Transparency data: BIS: senior officials’ business expenses and meetings, April to June 2016
Data on senior officials’ business expenses, hospitality and travel, and permanent secretaries’ meetings with external organisations. read more
Author Archives: GovWorldMag
Transparency data: BIS: senior officials’ business expenses and meetings, January to March 2016
Data on senior officials’ business expenses, hospitality and travel, and permanent secretaries’ meetings with external organisations. read more
“We are winning” says Green Deputy Leader before visit to Yorkshire fracking site
14 December 2017
Deputy Leader of the Green Party Amelia Womack says that campaigners are winning the fight to stop fracking for good ahead of her visit to the proposed fracking site at Kirby Misperton [1].
A decision to allow fracking to start at the Yorkshire site was expected last month but the Secretary of State for Business, Energy, and Industrial Strategy Greg Clark, who has faced heavy lobbying from campaigners, has delayed giving the green light.
Womack believes a vital point in the fight to stop fracking across the UK has been reached as momentum is now with environmental protesters.
Womack said:
“To the people on the frontline against fracking in Yorkshire, Lancashire, and across the country I say thank you and just look at what you have achieved. A delay of even a few days or weeks might not seem like a great deal but it is so so important. It shows hesitation on the government’s part. It’s given us more space to make the arguments against fracking. It’s shown that the likes of Third Energy and Cuadrilla who are determined to get rich off the destruction of communities and ecosystems cannot have it all their own way. It shows we are winning.
“We might look back at this moment in future as a time when the tide turned against the frackers. I’m looking forward to thanking you in person and to being with you once again in the fight to stop fracking.”
Both Cuadrilla and Third Energy have faced legal challenges against their attempts to frack in Lancashire and Yorkshire respectively [2]. Local residents have raised concerns that the companies are not carrying out necessary environmental monitoring and in Lancashire the government’s move to force through fracking against the wishes of the local council has caused outrage.
Notes
[1] Amelia Womack will arrive at Kirby Misperton at 12.30pm on 15th December 2017
read moreShocking impact of cold snap revealed with 27% increase in patients stuck in ambulances for over an hour
Labour reveals “shocking” impact of cold snap with 27% increase in patients stuck in ambulances for over an hour
Labour’s analysis of the latest weekly winter data (4 December to 10 December) released today by NHS England reveals almost 2,500 patients were stuck in ambulances for over an hour in just one week.
Labour’s analysis of the latest NHS England combined performance data also reveals a shocking 62% increase in the number of patients waiting longer than 18 weeks for operations in just seven years.
Jonathan Ashworth MP, Labour’s Shadow Health Secretary, responding to the latest NHS Weekly Winter and Monthly Combined Performance statistics, said:
“Last week’s cold snap demonstrated once again the crisis facing our NHS this winter and Government inaction will only make the challenge facing the NHS that much harder.
“Patients will be deeply concerned that despite the heroic efforts of our brilliant NHS staff, there was a shocking 27% increase in the number of patients stuck for over an hour in the back of an ambulance in just one week.
“Despite the pressures which all frontline NHS staff were warning of, the winter fund announced in the Budget has still not been fully allocated to struggling Trusts. Patients expect ministers to urgently get a grip.”
read moreThe scale of rising homelessness should shame all of us and Conservative Ministers most of all – John Healey
John Healey MP, Labour’s Shadow Secretary for Housing, responding to the latest quarterly statistics on homelessness, said:
“The scale of rising homelessness should shame all of us, and Conservative Ministers most of all.
“Homelessness fell at an unprecedented rate under Labour, but after seven years of failure on housing under the Tories, the number of rough sleepers has more than doubled and 121,000 children will be without a home this Christmas, up 70 per cent since 2010.
“This is a direct result of decisions made by Conservative Ministers: a steep drop in investment for affordable homes, cuts to housing benefit, reduced funding for homelessness services, and a refusal to help private renters.
“The next Labour government will end rough sleeping within a Parliament and tackle the root causes of rising homelessness with more affordable homes and stronger rights for renters.”
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