The Parliamentary Week — w/c 17 August 2026

Here is what the parliamentary week looked like on the official record.

This week’s recorded votes

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 on the move

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.
• Armed Forces Bill — Committee stage.
• Cyber Security and Resilience (Network and Information Systems) Bill — Committee stage.

See all bills currently before Parliament.

What the public is petitioning for

8 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 — 243,933 signatures.
• Ban anyone convicted of terrorism offences from standing for public office — 205,994 signatures.
• Hold a referendum to bring the water industry into public ownership — 184,148 signatures.
• Legislate to ban FPNs and prosecutions related to school attendance — 114,158 signatures.
• Change surrogacy law to recognise intended parents from birth — 112,938 signatures.

See the petitions gaining traction and how petitions work.

None of this is the whole of Parliament’s work, but it captures the shape of a normal sitting week.

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.