It is important to . . . → Read More: NHS Risk Register]]> Of all the topics Labour could have chosen for a six hour debate yesterday they probably chose the most pointless. A tribunal sits in a fortnights time to determine whether the Government is right or wrong not to publish the NHS Risk Register the the Information Commissioner said they should.

It is important to clarify what the Risk Register is.  It is not an assessment of the reforms being implemented by the Government; such an assessment has already been published alongside the legislation, but a more general document that identifies the challenges that face the Department of Health as a whole over the coming months and years.  A risk register is a common tool to determine what could, not what will, go wrong.

The Liberal Democrats are in favour of open and transparent government; people should know how the Government makes decisions and we believe that the public and even the media can understand such information.  The Secretary of State has suggested that making this information publically available will incite people to misinterpret the information and more seriously that officials in government will no longer report accurately the risks public services face.  I do not agree with his assessment and if there is such an ethos within government and the civil service, we must work to reform it.

I wrote to the Secretary of State some while ago to release the register and more recently have signed a cross party Early Day Motion calling for its publication.  The motion put forward by Labour was nothing more than party political posturing and I am sceptical that it will add to the debate, especially given Labour’s opposition to open government when they were in power.

I will continue to press for openness from the Government on this, and every other issue, and where the actual Health & Social Care Bill is concerned will keep up the pressure on the Government to withdraw the Bill as I voted against it at third reading.

The New Homes Bonus is a multi-billion pound programme that rewards communities when they accept more . . . → Read More: Torbay MP welcomes Government funding for more local homes]]> Adrian Sanders, MP for Torbay, has welcomed Government funding to build more affordable homes in South Devon. Through the New Homes Bonus, Torbay Council has been granted £1.1million this year to build much-needed housing in the local area.

The New Homes Bonus is a multi-billion pound programme that rewards communities when they accept more housebuilding in their area. The Bonus includes an extra reward for building new affordable homes, and for getting long-term empty homes back into use.

Building on the flagship Housing Strategy, the Government has this week unveiled a range of measures to help first time buyers onto the housing ladder, provide support for millions who have been left languishing on social housing waiting lists and get construction on the move.

Adrian Sanders, MP for Torbay, said: “The building of new homes, especially affordable ones, has fallen behind demand for many years and it is clear that only Government action can start to turn this around. There are still thousands of families on the waiting list for appropriate accommodation in Torbay.

Housebuilding is already up a quarter under the Coalition Government, but there is more to do.

I am delighted to welcome this funding for new homes in Torbay. The Government’s actions will help local people onto the housing ladder, provide more affordable housing and create local jobs”.

Equally it isn’t the fault of the claimant that some people’s work pays so little that it is less than what a benefit claimant can receive.  Neither is . . . → Read More: Herald Express article for Thursday 3rd February 2012]]> It is hard to argue with the Number 10 line that it is not fair that benefit claimants can receive higher incomes than people in work.

Equally it isn’t the fault of the claimant that some people’s work pays so little that it is less than what a benefit claimant can receive.  Neither is it the fault of the claimant that housing costs are so high due to the scarcity of secure tenancy regulated rent social housing.  And it certainly isn’t the fault of a claimant’s children that their education has to be disrupted when their parents fall on hard times and are forced to move to a new town where rents are cheaper.

Most of those who could be hit by the implementation of a benefit cap will be parents with several children in private rented households. It is the landlords that get the cash – often paid directly to them – meaning the families are really left struggling to pay for basic costs like utility bills, food, clothes, transport etc.

A benefit cap sounds an excellent idea in theory, but in practice it won’t work unless it takes into account the fact that in some areas of the country costs are higher and employment pay lower, which is why, if there are children to support, there will always be benefit claimant households somewhere receiving higher incomes than people in work elsewhere.

There are two ways to reduce the small number of families on welfare who receive more in benefit than they would in work; cap rents not benefits, and procure more regulated rent social housing.  There’s a third way and that is to lift pay rates, but we need a strong and growing economy first.

