2022

The existing Accident and Emergency Department at Walsall Manor Hospital is not large enough for the expected growth in patient numbers in the coming years, over 10,000 extra patients a year. Pressures have been added to by the closure of Stafford hospital. On Friday, 11 February 2022, I visited the new A&E department being constructed at the Manor. 

Applications to build 57 luxury homes on the Green Belt at Great Barr Hall and Park and a HMO at a former care home on Slaney Road were both rejected by Walsall Council Planning Committee on Thursday 10 February 2022.

The Environmental Audit Committee’s meeting on 9 February focused on how the UK’s economic goals can be aligned with environmental sustainability. Panellists included Nick Spencer of the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries, Signe Norberg of the Aldersgate Group and Jeremy Peat OBE of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. 

The Government is introducing a register of beneficial ownership for trusts through its Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing Regulations 2022, a long overdue and necessary step in the fight against money laundering and terrorist financing in the UK. However, the Government seek to extend the deadline for updating the register after a change of circumstances to 90 days, far too long.