The latest report from our Town Hall Vaccination Centre is very good news: the team has completed 52 thousand vaccines with the focus now on 2nd doses. They have completed 15 thousand 2nd doses so far and this week they have had their busiest week so far, completing over 5 thousand second doses.
More good news arrived today in the Royal Town with launch of the Royal Town’s own newspaper the Royal Sutton Coldfield Chronicle.
Covid 19 & Vaccinations
An additional 24 cases of Covid 19 have been registered in Sutton Coldfield for the week of 17th-23rd April compared to 20 for the week of 10th-17th April based on data from Birmingham City Council’s public health division.
The 7-day case rate between 17th-23rd April in Birmingham is now 26.4 cases/100K population, compared to an updated figure of 24.2/100K for the period between the 10th – 16th April
Over the 7 days leading up to 24th April, of 13,323 PCR pillar 2 tests, 187 (1.4%) were positive in Birmingham, higher than both the regional and national averages.
Birmingham ranks 13th in the region for pillar 2 PCR tests, with 1,167 tests per 100k population. 74,203 lateral flow tests (LFT pillar 2 tests) were also carried out.
Hospital admissions range between 1 and 6 new cases a day at University Hospitals Birmingham Trust over the 7 days from 17th-23rd April.
The attached image shows an overview of vaccinations across different wards in Sutton Coldfield, based on the data that was available on Tuesday.
An extra 60 million doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine have been secured by the UK government to help support the booster vaccination programme beginning from the autumn. Birmingham City Council is encouraging those that work with vulnerable people, particularly care home staff, to consider booking a vaccination as soon as possible.
Royal Sutton Coldfield updates
Earlier today I met Tina Swani, Chief Executive of the Sutton Coldfield Charitable Trust to discuss the ways in which the Trust has been helping our local community and their plans for the coming months. The Charitable Trust has recently reached out to local businesses to help support initiatives around children’s mental health. We had a wider discussion about other local community groups as well as the town centre regeneration plans and Sutton Park. We are blessed in Sutton that this brilliant charitable trust makes such a generous and targeted contribution to life in the Royal Town.
On Wednesday I attended an Advisory Board Meeting at the University of Birmingham’s Institute for Global Innovation. The Institute was established in 2018 to support challenge-led multidisciplinary research across the University. The Institute brings together research teams, focusing on different global challenges, in particular climate change.
Public Health Birmingham has developed a draft Birmingham Healthy City Planning Toolkit that sets out a range of questions to help developers consider the health impacts of new developments. The toolkit contains fourteen indicators covering specific areas for consideration. A public consultation on the toolkit is underway until 30th June: www.birminghambeheard.org.uk/place/healthy-city-planning-toolkit/
Aldi is bringing forward proposals for a new food store on land at Belwell Lane, Mere Green. This is in addition to their proposals for a new store on Brassington Avenue. The site on Brassington Avenue would deliver a new large Aldi food store to replace the existing one, alongside increased car and cycle parking provision. The Belwell Lane site will be designed as a new store for local residents, helping reduce journey times and provider greater choice in Mere Green. In the coming weeks Aldi will write to households in the local area to provide details of a virtual exhibition which will also incorporate an online feedback form.
Westminster news and Parliamentary business
It has been another busy week in Parliament in the run up to Prorogation (the process which ends a session of parliament) yesterday.
On Monday I was granted an Urgent Question (UQ) in the House of Commons about cuts to our Official Development Assistance budget. I have uploaded a clip on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oo7wDM4Z5h4 and for those that have been following my campaign, the whole UQ debate is available on Hansard: https://hansard.parliament.uk/commons/2021-04-26/debates/D74E1751-705F-469B-9266-83FC1BB0EA68/ODABudget
I attended a roundtable event organised by TheCityUK which discussed future challenges and opportunities for the UK’s financial and related professional services industries, and I also took some time to speak to a group of postgraduate journalism students about journalism and politics. As co-chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on War Crimes, I chaired a meeting with the Rwandan Attorney General about alleged genocide perpetrators residing in the UK.
