Latest news with #Commons'
Daily Mirror
2 hours ago
- Politics
- Daily Mirror
Fury at minister's flippant 'get on with it' comment in tense housing grilling
Housing minister Matthew Pennycook has been confronted after it emerged homes might not be brought up to a decent standard for another 10 years - despite dozens of children's deaths A housing minister has been confronted after it emerged homes might not be brought up to a decent standard for another 10 years - despite dozens of children's deaths being linked to their living conditions. Matthew Pennycook said the Government had taken "urgent action" to introduce Awaab's Law, which will force social landlords to deal with health hazards like damp and mould. But it was pointed out that an updated 'decent homes standard' may not be enforceable until 2035 at the earliest. Florence Eshalomi, a Labour MP and chair of the Commons' housing committee, hit out at Mr Pennycook after he said the last Labour government - some 15 years ago - also had a 10-year timeline, and suggested they weren't told to "get on with it". She told Mr Pennycook we "cannot compare" now to then, as she said the "situation is getting dire on a daily basis". Appearing at a committee hearing, Mr Pennycook was at first grilled by Labour MP Sarah Smith, who asked him about the slow enforcement of the decent homes standard. She said: "It's been made public that this might not be enforceable until 2035 or 2037. We have had 72 children die due to their living conditions between 2019 and 2024 so why would there be this delay. "Why are we not pushing as quickly as possible to make every landlord responsible for making sure that the homes families are living in in this country, while they await the progress of this building programme, are fit for human habitation?" Mr Pennycook said Labour was committed to "delivering the biggest increase in social and affordable house building in a generation". He said it wasn't "unusual" for the implementation of a new decent homes standard, on which is being consulted, to take time. He added that the last Labour government's decent home programme had a 10-year implementation timeline. The minister said urgent action had been taken to help people living with "acute hazards", by introducing Awaab's law, which subject to parliamentary scrutiny will come into force in October. "And that will require landlords to address significant damp and mould hazards and emergency hazards within fixed periods." He added that "there's no way" you could ask for an updated standard to be implemented within a year. But Ms Smith hit back: "Perhaps not within a year, but to be waiting 10 years seems extreme, given the money that is being made in this sector... Surely there could be greater urgency than 2035." When Mr Pennycook went to repeat his previous point on Awaab's law, chairwoman Ms Eshalomi interjected to ask him whether local authorities would have the capacity to carry out inspections to check landlords were sticking to the law. The housing minister said the law was bringing in a "significant change", with residents able to hold landlords to account by taking legal action. He added: "We're going to raise standards across the board, through an upgraded and modernised decent homes standard. On the timelines, as I said, the previous Labour government's decent homes programme... I don't think anyone at that point in time would have been saying, 'we think you just need to get on with it'." But Ms Eshalomi hit back: "We now have a situation where we have almost two million people on the housing waiting list. We've seen local authorities spend £2.29 billion. I don't need to read these figures to you. "The situation is getting dire on a daily basis. We cannot compare it to when the last Labour government (were in power). We keep saying we're in a housing crisis. There are issues with in temporary accommodation. Unless we do things differently, Minister, we're going to keep spending money as a sticking tape on this." Mr Pennycook said: "We are doing things differently. I think I've evidenced that we are doing things differently." Awaab's Law was first introduced and consulted on by the former Tory government. It is named after two-year-old Awaab Ishak, who died in 2020 from a respiratory condition caused by mould at his home in Rochdale, Greater Manchester.
Yahoo
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
BBC staff at Glastonbury had power to cut Vylan feed
BBC employees with the authority to cut the live stream of Bob Vylan's Glastonbury performance were among 550 members of staff at the festival, director general Tim Davie has said. Ending the broadcast "was an option open to those on the ground on the day", Davie wrote in a letter to the Commons' culture select committee. The punk duo led a chant of "death, death to the IDF [Israel Defence Forces]" and made other derogatory comments during the performance, prompting apologies from the BBC and Glastonbury, as well as triggering a police investigation. BBC News understands a small number of senior staff were told to step back from their day-to-day duties on music and live events as a result. The corporation has previously admitted failings after it emerged the band were deemed "high risk" prior to their performance. While the feed was monitored and warnings appeared on screen, the broadcast - which went out on iPlayer - was not stopped after the band's comments were made. BBC chairman Samir Shah has said the decision not to pull the live feed was "unquestionably an error of judgement" after strong criticism of the corporation's handling of the incident. In a letter responding to questions submitted by Dame Caroline Dinenage, chairwoman of the Commons' culture, media and sport committee, Davie disclosed how many BBC employees were at the festival. He wrote: "There were 550 personnel working for the BBC at Glastonbury. "Of these 328 were working for BBC Studios (camera crew, rigging, technical and production roles), 35 providing coverage for BBC News, and 187 other BBC public service, working across a wide range of roles, including technical crew, producers, presenters, engineers, runners, commissioners and compliance staff." Answering whether any had the ability to end the broadcast, Davie said: "Yes, there were individuals present at Glastonbury who had the authority to cut the livestream after appropriate consideration. "Those individuals had access to advice and support offsite should they have considered it necessary." He did not specify how many of those present had the authority to pull the live stream, but said those capable of issuing "editorial policy support" would be deployed to music festivals and events in the future. During the duo's set, singer Pascal Robinson-Foster, who performs under the stage name Bobby Vylan, also made a speech about a record label boss he used to work for. That boss would "speak very strongly about his support for Israel", and had put his name to a letter urging Glastonbury to cancel Irish-language rap trio Kneecap's performance, the musician said. The singer said: "Who do I see on that list of names but that bald-headed [expletive] I used to work for? We've done it all, all right - from working in bars to working for [expletive] Zionists." After the media coverage of their set, Bob Vylan said in a statement: "We are not for the death of Jews, Arabs or any other race or group of people. We are for the dismantling of a violent military machine". Avon and Somerset Police have launched a criminal investigation into the band's comments. BBC needs to get a grip quicker after controversies, Ofcom chief says