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Since writing about this a few weeks ago, updated Government figures show that 9.6 million homes don’t have enough loft insulation and 7.8 million do not have enough cavity wall insulation – that’s one in every four homes.

Taking advantage of free or discounted loft and cavity wall insulation offered by energy suppliers can save consumers an average £120 off their bill every year, and switching to direct debit alone could save around a further £100 each year.

Every major supplier is now offering free or cut price deals for loft and cavity insulation, yet not enough people are claiming these deals.  Currently 100,000 households are taking up these deals each month when some 200,000 households could be taking advantage of them.

To check you are on the best tariff and if you qualify for free insulation with your energy supplier go to http://www.consumerfocus.org.uk/get-advice/energy  Or telephone 020 7799 7900

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The last timetabled Friday for Private Members’ Bills was 20th January and those MPs with Bills lower down the agenda had to inform the House when they next wished their bill to appear on the agenda.

As no further Fridays have yet been agreed by the Commons business managers this is a bit like playing darts in an unlit coal mine.  Consequently most MPs give up and simply say the next Friday the 27th knowing the House isn’t sitting then so it’s the end of the line for their Bill.

I plumped for Friday 23rd March on the grounds that it would come after the Budget and usually, but not always, private business is timetabled for the third or fourth Friday in each month.  If I’m right, and as no one else chose the date before me, my smoke alarms bill will be the first item on the agenda and have a real chance of progressing.

It’s a long shot, but fingers crossed.  At the very least it keeps the pressure on the Government to reach a compromise that could save some of the average 5 lives a week that are lost in domestic house fires where no working alarm is present.

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I’ve been thoroughly enjoying the Hotel on Channel 4 about Torquay’s Grosvenor Hotel in Belgrave Road.  The background scenes of Torquay and South Devon are worth their weight in gold as positive advertisements for the area.

Even the situations and how the staff and owner deal with them reflect well on the bay – sure there are some laughs and embarrassing moments but it is obvious that Mark Jenkins and his employees at all times are well-meaning towards their guests.

That’s why it isn’t Fawlty Towers Mark 2 – Basil saw his guests as an inconvenience while Mark sees them as an opportunity to entertain and make happy so they will spend more and come back again.

It is a unique insight into the challenges that face our hoteliers and their staff and for Torbay’s tourism industry the Hotel really is the gift that keeps on giving.

Adrian Sanders MP is joining the BUAV in marking the first anniversary of the No Cruel Cosmetics campaign to end animal testing for toiletries and cosmetic products sold in the EU.

 Despite UK and EU bans on animal testing for cosmetics, products can still be . . . → Read More: Adrian Sanders MP for Torbay supports BUAV call to end animal testing for cosmetics]]>

Adrian Sanders MP is joining the BUAV in marking the first anniversary of the No Cruel Cosmetics campaign to end animal testing for toiletries and cosmetic products sold in the EU.

 Despite UK and EU bans on animal testing for cosmetics, products can still be tested on animals in other parts of the world and then imported and sold in the EU.  A marketing ban which would end this cruelty is due to come into effect in 2013. However, it is now in danger of being delayed, thereby putting thousands more animals at risk, who will continue to suffer and die needlessly in cruel tests for new beauty products sold in the EU.

 A delay could mean that hundreds of thousands more rabbits, guinea pigs, mice and rats will be injected, gassed or force-fed cosmetics worldwide for new beauty products sold in the EU, including the UK.

 The coming weeks will be critical as an announcement is expected shortly from the European Commission regarding its proposal for the 2013 ban. The BUAV believes, however, that the Commission plans to respond to our pressure by keeping the 2013 deadline, but it may seek to introduce exemptions.

 Over one hundred and fifty thousand people across the UK and EU, including Adrian Sanders MP, have already signed the No Cruel Cosmetics petition which is being sent to the European Parliament. 

 Adrian Sanders MP said, “I hope the UK Government will join me in supporting the No Cruel Cosmetics campaign and urge the European Commission to end the import and sale of animal tested cosmetics.”

