2023 January

With the One Stop Shop at the Civic Centre expected to be permanently closed and the future of the Walsall branch of Citizen’s Advice looking uncertain, YMCA Black Country Group are offering a free tailor-made drop-in service to assist my constituents in Walsall South.

On Wednesday 18 January 2023, the House of Commons considered the Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Bill. The Bill makes it much easier for Government Ministers to revoke, change or replace EU legislation that was brought into UK domestic law as the UK left the EU, including by introducing a sunset clause that would automatically abolish most retained EU law at the end of 2023.

I was signatory to a letter to the Education Secretary to ask for further support for students. The Government intends to uprate Student Maintenance Loans by only 2.8% in September. Despite the fact that inflation is currently over 10%, and a 2.8% increase will represent a £1500 drop in the real-terms value of student maintenance loans since 2020/2021. This below inflation rise comes after years of cuts to student support.

On Tuesday 17 January 2023 all the remaining stages of the the Online Safety Bill were debated in the House. This legislation must put in place a robust framework that tackles online harms so that everyone can use the Internet safely. The Bill will establish a duty of care on companies to improve the safety of users, overseen and enforced by Ofcom.

At the first meeting of 2023 the APPG on Archaeology we paid tribute to the late Professor Tim Shadla Hall of UCL who sadly passed away. Tim was an important member of the Group and we will miss his contributions.