Daily Mirror
5 days ago
- Politics
- Daily Mirror
'Dark side' of social media exposed as MPs warn of repeat of Southport riots
MPs warn the UK's online safety laws would not have 'made a difference' to the rapid spread of hate and misinformation that triggered the Southport riots last summer The UK's online safety laws would not have "made a difference" to the rapid spread of hate and misinformation that triggered the Southport riots, MPs have said. In a stark report, the Commons' technology committee warned of the "dark side" of profit-hungry social media firms. It said their business models 'incentivise the viral spread of misinformation' and demanded more be done to tame algorithms that bombard users with harmful posts. In a bleak conclusion, MPs on the committee said Brits are not being kept safe by the UK's Online Safety Act (OSA) as the law has "major holes". On the Southport riots, which were triggered by swirling online misinformation after the murder of three girls, MPs said social media companies "often enabled or even encouraged" the viral spread of harmful content in the lead up to last summer's violence. And in a grim finding, they said tech firms may have profited from it, due to their advertisement and engagement-based business models. They added that platforms and advertisers are ''unable or unwilling' to address the monetisation of false and harmful content'. The committee said: 'After the horrific murders in Southport on 29 July 2024, misleading and hateful messaging proliferated rapidly online, amplified by the recommendation algorithms of social media companies. 'Protests turned violent, often targeting Muslim and migrant communities, driven in part by the spread of these messages. These events provide a snapshot of how online activity can contribute to real world violence and hate. 'Many parts of the long-awaited Online Safety Act were not fully in force at the time of the unrest, but we found little evidence that they would have made a difference if they were.' It said the OSA fails to address algorithms amplifying 'legal but harmful content', leaving the public vulnerable to a repeat of last summer's crisis. MPs said they were 'concerned' the Government is restricted by a 'lack of accurate, up-to-date information' about how such algorithms work, which they said was caused by 'a lack of transparency on the part of social media companies'. It called on ministers to commission independent research to fix this. Committee chair Dame Chi Onwurah said: 'Social media can undoubtedly be a force for good, but it has a dark side. The viral amplification of false and harmful content can cause very real harm – helping to drive the riots we saw last summer. 'These technologies must be regulated in a way that empowers and protects users, whilst also respecting free speech. It's clear that the Online Safety Act just isn't up to scratch.'
Daily Mirror
6 days ago
- Politics
- Daily Mirror
Children's care crisis as youngster homelessness sparks 'moral failure' warning
The Department for Education has announced a £53million investment to create up to 200 places for vulnerable children in council-run high-quality children's homes Thousands of young people leaving care are ending up homeless, as MPs warn of a 'moral failure' in supporting vulnerable kids. In a devastating report, MPs on the Commons' education committee said a third of children who have been in care become homeless within two years of being looked after. They called for 'urgent action to fix this broken system' amid some 39% of care leavers aged 19 to 21 not being in education, training or employment - at a rate three times more likely than their peers. In a significant breakthrough, the Department for Education has announced a £53million investment to create up to 200 places for vulnerable children in council-run high-quality children's homes. Due to a huge shortage in placements, young people have been placed into accommodation that is not registered with Ofsted, and therefore operating illegally, in recent years. The education committee's report warned of distressing experiences within the care system, including kids being housed in barges, B&Bs and caravans. Children are also being placed far from their local area, which has 'a traumatic and lasting impact on their lives', they said. This is leading to disruption in young people's education, kids being separated from the people close to them and an 'increased risk' of children in care going missing. The Mirror has launched the Missed campaign calling for better support and care for missing people and their loved ones. The crisis has also put huge financial pressures on councils, which have been forking out an estimated £440million a year on unregistered placements, with private providers sometimes siphoning off 20% for private profit. Education committee chairwoman and Labour MP Helen Hayes said: 'It is unacceptable that thousands of young people leaving care are being left to face homelessness, unemployment or barriers to education – it is a moral failure. The system that should be supporting our most vulnerable children is far too often abandoning them at a critical moment in their lives.' Katherine Sacks-Jones, chief executive of Become, a charity for children in care, welcomed the report and said: 'Keeping children close to the people and places that matter to them is essential to good care, as is ending the care cliff and the drop-in support when young people turn 18, sometimes younger.' Children and Families minister Janet Daby said: 'The children's social care system has faced years of drift and neglect, leading to a vicious cycle of late intervention and children falling through the cracks.' The Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill will give Ofsted stronger powers to impose fines on illegal children's homes and new powers for the Secretary of State to cap provider profits if excessive profiteering is not brought under control.
