Tag Archives: child protection

24 November 2022 – today’s press release

  • Government ‘must get a grip’ as asylum backlog soars to 143,000
  • Raab emails: Lib Dems write to Cabinet Secretary demanding investigation
  • Michelle Mone: Lib Dems table amendment to scrap VIP lanes
  • Richard Foord MP raises sewage report in Parliament after his son fell sick swimming in Devon river
  • Full Review in Social Services in Wales Needed After Logan Mwangi Report

Government ‘must get a grip’ as asylum backlog soars to 143,000

Responding to new official figures showing that the asylum backlog has risen to 143,377, with 97,717 waiting more than six months, Liberal Democrat Home Affairs Spokesperson Alistair Carmichael said:

The Home Office is a disaster zone, and it’s clear who is to blame. By their own admission, the Conservatives have broken our asylum system and shattered public trust in it.

Tens of thousands of refugees have been waiting months for a decision, banned from working or renting their own home. The Conservative chaos at the Home Office is wasting millions of pounds of taxpayers’ money every day.

The Government must finally get a grip. It should take asylum cases away from the discredited Home Office and set up a new independent unit to make decisions quickly and correctly.

We need a fair, effective asylum system that treats everyone with dignity, and that everyone can have confidence in.

Raab emails: Lib Dems write to Cabinet Secretary demanding investigation

The Liberal Democrats have written to the Cabinet Secretary asking for an investigation into reports that Dominic Raab has been using his personal email for Government business.

Liberal Democrat Chief Whip Wendy Chamberlain, who wrote the letter, commented:

The public deserve answers, not more cover-ups.

The drumbeat of allegations against Dominic Raab is relentless. From reports of bullying to allegations he has followed in the footsteps of Suella Braverman by using his personal email for government business, it is obvious that investigations are needed.

The Deputy Prime Minister cannot be relaxed about national security, especially at a time when Britain’s enemies are stepping up their cyber attacks. It is only right and proper the Cabinet Office investigate these reports and determine immediately if overseas enemies could have seen national secrets sent by Dominic Raab.

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Daily View 2×2: 29 April 2020

2 big stories

Next steps in addressing the coronavirus crisis? Tracing, an app and?… The Guardian provides an explanation of how the Government plans to step up its battle to quell the virus. But do you trust the Government with data relating to where you’ve gone and who you’ve met? Or is the need to bring this to an end enough to overcome your concerns?

British Airways is making 12,000 staff redundant, a sign of how bad things are likely to get for the airline industry. The share price is down by more than two-thirds, compared to the FTSE 100 …

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Is John Hemming right to seek guidance on when children can be left home alone?

I was interested by this report in this week’s Sunday Times (£) concerning John Hemming, a long-standing campaigner against overbearing child protection policies and practices and secretive family courts. I’ve seen enough instances in my time where social workers have made serious errors, causing horrendous distress, to make me glad that he’s on their case.

He’s tabled a Parliamentary Question asking the Government for guidance on the age at which a child can be left at home alone after being approached by a mother who was given a police caution some years ago for leaving her then 6 year old in the house while she went for a driving lesson. That caution has been held against her as she now wishes to train as a mental health nurse.

I have to say that I have absolutely zero sympathy with anyone who thinks that it’s ok to leave a 6 year old in the house rather than cancel a driving lesson. The last time ROSPA had the funding to collect statistics on home accidents, they found that 120 children died in a year as a result of an accident in the home. The whole list makes sobering reading. More recent research looks at the reasons behind child hospital admissions and deaths.  So I think it was right that she received a police caution. Whether that should stop her becoming a nurse now, many years on, is a different matter. One stupid mistake shouldn’t automatically blight a whole career choice.

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged | 20 Comments

Julian Huppert MP writes…Tackling child abuse online: Doing what works

Thanks to a number of national police forces, led by the Canadians, working together 341 child abusers have been arrested and almost 400 children being held as sex slaves have been freed in recent months. That is fantastic news.

However, not one of those was in Britain.

2,345 British suspects had been identified by the authorities in Toronto, some of whom are feared to have regular contact with children, and these were passed to CEOP, the specialist police centre, but astonishingly, no action was taken on our side for 18 months.

It appears that whilst the Prime Minister has a number of great …

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Hemming helps woman in forced Caesarean and adoption case

The Telegraph carries a story which should make any liberal ask a lot of questions.

To summarise, a pregnant Italian woman was sent to Stansted for a training session. She was sectioned under the Mental Health Act after becoming distressed. But worse was to come:

By now Essex social services were involved, and five weeks later she was told she could not have breakfast that day. When no explanation was forthcoming, she volubly protested. She was strapped down and forcibly sedated, and when she woke up hours later, found she was in a different hospital and that her baby had

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Clegg: “Communities need to front up to abuse in their midst”

Nick Clegg has told The Times that Police should investigate allegations of sexual abuse “without fear or favour.” His comments come  in the wake of this week’s report showing deficiencies in the way police and social services handled allegations of sexual abuse in Rochdale.

Nick said:

It is completely unacceptable if perceived cultural sensitivities or political correctness ever stops crimes being investigated fully or allows abuse to continue. No one would pretend that sexual exploitation is exclusive to any community or race, but major cases like this raise tough questions about the profile and attitude of the abusers towards their victims.

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