• Davey: welfare review must listen to the voice of carers
• Lib Dems call for COBRA meeting as Britain braces for second heatwave
• Lib Dems reveal 100,000 meters still to be replaced as RTS switch-off begins
• SNP’s solution to NHS crisis could be delayed or cancelled
• Greene secures island support fund but questions exclusions

Davey: welfare review must listen to the voice of carers

Ahead of the statement on the welfare bill later today, Liberal Democrat Leader Ed Davey has said the Government’s review of the Personal Independence Payments (PIP) must listen to groups representing family carers, as well as disability charities.

Under the Government’s plans, those caring for someone who doesn’t qualify for PIP in future will lose their Carer’s Allowance.

The Liberal Democrats said the Government’s welfare bill should be pulled until the full impact on disabled people and carers has been assessed and published.

Liberal Democrat Leader Ed Davey said:

I remain deeply worried about the future impact of these cuts on family carers and the vulnerable people they look after.

Ministers must ensure that this review listens carefully to carers’ charities to understand the impact these changes will have, on family carers themselves, on the NHS and social care.

Carers have been ignored by the Government throughout this whole debacle, their voice must now be heard loud and clear.

Liberal Democrats are clear that we cannot vote for anything that strips disabled people and those who care for them of vital support. The Government needs to go back to the drawing board and pull this bill until they have consulted carers and properly set out the full impacts of these changes.

Lib Dems call for COBRA meeting as Britain braces for second heatwave

The Liberal Democrats are calling on the Government to hold an urgent COBRA meeting on this week’s soaring temperatures.

The party is calling on the Government to ensure proper resilience measures are in place to protect the health service and key national infrastructure which can be acutely affected by heat, with rising hospital admissions and travel delays potentially impacting large areas of the country.

Amber alerts covering Yorkshire and the Humber, the East Midlands, West Midlands, East of England, London, South East and South West are in place until Wednesday morning, with a yellow alert for the North West covering the same time frame.

Commenting, Liberal Democrat Cabinet Office Spokesperson Sarah Olney MP said:

The Government must convene COBRA to ensure it is not caught flat-footed as temperatures rise. We need urgent coordination to protect lives, keep essential services running, and ensure our NHS isn’t overwhelmed.

We’re already experiencing the second heatwave this month alone, and extreme weather events are on the rise. This impacts everyone, from the health of the elderly and vulnerable, the safety of children in our schools and the security of our crops.

The Government must be taking proactive steps to secure national infrastructure and build resilience in the face of this onslaught of heat.

Lib Dems reveal 100,000 meters still to be replaced as RTS switch-off begins

Scottish Liberal Democrat Northern Isles MSPs Beatrice Wishart and Liam McArthur have today said that energy companies must “cut the excuses” and make the concerted effort needed to replace RTS meters at the pace and scale required, as they revealed that there are still more than 100,000 meters to be replaced on the day that the RTS switch-off is set to begin.

The UK Government was forced to row back on switching off every RTS meter on 30th June because energy companies had failed to replace meters at the pace required. If this switch-off were to take place before meters are replaced, households could be left without heating and hot water.

Instead, a phased switch-off of Radio Teleswitch Service (RTS) meters will begin today (30th June), with the intention for it to be completed by the end of 2025. What’s more, there have also been warnings that the RTS is at risk of breakdown, which could occur within months, rather than years.

Earlier this year, Scottish Liberal Democrats revealed Ofgem figures showing that as of 18th April, across Scotland there were 124,864 meters still needing to be exchanged.

The party is now publishing updated figures from Ofgem which show that as of 30th May, 105,879 meters are still to be replaced, including more than 19,000 households with Glasgow postcodes and 15,000 with Edinburgh postcodes.

The Northern Isles are particularly badly affected, with 3,200 meters to be replaced in Shetland. There are also 3,205 RTS meters waiting to be replaced in the KW (Kirkwall) postcode, which covers Orkney and parts of Caithness.

Scottish Liberal Democrat MSP for Shetland Beatrice Wishart said:

The implementation of this switch-off has been utterly chaotic.

Despite knowing for at least a decade that RTS meters were on their last legs, energy companies only started acting at the very last minute, causing so much needless distress among rural communities like my own.

This phased switch-off is far from the end of the story. Energy companies must cut the excuses and finally get down to replacing meters as a matter of urgency. If they do not, they risk pushing this mess into the winter months, where the impact of having no heating or hot water could be devastating.

Scottish Liberal Democrat MSP for Orkney Liam McArthur said:

Customers and households have been thrown under the bus by the haphazard approach of energy companies.

Ofgem have said that customers will be protected, but the lack of detail about the operation of this phased switch-off does not inspire confidence.

Despite the delay to the switch-off date, there can be no room for complacency and households must be supported to move away from this obsolete technology as quickly as possible. The government and energy companies must also provide clarity about when each region will be affected by the switch-off, and give firm assurances that no household will lose out as a result.

SNP’s solution to NHS crisis could be delayed or cancelled

Responding to reports today indicating that the future of five delayed NHS treatment centres to deal with a backlog of operations will not be known until December, Scottish Liberal Democrat leader and health spokesperson Alex Cole-Hamilton MSP said:

Under pressure from opposition parties to take action on the NHS, the SNP’s solution was to promise these national treatment centres to deliver operations and diagnostic procedures.

Unfortunately these centres have been delayed and disrupted. If a decision over whether the centres will even go ahead will not be taken until the end of the year, then it seems pretty clear that the pledge of 40,000 extra appointments by 2026 is in tatters.

That’s not good enough. I want to see these centres delivered in towns and cities which are too often forgotten by the SNP.

On top of that, I want to see progress on commitments to advance the Edinburgh Eye Pavilion and on replacements for the Belford Hospital in Fort William and the Gilbert Bain Hospital in Shetland which were agreed with my party in the budget.

Making sure people can get swift access to local care should be the top priority for every elected politician. That’s what you get with the Scottish Liberal Democrats. I don’t believe the SNP can say the same.

Greene secures island support fund but questions exclusions

West of Scotland MSP and Scottish Liberal Democrat transport spokesperson Jamie Greene has today said that a newly announced fund to support businesses on eight islands affected by ongoing disruption to ferry services is long overdue but doesn’t go far enough. He has questioned why key island and mainland communities affected by ferry disruption have been excluded.

Mr Greene previously wrote to the Scottish Government asking for a compensation fund to be put in place to support businesses which suffer from reduced footfall or cancellations due to ferry problems. The Scottish Government has now announced a £4.4 million support fund for island businesses. The Island Business Resilience Fund (IBRF) is expected to pay grants of up to £35,000 to eligible businesses on the islands of South Uist, Colonsay, North Uist, Eriskay, Benbecula, Berneray, Grimsay and Arran.

The government has said the size of the award will be based on demand and the size of businesses that apply, but that payments are expected to range between £3,000 and £35,000.

Commenting on the scheme, Mr Greene said:

Together with island campaigners and local businesses, this is something that I have been calling on for many months, so this is long overdue progress.

Now ministers must get money out the door quickly to businesses who are on the brink through no fault of their own.

Despite this step forward, I am concerned that not all the businesses who need it will get support.

In Cumbrae, for example, they have been disrupted by ferry chaos but are left out from the proposals. Other island communities will feel equally hard done by.

Equally, a mainland community like Ardrossan which is heavily dependent on visitors enroute to Arran, most of whom have been absent due to the ferry operating out of Troon, won’t see a penny in compensation.

Ministers should make sure that the scheme is open to all of those who have been affected by the government’s ferry fiasco.