Last Monday in Parliament there was the potential for Sussex MPs to be involved with the e-Petition 652602 entitled: “Don’t increase the income requirement for family visas to £38,700” described as “Family Visas: Income Requirement”. 23 MPs spoke from locations across the South East from Kent, Surrey, London and elsewhere in the UK but sadly no comment from Sussex. Today a small e-Petition called “e-petition 657935 relating to speech and language therapy” which has been organised by Dave Robertson, the Labour MP for Lichfield near Birmingham will be discussed. It only included 13,188 signatures by the end of March last year when it was created with a few hundred signatures from the whole of the Sussex area. This e-petition was created by the Mikey Akers and called “Increase investment in Speech and Language Therapy.”
The only documents proposed by Sussex MPs this week is Tuesday afternoon with the Health and Social Care Committee, including Dr Beccy Cooper, the Worthing West MP but there are no contents listed for the discussion. It will be interesting to see what comes from this. There were a few significant sessions that involved some Sussex MPs that took place in the first couple of weeks of this new year. On Tuesday morning the 14th January one of the sessions was from the “Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office” and the MPs who responded included Chris Ward the Labour for Brighton Kemptown and Peacehaven and Sian Berry the Green from Brighton Pavilion. Both received responses from Labour Government members.
Mr Chris Ward said: “It is now over a year since Imran Khan was imprisoned in Pakistan. Since then, there have been reports of widespread intimidation and human rights abuses. Can the Minister set out what steps the UK Government are taking to protect human rights, democracy and the rule of law in Pakistan?”
Hamish Falconer, Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office) replied: “The UK Government consistently urge Pakistani authorities to act in line with their international obligations and respect fundamental freedoms and human rights. I raised these issues during my visit to Pakistan in November and in my statement to the House on 28 November. We issued a further statement on 23 December about the role of military courts. We have made it clear that the UK supports individuals’ rights to freedom of assembly and expression, and we will continue to do so.”
A few minutes later Sian Berry added her comments: “Following up on the case of Alaa Abd el-Fattah in Egypt, will the Secretary of State say when he expects a substantial response to his engagement with the Egyptian Government? Will he confirm that he will not travel to Egypt unless he is confident that he can return with Alaa?”
David Lammy, Foreign Secretary, the minister for the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office: “Our relationship with Egypt is multifaceted. Today, this House has discussed the hope of a hostage deal, and the hon. Lady will understand the importance that the Egyptians play in that. As I said, I raised this issue on Sunday. I raised it on 20 December. I have pressed for Alaa’s release, and we will continue to do all we can, including the Prime Minister and the National Security Adviser. In the end, this is in the hands of the Egyptians.”
The next session that same day was called “Drones: High-security Prisons” and the first Sussex person who commented was Josh Babarinde, the Liberal Democrat MP for Eastbourne:
“The word that was missing from the shadow Justice Secretary’s question just now was “sorry”. A National Audit Office report said of the then Conservative Treasury’s investment in prison maintenance and security that “capital budget allocations for prisons have been well below the level needed.” Who was a treasury minister at that time? None other than the shadow Justice Secretary. Today’s report is the latest chapter in a catalogue of Tory prison failures that scuppered their mission to reduce reoffending, and therefore let down victims of crime. Will the Minister tell us about a new approach to better empower governors with the investment and the autonomy needed to properly invest in prison maintenance and security? What investment will he make in prison officer recruitment through programmes such as Unlocked Graduates, which are critical to help drive security in our prisons?”
Nicholas Dakin, The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Justice: “The hon. Member is right about the failures missing in the shadow Minister’s question. He is also right to ask what the Government are doing to support prison officers and prison governors. We are investing in that, and we will announce a new programme for training and developing new governors very shortly.”
A few minutes later Jessica Brown-Fuller, the Liberal Democrat for Chichester added her comments: “LiveLink Aerospace in my constituency is a surveillance company that has created a technology that is being used on Royal Navy ships, in airports and on private yachts. This technology could be crucial to maintaining the no-fly zones above prisons, which were introduced in January last year. Will the Minister explore this technology? Will he come to my constituency to visit LiveLink Aerospace and see what the technology can do?”
Nicholas Dakin responded with: “It is important that we take advantage of what intelligence is out there. If the hon. Lady writes to me, I will be happy to follow that up appropriately with her and the business involved.”
ianchisnall 