Ruth Fox

TUESDAY: What's coming up in Parliament today?

🪖 Debate on new Northern Ireland Troubles legislation
🌍 Chagos Islands legislation begins Lords Committee Stage
🔋 Energy Secretary faces oral questions

More detail below 🔽
www.hansardsociety.org.uk/news/parliam...

Parliament Matters Bulletin: What’s coming up in Parliament this week? 10-14 November 2025 Peers begin clause-by-clause scrutiny of the assisted dying Bill, after a Joint Committee on Human Rights evidence session on its impact on disabled people. David Lammy takes Justice questions in the…

Parliament Matters is read by MPs, peers, civil servants + journalists — but it’s written to explain Westminster for everyone.

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What’s coming up in Westminster this week? 👀

— Assisted dying bill in the Lords
— David Lammy in the Commons for questions
— Crime & Policing Bill: kicks off its 12-day Lords committee marathon

Full preview in our Parliament Matters bulletin. Link is in the post below 👇

🎧 Weekend listening...

How the Glorious Revolution, Whigs & Tories — and the race to fund war — forged modern party politics.

This week we talk to George Owers about his magnificent book, Rage of Party.

Listen here via your preferred podcast app ⤵️
pod.link/1714627828/e...

🧵 #OTD 75 years ago MPs returned to a rebuilt House of Commons Chamber, nine years after the original was destroyed in the Blitz.

The rebuilding wasn’t without controversy. With Britain still recovering from war, some questioned the cost and use of labour, including German POWs....

What’s happening in Westminster this week?

Our Parliament Matters Bulletin breaks down the key debates and decisions — from the China spying inquiry to major bills on sentencing & planning.

Stay informed — no spin, just facts.

Link is in the post below👇

🟢 The House of Commons will shortly begin today's sitting.

Find out what MPs are due to discuss and vote on - including details of bills, motions, debates and select committees - using our Parliament Matters Bulletin.

Check it out below 🔽
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Parliament Matters Bulletin: What’s coming up in Parliament this week? 13-16 October 2025 Parliament returns this week after a three-week recess. MPs may address developments in Israel and Gaza, the collapse of the China spying case, plans for digital ID, and recent immigration announcemen...

To keep ahead of the news on this and other Bills in each House read the @hansardsociety.bsky.social's weekly Parliament Matters Bulletin. Latest edition out today.
www.hansardsociety.org.uk/news/parliam...

NEW: The membership of the new Select Committee to consider the #AssistedDying Bill will be confirmed on Tuesday in the House of Lords. It will be chaired by Lord Hope of Craighead, former Convenor of the Crossbench Peers and former Deputy President of the Supreme Court.

Pop quiz for Parliament-watchers 👀

What’s the longest Bill of this session?
👇

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Parliament returns on Monday.

Our Parliament Matters Bulletin has everything you need to know about the week ahead in Westminster.

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Former Prime Ministers: The role of Parliament in life after No 10 - Parliament Matters podcast, Episode 109 In this episode, we speak with Peter Just, author of a new book, Margaret Thatcher: Life After Downing Street. Peter explores how Thatcher reinvented herself after her departure to maintain her…

🎧 What happens when the most powerful person in the country suddenly… isn’t?
With Margaret Thatcher’s centenary approaching, and her legacy still dividing the Tory faithful, we talk to @expremiers.bsky.social about his new book exploring her life and politics after No 10.

Parliament Matters: A podcast about the institution at the heart of our democracy Join two of the UK’s leading parliamentary experts, Mark D’Arcy and Ruth Fox, as they guide you through the often mysterious ways our politicians do business and explore the running controversies…

🎧 PODCAST - Former Prime Ministers: The role of Parliament in life after No 10

We talk to @expremiers.bsky.social about his new book on Margaret Thatcher's time after No 10, and about how other ex-PMs have spent their parliamentary afterlife.