 Michelle Thew, Chief Executive of BUAV, said, “We are delighted to have support from Adrian Sanders MP for our campaign to end cruel tests on animals for beauty products sold in the EU. Testing on animals is cruel and unnecessary. Please sign our petition to the European Parliament at www.nocruelcosmetics.org.”

Adrian Sanders, MP for Torbay, is backing the Daylight Saving Bill which receives its Third Reading in the House of Commons this Friday. The bill calls on the Government to conduct a . . . → Read More: Adrian Sanders MP says clocks change could save lives and create jobs in Torbay]]>  Local MP Adrian Sanders is backing a bill to objectively look at the benefits of moving the clocks forward by one hour.

Adrian Sanders, MP for Torbay, is backing the Daylight Saving Bill which receives its Third Reading in the House of Commons this Friday. The bill calls on the Government to conduct a comprehensive review of the costs and benefits of putting clocks forward an hour throughout the UK, resulting in lighter evenings every day of the year.

“The arguments in favour of clock change are compelling. This one simple low-cost policy could bring wide ranging benefits to the whole of the UK including creating much needed jobs in the tourism sector, saving lives on our roads, and reducing the fear of crime on dark evenings. The bill will be hugely beneficial to Torbay and other tourism-dominated areas in particular by providing additional trading hours and therefore creating large numbers of jobs available in the leisure and tourism industry” said Adrian Sanders MP.

Supporters argue that lighter evenings would save lives on our roads by making more of our busiest evening rush hours occur in daylight, create jobs by boosting the tourism sector, and make many people especially older people feel safer going out in the evenings for longer. Lighter Later, the group coordinating the campaign for change, says support for the cause has never been stronger.

“The Daylight Saving Bill is supported by over 90 national organisations from The AA to SAGA and The FA backing lighter evenings. On the year the Olympics comes to Britain, this would be a brilliant legacy for our young athletes” said Daniel Vockins, campaign manager.

Members of the public can find out more about the move at www.lighterlater.org

Devon Doctors have an office and consulting room where anyone attending casualty who would be better managed by a GP can be seen, taking pressure off and saving costs of the acute accident and . . . → Read More: Herald Express Article Thursday 19th January 2012]]> Over the Christmas period I visited an innovative health practice based within the Accident and Emergency Unit of Torbay Hospital.

Devon Doctors have an office and consulting room where anyone attending casualty who would be better managed by a GP can be seen, taking pressure off and saving costs of the acute accident and emergency facility.

Many people visit their A&E simply because they are not registered with a GP, or are visiting the area from elsewhere, or because it is out of hours for their own GP surgery. All place pressure on an A&E service that is primarily for people suffering an accident or requiring emergency treatment.

The decision as to who Devon Doctors (DD) see is taken by the Casualty Reception Staff and the DD claim last year to have prevented almost 10,000 inappropriate casualty self-referrals by simply seeing the patients at their point of perceived need. Consequently waiting times for all patients in A&E are reduced as are some of the treatment costs.

In other hospital A&E reception areas, all such primary care patients are referred to the junior doctor or nurse practitioner seeing minor injuries. In other hospitals this group of patients can be a considerable strain on the health service budget.

With so many changes taking place in our Health Service it is important that we don’t lose some of the successful and innovative schemes that we have on our doorstep.

We can be very proud of the services that we have seen developed across South Devon and Torbay in recent years, from small but significant initiatives such as Devon Doctors, to large scale delivery of integrated services through the adult care trust.

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In theory high speed rail is a great idea offering a greener and more efficient alternative to air travel, a less stressful experience than driving, and a much more practical use of time for the person who wants to work while travelling.

In practice it is very, very expensive and given the size of our country compared to others and the comparatively modest journey times between most of our cities, the benefits can be overstated.

The map for the new infrastructure shows that £33 billion will be spent speeding up journey times between London and most of the rest of the country, but not the South West.

The South West’s connectivity, already the slowest and most expensive in the UK, will fall further behind the rest of the country if this plan goes ahead.

