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Westminster Civic Registry

Independent Political Reference · Non-partisan · United Kingdom

Dispatch · The Parliamentary Week

Westminster This Week — 10 August 2026

What Parliament actually did this week — recorded votes, bills on the move, and the petitions the public is pushing — drawn from the official record.

10 August 2026 · 6 min read

A snapshot of the parliamentary week, drawn from the public record.

How the Commons voted

The Commons recorded 12 divisions in the period covered. The closest was Draft Town and Country Planning (Discharge of Local Planning Authority Functions) (England) Regulations 2026, decided by 283 to 182. The most one-sided was National Security (State Threats) Bill: motion to agree to Lords Amendment 1 (394 to 85).

See the latest Commons votes in full, and our guide to how MPs vote.

Bills before Parliament

Several bills advanced through the stages set out in our guide to how a bill becomes law:

  • Railways Bill — Committee stage.
  • Financial Services and Markets Bill [HL] — Report stage.
  • Cyber Security and Resilience (Network and Information Systems) Bill — Committee stage.
  • Armed Forces Bill — Committee stage.

See all bills currently before Parliament.

Petitions gaining traction

7 petitions have passed the 100,000 mark that triggers consideration for a debate. The most-signed open petitions were:

  • Make a public animal abuser register & automatically ban ownership — 243,386 signatures.
  • Ban anyone convicted of terrorism offences from standing for public office — 205,581 signatures.
  • Hold a referendum to bring the water industry into public ownership — 171,616 signatures.
  • Change surrogacy law to recognise intended parents from birth — 112,888 signatures.
  • Support the Ceramics Industry and protect British manufacturing jobs and skills — 110,539 signatures.

See the petitions gaining traction and how petitions work.

This is a digest, not the full picture — committee work and Lords scrutiny continue in parallel.

Source: UK Parliament open data (Commons Votes, Bills and Petitions services), used under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0. Figures reflect the public record at the time of the last site update.