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Welcome from Laura
March was a month of intense activity in Parliament. The Prime Minister announced the Windsor Framework, a new agreement with the EU to re-establish smooth-flowing trade across the Irish sea and the territorial integrity of the UK, which went on to pass easily through the House. New legislation to stop small boat crossings over the Channel was also announced (which I address in more detail below) and the Chancellor announced the Budget.
For International Women’s Day I profiled three inspirational West Berkshire women:
- Page Fuller, a champion jump jockey for Jamie Snowden Racing in Lambourn;
- Eleanor Gilbert a 21-year-old farmer and social media presence known online as @BerkshireFarmGirl; and
- Kat Penn, who is the founder of a children's singing group called VoxFresh and was named as one of the Telegraph's 100 female entrepreneur's to watch last year.
You can watch my interviews with them here.
In Parliament
Childcare
Since being elected, I have worked closely with nurseries and early-years providers in West Berkshire including the Hungerford Nursery, Victoria Park Nursery School and the Ladybird Nursery in Newbury, as well as many parents, on issues of affordability, staffing and the accessibility of high quality care.
Prior to the Budget, I provided a written submission with three other MPs, Siobhan Baillie, Robin Walker, Robin Walker (the Chair of the Education Select Committee) and Edward Timpson, reflecting a number of their ideas. I was delighted that the Chancellor accepted our recommendations in full, making childcare one of the key announcements of his Budget, announcing a £4 billion pound investment into childcare across the next two years.
This will include:
- The extension of 30-hours of free childcare to 1- and 2-year olds where both parents are working, worth on average £6,500 a year to a family with a two-year-old child and reducing average childcare costs by up to 60%.
- An increase in the funding paid to nurseries providing free childcare by £204m from this September, rising to £288m next year. This is equivalent to a 30% increase in their funding and is the amount that the sector requested.
- A pilot scheme of Incentive Payments of £600 for childminders who sign up to the profession, rising to £1,200 for those who join through an agency.
- New upfront childcare payments for parents in receipt of Universal Credit and an uplift in the entitlement.
- Expansion of wraparound childcare in primary schools across the country.
You can also watch my speech on this in the Budget debate here.
Tougher sentences for fatal domestic homicide
My campaign to secure tougher sentencing for sexually-motivated manslaughter saw major success when the Government has announced it was giving it official backing on 16 March. This came as part of the Ministry of Justice’s response to the review into Domestic Homicide Sentencing by Clare Wade KC.
Since last year, I have been campaigning for tougher sentences in the aftermath of a series of high-profile cases where killers received sentences of between 3 and 6 years after killing their partners in acts of extreme violence. Last year, I met with the Justice Secretary to discuss this and later brought forward a Private Members Bill.
I am pleased that the Justice Secretary agreed with me – and other campaigners – that changes are needed. He has asked the Sentencing Council to revise up the starting point for manslaughter cases of his nature (to a 10-year minimum) and will legislate on it if necessary.
Following the announcement, I joined campaigner Carole Gould on Sophy Ridge on Sunday to discuss the Wade Review and my own campaign and you can watch the interview here.
And I wrote for Grazia about why this was so important.
Locally, I held a Women’s Safety roundtable with representatives from the Thames Valley Police Area Commander, Police and Crime Commissioner, West Berks Council, the Newbury BID and the Newbury Weekly News. We discussed town safety, domestic abuse, gateway offending and child protection, building upon the work achieved last year.
I also visited Flag DV, the free legal advice team for domestic violence here in Newbury, who have just received a substantial grant from the Ministry of Justice and do an extraordinary job of supporting vulnerable women.
Illegal Migration Bill
The Government brought forward legislation this month to stop the Channel crossings.
I want to be clear, that the intent of the Bill is not to remove rights from genuine asylum seekers but to end the route across the Channel as a legitimate point of entry. This is a route that is now completely controlled by criminal gangs – and the number arriving have increased from 300 in 2018 to almost 46,000 last year. Over 80% of arrivals are young men aged between 18 and 40, and 15,000 last year were from Albania.
I’m proud of the UK’s record of offering asylum: almost 500,000 people from Syria, Afghanistan, Hong Kong and Ukraine have been granted asylum in the United Kingdom since 2015. Integral to this Bill will be the establishment of new safe routes so that genuine asylum seekers can reach our shores safely.