Listen below🔽

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As there is some form of consultation promised, perhaps we might get a Green Paper. And then after the consultation concludes we should have a White Paper and then a Bill. I'm not sure whether that's the equivalent of your official report but it's probably the nearest thing we have to it.

Yes, e-petitions are another factor I doubt anyone in No 10 gave any thought to in terms of communications management . The Backbench Business Committee in the House of Commons will have to schedule a debate in due course. It could end up being debated before the consultation is launched!

7/ Digital ID may or may not be the right call.

But this is not the best way to make public policy that affects all our lives.

6/ Opposition parties - and some Labour backbenchers - have already come out against it before seeing any detail.
Reflex politics that engages neither with the merits nor the risks.

5/ There will apparently be a consultation—yet no clarity on when it begins. So until then we’ll have days (weeks?) of speculation where the real detail risks being lost in the media & social-media frenzy.

4/ Just 10 days ago the tech minister said Govt was only looking at whether a new digital ID could tackle illegal immigration, transform services & help everyday life.

“No firm decision, estimate or assessment has yet been made.”

10 days later: policy announced. 🤔

3/ This wasn’t in the General Election manifesto.
There has been no strategic case, no groundwork to build public understanding. No costings. No timescales. Barely any detail. Hence why ministerial media appearances today have been poor and sometimes contradictory in their messaging.

2/ A policy with huge legislative, financial & social implications was unveiled as if Parliament’s consent were a given — before it was announced to MPs, before scrutiny.

@commonsspeaker.parliament.uk must be having conniptions in Chorley.

1/ Whatever you think of digital ID, the process matters.
And in 2025, this is still how we make big public policy. 👇

UCL Constitution Unit The Constitution Unit conducts timely, rigorous, independent research into constitutional change and the reform of political institutions. Our research has significant real-world impact, informing pol...

You can watch today's @conunitucl.bsky.social event with Lord Goldsmith online via their YouTube channel or later on their podcast.
www.youtube.com/@constitutio...

Treaty scrutiny: addressing the accountability gap In this guest blog, Lord Goldsmith KC, Chair of the House of Lords International Agreements Committee (IAC), sets out the findings of the Committee’s latest report urging reform of Parliament's outdat...

And this week Lord Goldsmith, Chair of the International Agreements Committee has written a blog for us @hansardsociety.bsky.social explaining why government objections to reform are unconvincing and meaningful accountability is overdue.
www.hansardsociety.org.uk/blog/treaty-...

Parliamentary scrutiny of treaties - Our evidence to the House of Lords International Agreements Committee Our evidence on treaty scrutiny has been published by the House of Lords International Agreements Committee. Our submission outlines the problems with the existing framework for treaty scrutiny and wh...

Our @hansardsociety.bsky.social evidence to the House of Lords International Agreements Committee sets out the problems and what is needed: www.hansardsociety.org.uk/publications...

5/ Unless Parliament - especially the Commons - gets stronger powers of scrutiny, huge areas of economic and social policy will go unchecked. So we need modern scrutiny tools and resources to examine treaties fit for the 21st century.

4/ Free trade agreements in particular can “lock in” policy choices and create winners and losers across regions and sectors. Even if their macro-economic impact looks modest, their local consequences can be profound and long-lasting.

3/ Modern treaties can:
🌍 set human-rights, labour and environmental standards
📜 shape rules on data, product safety & IP
🥩 affect food standards & animal welfare
💷 influence jobs, public services & regional economies

These are decisions that shape our daily lives.

2/ Right now Parliament’s system for scrutinising treaties has barely changed for 100 years.

But today’s international agreements reach deep into domestic policy - far beyond old-style diplomacy. The scrutiny system hasn't kept up.

1/ Concerns are rising in Westminster over the Chagos deal and the UK’s trade agreements with the US, EU & India.

If we want better economic, trade and foreign-policy decisions, MPs need the tools – and the will – to hold government to account. 👇