2022

On 26 March 2020 the community of Joseph Leckie Academy suffered the terrible loss of Principal Keith Whittlestone, after over twenty years of his leadership at the school. This was at the start of the pandemic.

The Office for Environmental Protection was established by the Environment Act 2021, with statutory duties to: scrutinise environmental law and Environmental Improvement Plans, to advise the Government on environmental law, and enforce failures to comply with environmental law. On Wednesday 23 March 2022, I participated in an Environmental Audit Committee scrutiny hearing with the Chair and  Interim Chief Executive Officer of the Office for Environmental Protection, Dame Glenys Stacey DBE and Ms Natalie Prosser.

On Tuesday 22 March 22, the Nationality and Borders Bill returned to the House for the consideration of Lords Amendments. This Bill demonstrates incompetence and indifference from the Government on many fronts.

On Tuesday 22 March 2022 I was delighted to visit the ‘World of Stonehenge’ exhibition at the British Museum. The exhibition has been beautifully curated by Dr Neil Wilkin – it is a must see exhibition. Dr Johnathan Williams, Deputy Director at the British Museum with responsibility for Collections and Public Engagement met the delegation of MPs and Peers and introduced the exhibition to us. Dr Wilkin then took us through and showed us around the exhibition. The Exhibition has over 70% of exhibits from other countries. Dr Wilkin and the team should be congratulated for the exhibition, and I would encourage everyone to see it. More information can be found on the Museum’s website: The world of Stonehenge | British Museum, and Twitter account: British Museum (@britishmuseum) / Twitter. 

I voted on an Opposition Day motion on P&O Ferries and Employment Rights which was debated on On Monday 23 March 2022. The motion was: