Tag Archives: children and families bill

Lord (Mike) Storey writes on the Children and Families Bill: “At its very core, this is a Lib Dem Bill”

By Mike Storey | Sat 8th February 2014 - 10:00 am

We’ve just had the final days of ‘Report’ of the Children and Families Bill in the House of Lords and on Monday, MPs will consider our amendments – including the proposal to ban smoking in cars carrying children. But as the dust settles on the red benches (or perhaps I should say, smoke has lifted?) I wanted to let Lib Dem Voice readers know about some of the things we’ve achieved, which Liberal Democrats can rightly be proud of.

I should start by saying that, at its very core, this is a ‘Lib Dem Bill’. The …

Result!

By Sally Hamwee | Tue 17th December 2013 - 1:45 pm

It is so satisfying when the Parliamentary process works well. Last week it did for me, and more importantly for a group of people to whom the Children and Families Bill is now to extend new rights.

A few months ago, as a member of a select committee looking at how adoption legislation is operating, the chair and I were contacted about an anomaly in the law. Adoption has become a much more open process over the years, and in 2002 most relative were given information rights (through an agency which both counsels and assists) – but not the descendants of people adopted before 1975. This is not just a technicality. The lady who has campaigned for a change to the law, including with an unsuccessful court case, discovered after her father’s death that he had been adopted, and things began to fall into place about his moods and his reticence as regards his parents and wider family. The mix of her emotions included a real need to know more.

Posted in News | 5 Comments

Roger Williams MP writes…Protecting children from second-hand smoke

By Roger Williams MP | Thu 21st November 2013 - 12:59 pm

Too many children in the UK are still being regularly exposed to high concentrations of second-hand smoke in cars. This exposure can have detrimental effects on children’s health due to their smaller lungs and less developed immune systems. The Royal College of Physicians published a report collating all available evidence on second-hand smoke to show how it affects children’s health. They found that there were 300,000 GP visits by children every year, there were 165,000 new episodes of disease and 9,500 admissions to hospital every year in the UK because of passive smoke.

In 2007, legislation to ban smoking in public …

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged smoking | 9 Comments

Baroness Judith Jolly writes… Welcome to our new Peers

By Judith Jolly | Thu 1st August 2013 - 12:20 pm

We heard this morning of new members swelling our ranks on the red benches in the House of Lords.

It seems only yesterday since I arrived in January 2011, fully expecting to serve only five or maybe ten years before standing down for those elected to the Upper House. We now know that it is not to be (yet!) but it was not for want of trying.

If I were to give advice it would be to get involved in something you know something about and something you know nothing about but find interesting. Join some all-party groups. Challenge our government …