes.

Next, peers consider Commons amendments to the Energy Bill - will peers force another round of voting on issues like a ban on new fossil fuel extraction?

Wednesday 13 September

Commons: Scotland Questions (11:30), followed at noon by Prime Minister's Question Time.

Ten Minute Rule Bill: Conservative Andrew Percy wants a register of non-domestic buildings containing asbestos.

Main debate: MPs consider Lords amendments to the Procurement Bill and the Economic Crime Bill.

Westminster Hall: Conservative railways expert Chris Loder leads a debate on railway ticket offices (09:30)

Committees: Transport (09:00) looks at the hot topic of rail ticket offices in its inquiry into accessible transport, following the announcement of consultation plans to close most ticket offices across the rail network. MPs will hear from a range of witnesses, including RMT leader Mick Lynch and the managing directors of Avanti, LNER and Chiltern Railways.

Energy Security and Net Zero has two sessions on fuel poverty. First (09.45) it questions energy regulator Ofgem on the impact of the high energy bills of last winter. Then (13:15) it questions former Labour MP Caroline Flint, chair of the government's Committee on Fuel Poverty, on the effectiveness of policies to reduce fuel poverty.

The Defence Sub-Committee on Service Accommodation (15:00) hears from the services' family federations about the standard of both family and single living accommodation.

Lords: (11:00) Peers make an early start to their Wednesday, to conclude seven days of Report consideration of the sprawling Levelling-Up and Regeneration Bill.

They break for questions to ministers at 15:00 - and go back to the Levelling Up Bill afterwards. Subjects to be debated on this final day include issues planning applications, flooding, protection of ancient woodland, short-term lets, pavement licencing and late-arriving new clauses on childcare.

The protection of ancient woodlands will be one of the topics up for debate in the House of Lords on Wednesday

Thursday 14 September

Commons: Business and Trade Questions (09:30), followed by the weekly statement on the following week's Commons agenda, from the Leader of the House.

Main debate: Backbench debates: first, on football and dementia - the risk of neurodegenerative diseases is three and a half times greater for former professional footballers than for the rest of the population, so MPs Ian Blackford, Douglas Ross, Grahame Morris will lead a debate on what should be done. Second, on support for bereaved children - 27,000 parents die each year, leaving behind dependent children, and Lib Dem Christine Jardine argues that a modest change in the law is needed so that support can be provided to them.

Lords: (11:00) Peers are expected to rubber stamp the Powers of Attorney Private Members Bill, another private members bill. The main event will be all stages of consideration of the Northern Ireland Budget (No 2) Bill, which authorises the spending for the Northern Ireland government for the financial year ending 31 March 2024, in the continuing absence of the devolved Assembly. This is a money bill, which means that Peers cannot amend it - although there will be a chance to complain about its contents - and, maybe, the continued political deadlock which has made it necessary.

Friday 15 September

Neither House is expected to sit