April Report

The finance bill

The finance bill has been debated by MPs in the House of Commons over the last month. It has been beset by problems mainly because proposals have been poorly thought through. It hits older people, working families and those on the lowest incomes the hardest. Next year, changes to pensions, dressed up as tax simplification, will leave nearly 4.5 million pensioners £83 worse off on average per year. And it will hit people just about to become pensioners harder still. People turning 65 after 6 April 2013 will lose £285 a year.

internet surveillance.

There has been a deal of speculation about what this legislation would contain. It remains unclear what the Government proposals are.

The Government needs to explain what they want to do and why.

The police and security services should be able to keep up with new technology to deal with serious issues including disrupting terrorist planning, catching paedophile rings or cracking down on organised crime.

But both privacy and security need to be protected. We need clear checks and balances on what the police, security services or the Government are able to do. The public will also need confidence and trust in the system. For example, most of us would be strongly opposed to the idea of police officers or intelligence agencies being able to browse the content of everyone’s emails.

Any proposals need proper consultation and scrutiny so that we can have a proper public debate on any new plans.

Legal aid

Under Government proposals almost all legal aid funding for debt advice, all welfare benefit law, all employment law and all education law will be cut, and most of housing law. This will particularly impact on the poorest.

Without this early legal advice, the eventual cost to the taxpayer will be considerably greater. Cutting legal aid will reduce the capacity of Citizens Advice and law centres.

I am working with Hackney law centre and Citizens Advice to make sure that Hackney residents receive the best advice possible when they need it.

The ministerial code

The Prime Minister was summoned to Parliament after Labour asked the House of Commons Speaker for an urgent question. This is the first time since urgent questions were introduced that the Prime Minister has been required to do this.

Questions are now being raised as to whether or not culture secretary, Jeremy Hunt MP, broke the ministerial code with his dealings with News International. The ministerial code is important as it governs probity in ministerial decision-making.

As Lord Justice Leveson has made clear his enquiry cannot examine alleged breaches of the code. It is for the Prime Minister to ensure that his ministers follow the ministerial code and he should refer the matter of this alleged breach for a proper inquiry.

House of Lords reform

This month the joint committee on House of Lords reform published its report on the Government's draft legislation on the reform of the House of Lords.

The committee voted by a majority in favour of the Government proposal that the House of Lords should be 80 per cent elected and 20 per cent nominated, with 450 members each serving 15 year terms. Under the new plans peers would not be able to stand for re-election.

The Committee also recommended that the voting system used to elect members should be the single transferrable vote. This allows voters to rank individual candidates in order of preference. The members, made up of MPs and peers, also voted by majority that there should be a referendum.

However, some of the committee members could not agree with the recommendations. Twelve of the 26 members published an alternative minority report.

One of their concerns is that the draft bill does not assert the primacy of the House of Commons. This means that an elected House of Lords would have the power to challenge the House of Commons.

They also argue that the starting point for reform should be a review of Parliament as a whole, not just the House of Lords.

All members agreed that a referendum is necessary before any change.
I support a referendum. I am concerned at the prospect of one term peers with 15 year terms of office. Elections should bring more accountability.

Sunday trading bill

The Government introduced a bill that will suspend Sunday trading laws over the Olympic and Paralympic games period. It became law on 1 May. I support this temporary change as this is a global event coming to London. I am concerned, however, that this may lead to a permanent change to the current Sunday trading laws.

I don't want to see low paid shop workers being forced to work longer hours. Small local businesses could also find it harder to compete with bigger businesses if the changes were permanent.

The Government refused to accept any Labour amendments to protect workers' rights so I abstained on the vote.

Queen's speech

It's less than a week to go until the State opening of Parliament and the Queen's speech. Parliament was prorogued on Tuesday, prorogued means the official ending for this Parliamentary session. It is not the same as when Parliament is dissolved, which happens before a general election, but there will be no more debates or votes until after the Queen's speech.

The Queen's speech is delivered from the House of Lords in the presence of members from both Houses.

The speech is not written by the Queen, but by the Government. It sets out the Government's policies and proposed legislation for the next year.

Some of the bills which are expected to be in the Queens speech have been announced in ministerial statements, trailed in the press or were published in the last parliamentary session as draft bills. These include bills on House of Lords reform, on the implementation of the Vickers Report on Banking, on public sector pensions and on interception of communications (ie internet surveillance).

As a Co-op MP I am particularly interested in possible legislation to re-organise co-operative law. I will be keen to ensure that this levels the playing field for co-ops as a business model.

I shall be watching closely a bill to introduce "a radical streamlining of the toolkit" of remedies to deal with anti-social behaviour. I am concerned about proposals which would reduce the number of tools available for police to tackle anti-social behaviour.

Africans against child abuse summit

I spoke at a summit held by Africans Unite Against Child Abuse (Afruca) which was organised after the death of Kristy Bamu whose own sister killed him after she believed he was possessed.