For a fraction of the capital investment proposed for this project we could through duelling, new passing points and a couple of station improvements, create two competing faster rail lines into the South West from Paddington and Waterloo offering more choice, increased freight and passenger capacity, and as a consequence of real competition, cheaper fares.

The issue the Government claims to have identified is how best to help regions regenerate themselves. I question this top-down proposal when regions, including those on the map for hi-speed rail, would benefit more from being given real fiscal powers and freedoms to determine their own priorities.

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Reform of social care – and the dignity and independence of older people – is an urgent priority, and not just because of demographic changes and financial pressures on state spending.

Designing a new system that is both affordable and fair to all older people won’t be easy, which is why we need all the political parties to put their differences aside and come together to agree a way forward.

The Coalition has now commenced cross-party talks, and has been engaging with social care organisations since September. Working in partnership the Government will hopefully be able to bring forward a white paper and a progress report on funding reform in the Spring setting out plans.

Thanks to Liberal Democrat pressure in the Coalition there is an extra £7.2bn for social care over the course of this Parliament, and this month the Government announced an extra £150m for social care to help people get care at home and relieve pressures on the NHS.

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Should we have a vote on Scottish independence? That was a question posed by one MP in response to the Prime Minister’s call for an early referendum on whether Scotland should leave the Union.
Frivolous though it may be, and I strongly believe this is a matter for the electorate of Scotland and no one else, it does bring into focus the difficulties the rest of the UK has when confronted with the possible break-up of the United Kingdom.
Were we to be involved in such a vote what would happen if the Scots voted to stay in the UK, and the rest of us voted for them to leave? Answers on a post card please.

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Next surgeries:
Saturday, 21st January, 10 am to 11.30 am, The Windmill Centre, Pendennis Road, Hele, Torquay.
Friday, 27th January, 4 pm to 5.30 pm, Paignton Library, Great Western Road, Paignton.

This comes from an extra £150m announced by the Coalition Government this week to be spent on shortening hospital stays across the country during the busy winter period.

Thanks to the . . . → Read More: Extra social care funding means better help at home for people in Torbay]]> An extra half million pounds for social care in Torbay will mean people can leave hospital earlier and receive better care at home.

This comes from an extra £150m announced by the Coalition Government this week to be spent on shortening hospital stays across the country during the busy winter period.

Thanks to the Liberal Democrats, the cash can be used to access various preventative services such as better home care support, crisis response teams and specialist equipment for people in Torbay.

This is on top of the £648m already given to Primary Care Trusts this financial year to support social care services, and the cash is due to savings made in the Department of Health’s budget.

Commenting, Adrian said:

“At this time of year it is of particular importance to do everything we can to ensure people are cared for at home in a safe and familiar environment, with their family and friends close by.

“The Coalition is already doing the right thing and providing an extra £7.2bn in social care funding over the next four years. This extra cash for Torbay further shows how the Liberal Democrats recognise that we all prefer to be out of hospital, receiving care in our own home.”

Commenting further, Liberal Democrat Health Minister, Paul Burstow said:

“By reinvesting these savings in social care we can offer more help more support to older people leaving hospital.

“It is absolutely crucial that the NHS and local authorities work together to help people leave hospital when they are ready. The benefits are on all sides – patients get to go home with the support they and their families need, and hospital beds are freed up.

“This money will help cut the delays in getting the equipment and adaptations that people can need to enable them to live independently at home – saving them from an unnecessary stay in hospital or going into residential care.”

There has been no new evidence since the agreement was signed, . . . → Read More: Herald Express Article Thursday 5th January 2012]]> I was very disappointed just before the Christmas Recess to hear Caroline Spelman MP announce a Coalition U-turn on tackling Bovine TB. The Coalition Programme for Government was clear that a cull of badgers would be instigated only if the evidence supported it.

There has been no new evidence since the agreement was signed, yet the Secretary of State has bowed to pressure from those who demand something is done, even if there is no evidence to support its efficacy.

