• Social care funding halved: Elderly and disabled people will be the victims
• Post-Brexit customs checks will mean more red tape for businesses
• South Wales Police – Facial Recognition Technology Restart ‘Wrong Move’
• Sunak must strip Scott Benton of the Conservative Whip

Social care funding halved: Elderly and disabled people will be the victims

Responding to reports that the social care reform budget has been halved, Liberal Democrat Leader Ed Davey said:

Elderly and disabled people will be the victims of the Conservatives’ decision to slash funding for recruiting care workers at a time of chronic staff shortages.

By damaging social care again, Rishi Sunak is also damaging our NHS. Patients stuck in hospital will face more delays in discharge, leading to longer delays in A&E and for operations. Only the Conservatives could damage people’s care and the nation’s health at the same time.

Liberal Democrats want a new Carer’s Minimum Wage to attract workers back to the social care sector and ease pressure on family carers, GPs and hospitals. It’s shocking that the Government refuses to back our fair deal for carers.

Post-Brexit customs checks will mean more red tape for businesses

Responding to the government’s announcement on the introduction of post-Brexit customs checks, Liberal Democrat Treasury Spokesperson Sarah Olney said:

These new checks are only going to make trade between us and Europe harder. It’s staggering that the Conservatives looked at the chaos at Dover and said, ‘more of that please’.

The Government’s claims that these plans are going to ease trading chaos are downright dishonest. Let’s be clear: these proposals mean more checks and more red tape, not less – the last thing anyone wanted.

Businesses and the public have had enough of the Conservatives’ red tape and their botched deal with Europe. If you want to grow the economy, you have to fix our broken relationship with our closest neighbours.

South Wales Police – Facial Recognition Technology Restart ‘Wrong Move’

Responding to the news that South Wales Police have restarted the use of live facial recognition technology, the Welsh Liberal Democrats have reiterated their stance that the technology is an infringement on people’s privacy, especially given that legislation to govern its use is not currently sufficiently developed.

The Welsh Liberal Democrats passed a motion at their Autumn Party Conference calling on Welsh police forces to resist rolling out the technology citing concerns over human rights, ingrained bias and data protection.

The party has argued that while the technology poses a number of significant risks, its benefits are minimal with no direct link between the use of facial recognition technology and lower crime rates.

Commenting Leena Farhat, who proposed the Welsh Liberal Democrat policy at their conference stated:

While it is welcome that South Wales Police have listened to some concerns regarding ingrained bias in this technology, its use still makes myself and many others deeply uncomfortable.

This technology is only as reliable as the people who programme it and we know from trials in London there is a particularly high error rate for people of black, Asian and ethnic minority backgrounds, as well as for children and women.

There are strict rules on indiscriminately taking and cross-referencing our fingerprints and DNA but legislation has not caught up to apply to the use of live facial recognition technology.

We all want to see crime tackled, but Wales should not become a society where innocent people feel as though their every movement is being watched by the police.

Sunak must strip Scott Benton of the Conservative Whip

Responding to reports from the Times that Scott Benton MP offered to table questions, leak a confidential policy document and lobby ministers on behalf of gambling investors, Liberal Democrat Deputy Leader Daisy Cooper said:

These shocking revelations are yet another damning indictment of the state of the Conservative Party. The British public are sick of Conservative sleaze.

Rishi Sunak must strip Benton of the Conservative party whip immediately. Anything less would be make a mockery of his claim to restore integrity.