A senior Tory MP says he will start to question the House of Lords' existence if peers "mess around" with the Brexit bill.

The government says it will make system "fairer" for businesses facing the steepest increases.

House of Lords
Parliament

The debate concludes as does the day in the House of Lords.

Tomorrow peers begin at 11am with oral questions followed by debate on the Health Service Medical Supplies (Costs) Bill and the Neighbourhood Planning Bill. 

House of Lords
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Minister Lord Bates responds to the debate.

He tells peers that there is clear evidence on the most effective ways to tackle nutrition.

This includes encouraging breast feeding and the use of vitamin A and zinc supplements.

He says it is also important to focus on preventing malnutrition in children under five years old as it can have the biggest impact on their future potential.

House of Lords
Parliament

Labour's international development spokesman Lord Collins of Highbury says that good nutrition is the foundation of sustainable development.

He says the UK has taken "a leading role" in the fight against malnutrition.

He urges the government to commit £530m to improving nutrition after 2020 arguing that this would improve the efficacy of other health programmes. 

House of Commons
Parliament

That ends today's business in the House of Commons. 

Tomorrow morning kicks off at an earlier time of 9.30am with questions to the Transport Secretary. 

House of Lords
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Labour's Baroness Thornton describes the statistics on nutrition as "startling and shaming". 

She says malnutrition is the primary "destroyer" of human potential on the planet and asks why only 1% of foreign aid is spent on nutrition.

The first and simplest intervention, she argues, would be to encourage mothers to breastfeed in the first six months.

House of Commons
Parliament

Communities and Local Government Minister Andrew Percy says social housing landlords have a "moral duty" to work with the police and residents. 

He says that landlords can use "social injunctions" which can be a "fast and effective" form of dealing with disruptive neighbours. These can in turn make it easier to evict consistent offenders, he says.

House of Lords
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Peers now move on to the dinner break business debate on improving the standards for women and girls globally.

Conservative Baroness Manzoor opens the debate and tells the House that 73% of people in poverty are women and that 60% of those who are undernourished are women.

How can adolescent girls can attend school when they are weak and dizzy as a result of poor nutrition, she asks.

She urges the government to expand programmes on women and girls' nutrition.

House of Commons
Parliament

Conservative Simon Hoare introduces tonight's adjournment debate on the Aster Group Housing Association and private residents. 

He says he has tabled the debate after an elderly constituent felt obliged to move out of her house, owned by Aster, due to the behaviour of her neighbours. 

He raises that without "duty of care", housing associations such as Aster have no obligation to deal with complaints similar to this and says colleagues have raised similar concerns in their constituencies. 

Aster own and manage 28,000 homes and plan to develop 9,500 new homes in the next seven years. 

House of Lords
Parliament

Speaking for the government Baroness Buscombe says the government has "finalised the text of a code of practice" with search engines, aimed at curbing the availability of pirated content and with the "general aim of supporting legitimate content".

She says a voluntary agreement is "quicker, more flexible" and means parties involved in the agreement are already working to deliver on it.

She asks that the amendment be withdrawn because "a statutory power is not needed at present".

Of the newly announced agreement Labour's Lord Stevenson of Balmacara says he "can't see this lasting" and that a statutory power will be needed at some point. But he withdraws the amendment.

House of Commons
Parliament

MPs have voted in favour of the Local Government Finance report with a majority of 112.

They also supported orders on referendums relating to council tax increases, the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority and the Tees Valley Combined Authority without votes.

House of Lords
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Image source, PA

Peers are now debating an amendment that would bring in a code of practice for search engines compelling them to minimise the availability of illegally pirated copyright material.

The sponsors of the amendment, who include both the Labour Party and the Lib Dems want to stop search engines linking to sites that illegally distribute pirated material.

House of Commons
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Communities and Local Government Minister Marcus Jones sums up by saying "he looks forward to longer terms reforms in funding", the settlement being proposed today "reaffirms our commitment to funding certainty to local government."

He says that the government recognises the need for "dignity, respect and independence" for those seeking social care, and argues the additional funding will help supply this.

Following his speech a vote is called on the spending proposals.

House of Commons
Parliament

Conservative Steve Double says it is “right that [Local Government funding] is going under period of dramatic reform…to make it fit for purpose.” He says that it would deal with the “imbalance” between funding in urban and rural areas, an opinion shared by other rural MPs.

Fellow Tory Kevin Hollinrake says it is “simply not fair” that London constituencies appear to receive more local government grants, claiming that while most constituencies need to increase council tax, many in London have frozen them.

House of Lords
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The opposition amendment 20 is defeated by 182 to 133.

Peers are now debating an amendment, protecting payments to "creators" like writers and directors for re-transmission of TV programmes when the rights have been transferred to a broadcaster.

House of Lords
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Baroness Buscombe acknowledges the problem and says the government has committed to conducting a review.

She promises to bring forward proposals if the evidence suggests that it is necessary.

She seeks to assure peers that she "will think more about this" but says she cannot commit to introducing an amendment at a later stage of the bill.

Lord Stevenson decides that it is "worth testing the opinion of the House" and the amendment goes to a vote. 

House of Lords
Parliament

Peers begin debate of amendment 20, which is supported by both Labour and the Liberal Democrats.

The amendment seeks to provide protection to owners of copyright works by prohibiting unauthorised decoders other than in strictly controlled circumstances.

Labour's Lord Stevenson says that an injustice is being perpetrated by the manufacturers of such devices.

Lib Dem's Lord Clement-Jones adds that the devices could have an "extremely detrimental effect" on the audio-visual industry.

Select Committee
Parliament

Committee chair Yvette Cooper sums up the session by saying there is "clearly an ongoing willingness" from councils to take refugee children via the Dubs scheme. She says she finds it "quite extraordinary" to hear that councils are offering places that are not being taken up.

She says the government offered "two key reasons" why the Dubs scheme had been curtailed: the risk of encouraging trafficking and the inability of local councils to offer places.

In today's first session, the committee heard experts saying they thought closing the scheme risked more trafficking, and in the second they heard from councils that places were still vacant.

She says the session has "given us further questions which we will need to pursue."

House of Lords
Parliament

Peers now debate a Labour-Lib Dem amendment which aims to aid competition in the mobile market.

The amendment gives Ofcom the power to impose caps upon wireless telegraphy licenses where the applicant owns more than 30% of the total useable phone spectrum.

Mobile companies pay a fee to Ofcom in order to use the spectrum - airwaves spaces.

Labour's Lord Stevenson argues that the merger of BT and EE created a "behemoth" in the communications market. 

Lord Ashton of Hyde argues that the allocation of the spectrum is a matter for Ofcom.

Lord Stevenson says this is an ongoing discussion and withdraws his amendment.