On Tuesday, Commons proceedings open with Chancellor George Osborne answering Treasury Questions. MPs will then move to their second day of committee-stage debates on the Local Government Finance Bill - the bill to localise the system for paying council tax benefit and restore local control of business rates.
The day's committee highlight is probably the opening session of the Home Affairs Committee inquiry into drugs policy (at 11am). Richard Branson, who has long argued for liberalisation of anti-drug laws, is the star witness along with the former president of Switzerland, Ruth Dreifuss. Both have served as commissioners in the Global Commission on Drugs Policy, which last year declared that the war on drugs has failed and urged a new approach. Their report can be found here. The second panel of witnesses (at 11.45am) are Dame Ruth Runciman and Roger Howard of the UK Drugs Policy Commission. They have recently published work on novel psychoactive substances (so-called legal highs) and the effect austerity measures will have on UK drug policing.
The last time the Home Affairs Committee looked at drugs policy - back in 2000, when the redoubtable Chris Mullin was in the chair - it recommended "that harm reduction rather than retribution should be the primary focus of policy towards users of illegal drugs". Among those signing up to that conclusion was a bright young Conservative MP named David Cameron. Keith Vaz says this inquiry will look at "hugely controversial" alternatives to current policy. Whether it will recommend them is, of course, another matter.
