17 April 2017

Here is our animal welfare plan:

Pets are our closest companions and, for some, all the family they have. We want to make sure that they can rely on the respect and treatment they deserve for the huge role they play in our lives.

We will do this by:

•             Working to bring an end to the cruelty of puppy farming.
•             Working to end the painful practice of aversive training aids for dogs like shock collars.
•             Listening to the concerns of advocates for working dogs who are under threat of tail docking after the Scottish Government lifted the total ban.
•             Ensuring that the sale of exotic animals is properly regulated.
•             Pushing the Scottish Government for a comprehensive review of pet legislation in the Scottish Parliament.

We share Scotland with a huge variety of animals. As a Parliament, it is vital we take steps to ensure their home is safe and free from cruelty and abuse, just as much as it is for us. We must do this, not in fits and starts, or when it suits us to make political statements to win votes, but as a measured, comprehensive, and well thought out plan to improve their lives.

To do that for wildlife, we will:

•             Consider how to strengthen the fox hunting legislation as a result of the findings from the Lord Bonomy Report.
•             Work with charities to bring illegal culls of wild animals to an end.
•             Take action to ensure perpetrators of wildlife crime are prosecuted fully under the law.
•             Work towards bringing into effect game bird licencing in line with the principles of the petition currently before the Scottish Parliament.
•             Consider our stance on rewilding, on a species by species basis.

Like our plan? Then join today and help make Scotland a safer place for animals.

Labour
analysis, using House of Common’s Library endorsed modelling, shows that:

Average real earnings are set to
fall by £1,200 as a result of rising inflation and lower wage growth

At the
Budget last month we saw inflation forecast up this year and average earnings
forecasts lowered next year and for the next two years.

The
combination of higher prices and lower wages is that living standards are set
to be squeezed.

This time
last year, at the Budget 2016, the OBR was forecasting real average earnings
growth of 9 per cent between 2015 and 2020 (average earnings adjusted for CPI
inflation). However, at this year’s Budget, this was revised down to growth of
5 per cent between 2015 and 2020.

Converting
this to income values, Budget 2016 was forecasting that real average earnings
would be almost £2,500 higher in 2020 than in 2015. However, at Budget 2017
this was revised down to £1,300. This is a difference of £1,200.

Today’s
analysis comes on the back of IFS analysis last year which showed that the
“outlook for living standards has deteriorated rather sharply”, describing the
prospects for real earnings growth as “dreadful”.

The
Resolution Foundation has also said that the “outlook for living
standards in 21^st century Britain does not look promising” and that
“weak and regressive nature of income growth in the years ahead should concern
us all”. 

This analysis looks at the effect on living standards
resulting from changes to OBR forecasts at this year’s Budget.

Tax and benefit changes, as well as previous OBR
forecasts will impact on living standards; however, this analysis focuses just
on inflation and earnings outlook.

John
McDonnell MP, Labour’s Shadow Chancellor, commenting, said:

“Today’s analysis shows the impact of seven years of
Tory economic failure.

“Living standards are being squeezed and working
people are being hit hard. This is despite the Tories promising at the last
General Election that they would raise living standards.

“The truth is that Theresa May has failed working
people and the Tories are taking the country backwards. Labour would make
different choices and stand up for ordinary
working families.

“Only Labour will take the action needed to end the Tories’
economic failure by introducing a Real Living Wage of £10 an hour by 2020 and
by investing in our
regions and our local communities.”

A specialist squad of prison and police officers has been formed to tackle the threat drones pose to prison security, Prisons Minister Sam Gyimah revealed today.

The team of investigators will work closely with national law enforcement agencies and HM Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS) to inspect drones that have been recovered from prisons in a bid to identify and track down those involved in attempts to smuggle in contraband.

Crucially, this new set-up will investigate the specific drones use by individuals around prisons.

The latest crackdown will help disrupt the flow of drugs and mobile phones, which hinder attempts to create prisons that are places of safety and reform, and where offenders have the chance to turn their lives around.

And it follows recent successful convictions of a number of offenders, including two offenders whose collective sentence spans over a decade – the most significant to date.

