Feeling a lot stronger post op, I headed to the Commons. A fascinating session of our Defence Select Committee on space took up a large part of the day. We took oral evidence from Dr Mark Hilborne and Dr Mark Presley, two experts in the field, who furnished us with their expert knowledge of space, which is now dominating the field of future defence. The afternoon's session is on Hansard. At 1630, I joined a weekly meeting of a small group of colleagues. Always interesting. There was a lot of constituency work to do and I did not head back to Dorset until 1900. On pandemic news, Scotland will move to level zero of Covid restrictions on 19 July, but mandatory use of face coverings is to remain in place for "some time". First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said the planned easing had to be modified due to the spread of the Delta variant. The move to level zero means more people would be allowed to meet indoors and attend weddings and funerals. However, limits on outdoor meetings would be maintained, and the return of workers to offices will be delayed. Ms Sturgeon said "sensible precautions" had to be maintained while the vaccine programme continued. The Government won a Commons' vote to cut spending on overseas aid, despite a rebellion by some of my colleagues. MPs voted by a majority of 35 to keep the budget for international development at 0.5 per cent of national income. But 25 of my colleagues joined Labour and other parties in an attempt to reinstate the 0.7 per cent figure, which was in place until earlier this year. Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the cut was needed to keep public debt down during the pandemic.