No one should be under any illusions about this terrible disease and the devastating impact it has on cattle and badgers, nor the financial and emotional impact on farmers and their families. It is truly tragic.

Since 1975 around 30,000 badgers have been slaughtered in an unsuccessful attempt to halt the spread of the disease. Even in areas where the badger population has almost been exterminated there remains a TB problem in cattle.

When the Independent Scientific Group announced in June 2007 – after 11 years of research – that slaughtering badgers would not significantly reduce bovine TB and could make matters worse, the consensus of opinion was that new evidence was needed if a cull were ever to be sanctioned in the future.

Existing research suggests that the main causes are the intensive rearing and breeding practices of the farming industry and the wide transportation of cattle. It is these cattle movements that researchers have found to outweigh all other factors in spreading Bovine TB.

The last major research also suggested that TB probably first spreads from cattle to badgers, where it remains stable, provided the badgers are not disturbed. Culling causes massive disturbance and spreads the disease.

Even the Government admits that the most that can be expected from the proposed slaughter of the badger population is a 12 to 16 per cent reduction in Bovine TB over 9 years.

It is a very high price to pay just to appear to be doing something. I hope we can stop this in its tracks before the countryside becomes a war-zone with armed farmers on one side and unarmed animal welfare protesters on the other, with an army of police officers having to be taken off the beat to hold the middle ground.

I’ve described it as looking through a telescope the wrong way round. Regional pay rates for public sector workers has been idea knocking around for decades. It last raised its head at the tail end of Tony Blair’s premiership but was kicked into touch by an alliance of Labour, Lib Dem and Nationalist politicians alongside local government representatives and trade unions.

Not surprisingly the idea has surfaced again in these austere times but regardless of the challenges to the public purse it’s still a mechanism that will have the opposite effect to that which some claim for it.

I don’t buy the argument that a nurse or a social worker doing the same job must be paid the same wherever their work is based, that’s not how the labour market works in the private sector, but that’s not the point nor is it my objection.

It is the impact lower public sector salaries will have on a local economy and the knock-on effect they have lowering private sector pay, further reducing the amount of money circulating in a local economy and thus damaging local businesses and increasing unemployment.

Were the theory that those who propagate regional pay rates correct, then the peripheral areas of the country would have above average pay rates. Of course they don’t.

Their belief is that the higher public sector salaries in a local labour market increase the wages offered by the private sector and this causes higher rates of unemployment. It is self-evident nonsense given we suffer both lower than average wages alongside higher than average unemployment.

All regional pay will do is make everyone poorer in the peripheral parts of the UK, none more so than in the far South West which is why the idea must be resisted.

We are still borrowing £1 out of every £4 the Government spends, but thankfully we are borrowing it at a low rate of interest most other countries dream about.

The Coalition has kept the wolf from the door which was its priority objective when it was formed. But we are not even close to being out of the woods yet, and my priority and that of my Lib Dem colleagues in Government, is to ensure that fairness is at the heart of decisions so that all those most in need are protected as best as possible from the difficult decisions being taken.

2011 was a tough year yet we still managed to lift nearly a million low paid workers out of paying income tax altogether and cut taxes for 23m people.
It was the year more than a million children got a fairer start in life, with extra support at school through our Pupil Premium, including thousands of eligible pupils in Torbay schools.

It was the year we guaranteed pensioners a decent increase in their pension.
Throughout, we have taken big long-term decisions that will change the way our economy works for the better – rebalancing it away from the City of London towards stronger, more sustainable growth, hence the Kingskerswell by-pass go-ahead.

And next year I hope our influence in Government will do more to help South Devon and the country out of recession and build a strong sustainable and fair future for all.

Next surgeries
Thursday, 5th January 2012, 4pm to 5.30 pm, Paignton Library, Great Western Road, Paignton.
Friday, 13 January, 4pm to 5.30 pm, St Peter’s Hall & Community Centre, Queensway, Chelston, Torquay.

Advice Line on 200036.
Web: www.adriansanders.org
Email: sandersa@parliament.uk

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