Prisons Minister Sam Gyimah said:

We are absolutely determined to tackle the illegal flow of drugs and mobile phones into our prisons and turn them into places of safety and reform.

The threat posed by drones is clear, but our dedicated staff are committed to winning the fight against those who are attempting to thwart progress by wreaking havoc in establishments all over the country.

My message to those who involve themselves in this type of criminal activity is clear; we will find you and put you behind bars.

The newly-formed team of officers will contain staff from the police and HMPPS. They will bring together intelligence from across prisons and the police to identify lines of inquiry, which will then be passed to local forces and organised crime officers.

This announcement comes after the longest sentence of this type was handed down on Friday 31 March. A joint operation between police and prison officers led to the arrest of Remo White-Channer and Romaine Gayle.

The two were jailed for six years and six months and four years and four months respectively for attempting to flood prisons across Hertfordshire, Suffolk and Kent with contraband worth around £48,000.

As part of a crime group they used drones to try and fly packages containing cannabis, spice and heroin, as well as phones into three different prisons. The strong sentences send a clear message that those found flying drones into prisons will face significant time behind bars.

In December, Dean Rawley-Bell, 21, was jailed for four years and eight months after he used a drone in attempts to smuggle drugs and mobile phones into HMP Manchester.

In October, drug dealer Renelle Carlisle, 23, was jailed for three years and four months after he was caught outside HMP Risley in Warrington with a drone in his bag, trying to smuggle drugs inside.

And in July, 37-year-old Daniel Kelly was locked up for 14 months for trying to supply offenders at HMP Elmley and Swaleside in Sheppey, HMP Wandsworth in London and HMP The Mount in Hemel Hempstead with contraband.

The new squad is the latest step in efforts to disrupt drugs and mobile phones in prisons. The Justice Secretary has secured funding for 2,500 extra frontline prison officers, as well as introducing mandatory drug testing and the training of over 300 drug detection dogs to specifically detect psychoactive substances.

The Government has made it a criminal offence to possess any psychoactive substance in a prison, an offence which is punishable by up to two years.

Proposed changes in the Prisons and Courts Bill will make it easier for prisons to test offenders for emerging dangerous psychoactive substances, whilst all prisons have been equipped with portable and fixed detectors to tackle phones.

A £3 million intelligence hub to tackle gang crime behind bars has also been established by the Justice Secretary.

Angela Rayner MP, Labour’s Shadow Education Secretary, responding to a
Teach First report that claims the country’s poorest parents have half the
chance of getting their child into an outstanding primary school, compared to
the richest ones, said:

“This
is just the latest evidence that the Government’s rhetoric on social mobility
has not been matched by results. 

"Theresa May’s only answer to the social mobility crisis is her
discredited policy of new grammar schools, which by definition ignores the
crucial early years of a child’s life and does nothing to ensure all children
go to a good primary school.

“It is clear that the Tories do not have the answers to the serious issues
facing our schools, such as the crisis in recruitment and retention, super-size
classes, and the unprecedented squeeze in school budgets.”

Employees in small businesses earned less than previously
thought between 2010 and 2015

 Analysis of government figures shows:

·        
Methodological revisions to the Average Weekly Earnings of
employees in small businesses shows a downgrade in level of earnings between
2010 and 2015

·        
The Government’s mishandling of the economy and mistreatment of
small businesses has resulted in pay for employees being less than thought

·        
Between 2010 and 2015, the average revision downwards in the
level of weekly earnings was 1.7 percent. This amounts to more than £2,000 over
that period less than previously thought,.

Rebecca Long-Bailey MP, Labour’s Shadow Secretary for Business,
Energy and Industrial Strategy, said:

“The latest revision to the
methodology for calculating earnings for employees in small businesses shows
that the level of earnings was less than previously thought during the period
2010 to 2015.

“Added up, between July 2010 to
December 2015, earnings for the average employee in a small business were in
fact over £2,000 less than previously thought.  This is a further
indictment of the Conservative’s already terrible record of protecting the
living standards of people in this country and their failure to recognise the
experiences and requirements of small businesses.”