Week In Westminster: w/c 13th April
- Apr 17
- 3 min read
Welcome back to the Newsletter after Easter Recess - I hope everyone had restful bank holidays. It's been delightful to spend so much time across our area!
This week started with an announcement from the Government on school food standards. Specifically, the Department for Education has launched a consultation on proposals to make school meals healthier for children - including potential bans on high-sugar drinks and confectionery, limiting sweetened desserts, and new rules to ensure a portion of vegetables or salad accompanies every main meal.
It's a critical reform, with 3 in 4 parents reporting concerns about their child’s nutrition, and - shockingly - a third of children are leaving primary school overweight or obese.
In the House of Commons, the Prime Minister offered an update on the Government's efforts to de-escalate the Middle East, and the Home Secretary set out an update on the Southport attack inquiry.
Tuesday saw the Government announce £175 million for new Technical Excellence Colleges, £127.8 million to improve cultural venues, museums and libraries across England, give an update on the delivery of compensation for victims of the Infected Blood Scandal, and launch a new plan to halve knife crime.
The Chamber also voted on the Government’s flagship Crime and Policing Bill. The package includes new laws to cut crime and make our streets safer by tackling antisocial behaviour, shop theft and street crime head on, giving the police and our communities new powers to take our local town centres back.
On Wednesday, I was delighted to see the publication of the Government's new Women's Health Strategy.
The document will put women’s experiences at the centre of care across the healthcare system, ensuring patients’ voices are listened to and acted upon, including exploring ways in which women’s feedback can be directly linked to provider funding to ensure services are held accountable for listening to women.
Specifically, the Strategy will do three things: reverse the decline in healthy life expectancy seen in the 2010s, improve healthy life expectancy in the poorest regions to a minimum of 61 years, and reduce the time women spend in poor health, especially for women experiencing the greatest health inequalities. Change will be immediate and continue over the next 10 years.
I was particularly proud to have fed in the experiences and views of local women who joined me at a roundtable in our area, then later meeting with the Secretary of State for Health directly to pass on their thoughts.
As well as joining a meeting in Parliament with fellow West Yorkshire MPs, and local hospice leaders to discuss Government support for their work, elsewhere on Wednesday, I was delighted to vote for the Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill.
The legislation delivers on the Government's promise to give every child in the UK the best start in life. Amongst many reforms, it provides children across our area with free breakfast clubs, puts qualified, expert teachers in classrooms and improves safeguarding and children’s social care. That means where you come from doesn’t determine where you end up and if you work hard, you should be able to get on in life.
I was also proud to vote on amendments on the Pensions Scheme Bill, which boosts the incomes of pensioners receiving Guaranteed Minimum Pensions through a workplace scheme by the largest possible amount.
I believe that British manufacturing is central to both the prosperity of our country and to ensuring well-paid, skilled work across our region. That's why yesterday, I was pleased to see the Business Secretary launch his British Industrial Competitiveness Scheme that will protect these businesses from high electricity costs, saving around £40 per megawatt per hour in costs. The scheme joins a list of similarly-intentioned programmes to get costs down for businesses today, tomorrow, and for good!
I hope everyone has wonderful weekends when they arrive - here's hoping for some nice weather! |
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