In terms of legislation, this week I co-sponsored Andy Slaughter’s High-Rise Buildings (Electrical Safety) Bill which aims to plug a loophole in the law which means that privately rented flats in high rise blocks are required to have a fire safety certificate – but social housing flats are not covered. While the Prorogation of Parliament means that this Bill cannot proceed, I hope that it will be reintroduced during the next session.
I also added my name in support of a number of clauses tabled to the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill on harassment in a public place and kerb-crawling. The clauses would amend section 41 of the Youth, Justice and Criminal Evidence Act 1999 to restrict the use of a complainant’s sexual history in court. In a third of rape trials the defendant still uses evidence of the complainant’s previous sexual history. In relation to the same Bill, I also spoke to the team at Women in Prison to discuss the impact of prison sentences on women who are the primary carers for young children. In the West Midlands in 2019 almost three quarters of the women sent to prison were sentenced to less than 6 months, for mostly non-violent offences, that could be effectively dealt with in the community. Evidence suggests that short sentences are often an ineffective way to cut re-offending compared to community programmes and rehabilitation schemes.
On Tuesday I spoke in the chamber about the Horizon Post Office scandal following the Court of Appeal judgement: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f_fXSNV6TAM&t=2s This is a truly terrible miscarriage of justice affecting up to 555 postmasters and postmistresses, it is a thorough going scandal which should shame us all.
The APPG on Trafficked Britons in Syria, which I am co-chairing launched on Wednesday. Next month the APPG will start to conduct an inquiry into the trafficking of Britons to Syria by Daesh. The Evening Standard have covered the launc: https://www.standard.co.uk/news/politics/mps-challenge-government-policy-britons-trafficked-syria-b931279.html and I also wrote a piece for the Times Red Box today: https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/we-must-bring-back-british-families-trafficked-by-isis-9w0lmmk5d. I also spoke to Women’s Hour on Radio 4 this morning and I will put up the recording for those who are interested separately.
This week I chaired a meeting of the APPG on Choice at the End of Life. The Health Secretary Matt Hancock joined the session and a video has been uploaded which covers most of the event: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nAFkmKrHgQ4
Statistics suggest that more than 260 young people have started a job every day in the last six weeks under the Government’s flagship Kickstart scheme- bringing the total to more than 16,500 across the country, with more jobs to come as our economy unlocks in line with the roadmap. Young people are often hardest hit in challenging times which is why we have put youth employment at the heart of our Plans for Jobs. Our Kickstart Scheme provides new, subsidised jobs for young people on Universal Credit aged between 16-24. It is worth remembering that we nearly eradicated youth unemployed in Sutton Coldfield just a few years ago. As of this month, we sadly have 520 unemployed 18-24 year olds in the Royal Town. I am absolutely determined that we bring this figure down as close to zero as we can over the next year.
Yesterday brought an end to the current parliamentary session and the Government has published a list of the Bills that have been passed since the General Election in 2019. A summary can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/pm-our-laws-will-make-uk-stronger-fairer-safer-and-greener?fbclid=IwAR2GPDwM0QKxjS13JzTjzUsueAbfUDUlnvFQnd1LB5Sj7TFokung_w6pJYM. The new Parliamentary year will begin following the State Opening of Parliament on Tuesday 11th May.
Opportunities and Events
Free online workshops from Parliament UK are available for community groups, schools and colleges: https://learning.parliament.uk/en/outreach/
UK Parliament Week returns on 1-7 November and 10,000 free kits are available, packed with activities for all ages. Nearly one million people joined in last year, to find out more or to order a kit visit: https://www.ukparliamentweek.org/en/
If you work with a local charity or other non-profit organisation and would like to highlight upcoming events or local opportunities please do send me an email, as I would be happy to highlight local good causes in my weekly messages.
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