Monday 28th April
Sally Hamwee saw through the final stage (Third Reading) of the Regulatory Enforcement and Sanctions Bill before it passed to the Commons unamended, although with several Government concessions.   Sally, in her new role as team leader for the department for Communities and Local Government, opened the next debate on the Second Reading of the Housing and Regeneration Bill.   She quoted her erstwhile boss, the lawyer Lord Goodman, who was also chair of the Housing Corporation, and who, in the Dimbleby Lecture of 1974, commented on the lack of and need for proper housing, bemoaning the fact that little had changed since then.   She was joined by Sue Miller, who particularly focussed on the subject of allotments, and Kishwer Falkner, who talked about the role of housing associations.

Tuesday 29th April
William Wallace, Anthony Lester, Bob MacLennan, Hugh Dykes and John Roper joined in the second day of Committee of the EU (Amendment) Bill, which is still proceeding very slowly due to the continued prevarication of the Tories and UKIP.  Hugh drew attention to the fact that several of the amendments described by the Tories as ‘probing’ had in fact been tabled by Bill Cash and other Euro sceptics in the Commons, where they had been described as ‘wrecking’.   Tom McNally, in trying to speed up the proceedings, said he had calculated that at the rate that business was going it would need 30 Committee days rather than the 6 allocated!   Angie Harris took the Government to task on introducing indeterminate sentencing in Northern Ireland when the Criminal Justice (Northern Ireland) Orders were debated.   Liz Barker and Jenny Tonge continued the Committee stage of the Health and Social Care Bill, and again on Wednesday, when they were joined by Archy Kirkwood.

Wednesday 30th April
Martin Thomas and Angie Harris supported an important amendment on police pay on the final stage (Third Reading) of the Criminal Justice and Immigration Bill, which was won with a large majority.  Eric Avebury’s amendment  to ensure a right of appeal against the new Special Immigration Status was lost due to the Tories abstaining,  as was Sue Miller’s on the definition of pornography,  for the same reason  The Government have been defeated seven times on this bill, which now goes to the Commons and will return for ‘ping-pong’ next week.

Thursday 1st May
In a debate on the targets of the millennium development goals in the poorest countries and the action required to achieve them by 2015, David Chidgey remarked that while the global response to these goals had been encouraging, there was a risk of Africa being left behind.    Lindsay Northover highlighted three particular areas of concern - HIV/AIDS, climate change and the scarcity of resources and increasing food prices.   William Wallace spoke in the next debate on the role of interfaith dialogue in strengthening society where he particularly focussed on the relationship between Protestants and Catholics.