I called for the Home Secretary to consider using her powers to prevent faith leaders who accuse children of being witches from entering the UK.

The meeting also discussed whether there should be a new crime which would tackle British faith leaders who brand children as witches or as possessed.

Access to TV channels which promote witchcraft and possession was also discussed. Kristy's murder was carried out at home. Children's minister Tim Loughton MP is waiting for the conclusions of a working group on this issue.

Reforming childcare

New figures from the Office of National Statistics show that in the last quarter, 34,000 women have given up work.

Over the past 18 months, an additional 32,000 women have chosen to stay at home to look after their children because they cannot afford to work, according to research by Aviva Insurance Group.

I am pleased therefore to support the child care commission set up by my colleague shadow education secretary Stephen Twigg MP. This commission will oversee a thorough review of childcare and will look at good practice from other countries such as Norway and Denmark.

Increasing access to childcare and early years education is important for working parents and for the development and opportunities of young people.

A recent Public Accounts Committee inquiry looked at the benefits of early education on the life chances of young people. High quality under 5s education has a big positive impact on children's life chances. To submit evidence to the commission please send it to meghilliermp@parliament.uk

Nigeria

At the end of April I spent five days in Nigeria as chair of the all party parliamentary group. I visited Lagos in the south west, Abuja the capital and Minna in Niger state in the north.

Nigeria's economy is growing at around seven per cent a year and there is a commitment between the UK and Nigeria to double bi-lateral trade between our two countries by 2014. In Lagos, in the south west, we saw plans for major investment in the city including a new light rail system.

The economy is very imbalanced with 97 per cent of imports coming into the country via Lagos. In northern Nigeria there is a great need for agricultural growth. Nigeria imports many crops and there are governors keen to develop agriculture.

Education is a key issue across the country. I visited a UK supported project to train more women teachers and get more girls into school. I then visited a remote village school where parents have been encouraged to take control and ensure that children attend. One mother of four was being educated herself for the first time and hungry for her children to get the opportunities she had not had. Children study from age three in Nigeria.

In Niger State I met a gay rights activist to discuss what the challenges are. It is a criminal offence to be gay in Nigeria but there is a strong support network that exists on the ground.

We also discussed the current security situation and were only a few miles away from the This Day national newspaper office when it was bombed. My website will carry further articles. Our report will be published in a couple of months.

The Copper Box

East London Business Alliance organised an event for Hackney's young Olympic ambassadors at Hackney Olympic venue the Copper Box. The event was to demonstrate to local young people from the five Olympic boroughs how the Copper Box will be used after the Olympics as a multi-purpose sports and entertainment venue.

The Copper Box will be hosting handball and some of the modern pentathlon events at the Olympics and Goalball at the Paralympic games. The venue will be open to the public after the Olympics in summer 2013.

Incapacity benefit

Hackney Community Empowerment Network recently hosted a workshop on changes to the benefit system.

There was discussion about changes to incapacity benefit and work capability assessments. Representatives from various organisations including Hackney Council, local advice and support groups, work programme providers and Jobcentre Plus attended.

There was general concern about the accuracy of the work capability assessments and for individuals who may have been on long term sick benefits, are now deemed fit for work and needed high levels of support to access work.

I spoke at the event and highlighted the need to collect case studies of people affected by the reforms so that I can lobby ministers at the Department for Work and Pensions on the changes.

I am keen to see people work. All the evidence shows that working is good for general health. Hackney South and Shoreditch had the unfortunate distinction of being the London constituency with the second highest number of incapacity benefit claimants. Statistically you were more likely to die than come off incapacity benefit.

But I remain very concerned about the impact these changes are having on Hackney residents. If you, or someone you know, have been affected by these issues please do contact my office.

New Era estate

New Era estate on Whitmore Road is made up of 95 homes for affordable rent and is up for sale.

I am currently working with New Era estate residents regarding the future of the estate. The current landlord is planning to sell the estate and residents (some of whom have lived there for over 50 years) are naturally concerned about their tenancies.

I chaired a packed meeting of residents with support from the local councillors and housing advice officers. Residents are worried because they do not know who the new landlord might be and what the impact will be on their rent levels and tenancies.

I am urging the existing landlord to consider guarantees to support existing tenants after sale. LBS Holdings has owned the estate for 80 years. It says it wants to sell to a landlord with a similar ethos but residents are still in the dark.

This throws up wider issues around housing locally. On the other side of Whitmore Road the Colville estate is being redeveloped by Hackney council as mostly affordable rented homes. In Hoxton alone there are a large number of new private developments.

One local resident was considering shared ownership (where a resident buys a share of the property and pays rent on the rest). The price for a two bedroom flat was £448,000 putting a 25 per cent share out of the reach of most local people.