This week in Parliament several important subjects will be raised with committees involving Sussex MPs. This afternoon Jeremy Quin, the MP for Horsham is involved in a several events that afternoon; the Public Accounts Committee discussing “Non-executive director appointments” and Caroline Lucas, the Brighton Pavilion is on the Environmental Audit Sub Committee on Polar Research to discuss “The UK and Antarctic Environment” with exploring the effects of climate change in Antarctica and the role that UK science can play in understanding and protecting the region.

In tomorrow the Education Committee involves Caroline Ansell from Eastbourne on the “Impact of industrial action on university students” particularly looking at the Marking Assessment Boycott. In that afternoon there are several events, the Foreign Affairs Committee sees participation from Henry Smith, the Crawley discussing “Western Balkans”. The debate explores how making a combined approach of the UK’s global, economic, scientific, security and diplomatic strengths goes beyond aid to improve our development partnerships. Jeremy Quin is involved in several events with the Defence Sub-Committee to discuss “Developing AI capacity and expertise in UK Defence” It will examine how the MOD can strengthen the defence and security to transform a number of defence activities. He is also listed on Liaison Sub-Committee on “Scrutiny of Strategic Thinking in Government” and his own discussion, the “Child Trust Fund access for people seeking to manage the finances of others’’. Also Tim Loughton, the East Worthing and Shoreham MP has organised a discussion about “Baby loss and the role of coroners”. Interestingly Mims Davis described some aspects of this subject for Mid Sussex,

Parents who’ve experienced the devastation of losing a baby before 24 weeks of pregnancy can apply for a certificate to have their grief and loss recognised. Parents can now access a voluntary scheme to record and receive a certificate to provide recognition of their loss.  The certificates will not be compulsory, but the choice of all parents based on their feelings with details on Gov.uk.

This has the Pregnancy Loss Review group.

On Wednesday the Home Affairs Committee with Tim debating “Fire and Rescue Service” with the Energy Security and Net Zero Committee and Lloyd Russell-Moyle from Brighton Kemptown with Energy Security and Net Zero Committee “Keeping the power on: our future energy technology mix” later in the day “A flexible grid for the future” sees the The Public Accounts Committee involving Jeremy which will cover “Delivering value from government investment in major programmes” The Environmental Audit Committee which involves Caroline and “The role of natural capital in the green economy”. This inquiry investigates the natural capital in the green economy and the Government’s proposals to increase private investment in measures to support nature recovery.

The Conservative MP from South London, Elliot Colburn, is organising a debate connected to two “e-petitions 630932 published by Fares Rahmani and 631529 published by Dan McCarthy relating to LGBT content in relationships education” The “Remove LGBT content from the Relationships Education curriculum” number 630932, achieved nearly 250,000 signatures with significant numbers in Sussex. 1,423 in West Sussex, with 631 signatures in Crawley, 778 in Brighton, Hove 336 and 270 in East Sussex of which Eastbourne has 160. The “Do not remove LGBT content from the Relationships Education curriculum” 631529, received nearly 105,000 signatures. A total of 1,739 in West Sussex which included 311 in Shoreham. 2,214 in Brighton and Hove (957 alone in Brighton Pavilion) and 1,069 in East Sussex with 314 from Hastings and Rye.

Another event that is planned to take place today is a discussion that is described as “Safety of Rwanda (Asylum and Immigration) Bill: Consideration of Lords Amendments” The amendments were approved by the House of Lords which means the House of Commons is now able to consider the documents that relate to the Bill that was first established in December last year. Penny Mordaunt speaking on Thursday 7th March stated

there will be a debate today which is “Proceedings on the Supply and Appropriation (Anticipation and Adjustments) Bill, followed by consideration of Lords amendments to the Safety of Rwanda (Asylum and Immigration) Bill.”

During the week that Penny was commenting there were around 500 members of the House of Lords who voted for 10 amendments relating to the Bill. It is not possible to be sure of all of those that could be from Sussex but a few of them are very clear. Four of the Sussex members of House of Lords approved the first five amendments on Monday and approved at least three of the items on the Wednesday. These four people are Lord Bassam of Brighton a Labour member, Viscount Hailsham who is Conservative member, Lord Green of Hurstpierpoint who is now a Crossbench member although he was earlier a Conservative MP and finally Baroness Jones of Moulsecoomb who is a member of the Green Party. Bassam and Jones did agree with all of amendments. There were also three Sussex members who rejected all or most of the amendments. These were Lord Moore of Etchingham who is also a Crossbench member, Lord Soames of Fletching and Lord Herbert of South Downs who are both Conservative members. However, the largest group of the Conservative and DUP members totalled 187 and the smallest group in favour of all of these ten items were 226. They were Labour, Liberal Democrat and many Crossbenchers and a few Conservatives. Clearly the amendments could be rejected by the Government because the Conservative dominates the Parliament.