But it has now become an imperative that the route across the Channel is closed down.
I spoke to Sky News about what the Bill really means, which you can watch here.
And I also spoke about the need to uphold our commitment to the European Court of Human Rights in the Committee Stage debate of the Bill. You can watch this here.
ADHD and autism debate in Parliament
Following my own debate on the subject last year, I spoke again in Parliament about ADHD and autism diagnosis delays. Whilst welcoming some of the progress that has been made by Berkshire West CAMHS, I know that many constituents continue to experience unacceptable delays in receiving a diagnosis. Berkshire West CAMHS says that it now has a waiting time of a maximum of 2-years for autism, however you will be aware that I am calling for it to be no more than 12-months, something which I believe should be achievable with the significant Government investment that has been received.
You can watch my speech here.
In Parliament, I also attended the Young Minds #EndTheWait event. Young Minds are calling campaign for better access to CAMHS services and SEN diagnoses facilities in schools – dovetailing with many of the issues I have spoken about this year – so I was pleased to support their campaign. Best of all, I also got to meet Nicole, from the Mary Hare School, who is one of the Young Minds Ambassadors.
The PM’s agreement on Northern Ireland
In February, the Prime Minister concluded the negotiations with the EU over the Northern Ireland Protocol, agreed in 2019 and announced the Windsor Agreement with Ursula Von Der Leyen the President of the European Commission.
The agreement fundamentally amends the text of the Northern Ireland Protocol, removes all barriers from the Irish Sea and will allow for the smooth flow of trade between Great Britain and Northern Ireland. It gives the power-sharing parties the ability to veto any new EU trade law that should impact on Irish goods crossing the border to the South under the so-called “Stormont Brake”.
The agreement demonstrated important statecraft by the Prime Minister, setting the stage for power-sharing to resume at Stormont and marking a shift in the relationship with our EU partners. It has received the express endorsement of President Biden.
I spoke about the framework on BBC Politics Live, you can watch some of my contribution here.
My other contributions in Parliament:
- My speech in support of the Workers (Predictable Terms and Conditions) Bill, which will give more rights to flexible and agency workers: https://www.laurafarris.org.uk/news/lauras-backing-bill-bring-more-rights-workers.
- My question to the Home Secretary following publication of the Casey Review into the Met Police: https://www.laurafarris.org.uk/news/lauras-question-home-secretary-casey-review.
In Newbury
Cost of living support:
In case you were not aware, I have launched a dedicated cost of living support hub on my website providing information on the Government’s support for households, which tells you all the help that is available.
You can find my hub here.
A new bus route up the A34:
I joined BBC Radio Oxford to discuss my campaign for a new bus route between Newbury, Didcot and Oxford, connecting the business & science parks along the A34. Quite apart from its practical advantages, historically there were strong public transport links that ran north and south from Newbury (both train and bus routes) and I am determined to see at least one of these revived.
I am really hopeful that I may have some news on this soon: having lobbied the Government for more funding (which resulted in a record £2.6M for buses in West Berks) I have since been working with Oxfordshire County Council and West Berkshire Council to make this a reality.
You can listen to my interview here.
Thank you young authors!
I want to say a massive well done to the winners of my short story competition and a thank you to everyone that took part – I was blown away by the number of entries and judging them all was so very difficult.
The two winners were Sophie Rae Martin, from Hampstead Norreys Primary School, in the Years, 1, 2 and 3 aged group and George Chetwynd-Talbot, from Stockcross Primary School for the Years 4, 5 and 6 age group.
You can read their fabulous entries here.
And a huge thank you to the Hungerford Bookshop who provided the winners with their prizes!
Building a better Royal Berks Hospital
It was great to join the Royal Berkshire's New Hospital Programme at their Newbury Matters event at the Waterside Centre to hear from local residents about their thoughts on the plans for Royal Berks’ rebuild.
This followed a meeting I attended in September last year with other Berkshire MPs, when we discussed the planned redevelopment and the future of the Royal Berks.
It is genuinely exciting to see the ambition for the new Royal Berkshire Hospital rebuild and to hear how our local health services are going to be transformed over the next decade. We will have one of the most cutting-edge hospitals in the country on our doorstep. It was a real pleasure to take part in this community event where West Berkshire residents had the chance to have their say.