Next week's committees
In these dog days of this Parliament, business on the committee corridor is beginning to thin out. Many of the meetings are closed ones, in which the committees debate the reports they want to finish off and publish, before the final whistle is blown.
On Monday, the will be hearing a progress report on the delivery of the 2012 Olympics, with assorted officials from the Olympic executive and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. At the moment they are pretty much on target, although a recent National Audit Office report found that they are beginning to eat into their contingency reserve.
The will hear from a galaxy of former Education Secretaries in its review of education policy "From Baker to Balls". The cast list includes Lord Kenneth Baker, Lady Estelle Morris, David Blunkett and Charles Clarke.
And the current incumbent in the reconfigured Department for Children, Schools and Families, Ed Balls, will follow his predecessors on Wednesday.
How green is our portfolio? The will examine the claims of ethical/responsible/green financial investment by the state owned banks, on Tuesday. Witnesses are from UK Financial Investments - the holding company for all those taxpayer-rescued banks - and from the Treasury.
The will hold a follow-up session on Digital Inclusion in Wales - well timed in the light of reports that a lack of fast broadband is driving young people and business out of many rural areas. Witnesses: GEO, Virgin, BT and Ofcom.
And the holds a double-headed session following up on its inquiries into the Gurkhas and into domestic violence. One of the issues on the latter is a freedom of information request, which last week revealed that the average time it takes for people convicted of domestic violence to start a court ordered programme to help them change their behaviour had risen from 27 to 29 weeks. The committee warned of this very problem in its wide-ranging report on domestic violence, forced marriage and "honour-based" violence in June 2008.
On Wednesday the continues its inquiry into fuel poverty, with Derek Lickorish, chair of the Fuel Poverty Advisory Group, and Junior Minister David Kidney.
There's that Ed Balls session with the Children, Schools and Families Committee (see above) and the conducts a pre-appointment hearing with the preferred candidate to be HM Chief Inspector of Prisons, Nick Hardwick, before grilling Justice Secretary Jack Straw about the Draft Civil Law Reform Bill, and the work of his department.
The will take evidence on the effectiveness of government policy to combat problem drug use, with Sir David Normington, the permanent secretary at the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Office. And the will quiz the Climate Change Secretary Ed Miliband about international climate change negotiations.
It's also worth watching out for a debate in Westminster Hall, the Commons parallel debating chamber, on the Transport select committee's report on road pricing.
This should be fun because both Transport and Treasury ministers will be present... so the favoured tactic of one department deflecting uncomfortable questions to the other won't be possible.
Thursday finds the pondering the state of government, with former science minister Lord Sainsbury, Jonathan Baume, of the top civil servants trade union, and former top civil servant Sir Richard Mottram.
And the hears evidence on the use of overseas doctors in providing out of hours coverage for the NHS.
I'm Mark D'Arcy and I'll be writing about what goes on in the chambers and committee rooms at Westminster.
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