Scotsman
24-06-2025
- Health
- Scotsman
Readers' letters: Assisted dying is too important to be left to politicians
Readers call for a referendum to decide if assisted dying should be implemented Sign up to our daily newsletter – Regular news stories and round-ups from around Scotland direct to your inbox Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to The Scotsman, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... Like other Scots exiled south ot the Border I will, it seems, soon be able to choose to die. Of course I understand the feelings of those supporters of the bill. Many, or most, of them have had to witness the horrific death of loved ones and would not want to see this experience repeated. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad My fear is that, despite the many sincere and well meaning safeguards that will undoubtably be put in place, the passage of time will see those safeguards eroded or relaxed. Who amongst the supporters of the bill can guarantee that future generations will want the 'choice' not to be entirely that of the patient? Supporters of assisted dying celebrate after MPs voted in favour of the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill last week (Picture:) Little has been heard of the Hippocratic Oath in this debate. I understand that the oath has been subject to a number of interpretations but I suspect Hippocrates would flinch at the prospect of his successors offering patients a pill that will kill them. This is too important an issue to be left to parliamentarians and a referendum is the only and clearest way for Scotland to take stock. John Rhind, Beadnell, Northumberland Peer pressure After that favourable Commons' vote on assisted dying is it really now down to the unelected upper house to declare its opinion about what the people need, seemingly regardless of what the people actually want? Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Isn't assisted dying legislation a classic case of a law that should be decided instead by the people as a whole through an informed national referendum? Too often we the people have been obliged to obey laws without our say so. Blair obliged us to invade Iraq; Major took us from the Common Market into the European Union; Cameron obliged us to invade Libya, (but to his eternal credit did permit us to decide if we wished to stay in the EU). We were all on Thatcher's side when she ordered the recapture of the Falkland Islands, but I doubt that'll be so if the Lords deliberately procrastinate to ensure the bill fails because it has run out of time. I agree that what has been passed has several faults which the Lords could sort out. Eight years ago I was given a terminal diagnosis for melanoma cancer. I put my affairs in order and awaited the end, only for a doctor to put me on to an experimental drug called Pembrulizumab which set in motion a successful immunotherapy, and so here I am still at 88. I mention that as I would make assisted dying available, at first anyway, only to mentally competent persons over 80 years of age because before then the possibility of 'miracle' cures exists, as I now have proven. An informed referendum, please, on an improved bill. Tim Flinn, Edinburgh Rogue states For a man who managed to give money to Gaza that was given to Holyrood to be spent on the Scottish people, Humza Yousaf is certainly persistent. He now wishes to extend his personal interest in the politics of the Middle East into domestic politics by denying US aircraft the use of airports in Scotland. This is in line with his party's similar policy of wanting to deny Nato vessels carrying nuclear weapons to come here, despite being part of our defence shield. Mind you, the SNP is loudly against defending ourselves. Mr Yousaf's latest outburst echoes his comments that Israel is a 'rogue state'. Like all nations, Israel has its fair share of black marks on its copybook. Consider the mass killing in the King David Hotel bombing by Jewish terrorists in 1946. Israel is quite open when it uses force. Following the recent terrorist outrage in Kashmir, India struck back against the people they blame for it, namely Pakistan. The world is too full of such attacks on 'soft' targets and nations are entitled to respond against those they see as the puppet-masters behind such attacks. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Who can blame Israel when Iranian proxies massacred their citizens at a music festival and hold others hostage? We all know that Iran's uranium enrichment has only one purpose, which is to make a nuclear bomb to drop on Israel and wipe it off the map. Does Mr Yousaf really expect Israelis, or anyone else to just sit and let them do it? There is only one 'rogue state' I can see and that is Iran. Peter Hopkins, Edinburgh Day jobs Why are John Swinney and indeed Humza Yousaf pontificating about the situation in Iran (Scotsman, June 23)? Foreign affairs are wholly retained by Westminster and, as per the Scotland Act, are explicitly outwith the jurisdiction of Holyrood. Yousaf is yesterday's man, and few care what he thinks, but Swinney, like it or not, heads up a devolved administration. The taxpayer employs MPs at Westminster to address international affairs while we pay Swinney and Yousaf to focus on such crucially important areas as the NHS, education, housing and roads. But perhaps this is simply too dreary for them? SNP politicians seemingly imagine that speaking out on international conflicts bigs them up in our eyes, yet the opposite is very much the case. It draws attention to their dismal performance in managing a vitally important raft of public services that the people of Scotland rely on each and every day. Martin Redfern, Melrose, Scottish Borders International law Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Gerald Edwards' support for Israel is ludicrous, as is his support for Trump's bombing of Iran (Letters, June 23). When Israel attacked Iran without warning it breached international law. A state is only permitted to attack another state if it presents an imminent danger. Netanyahu claimed that Israel was about to manufacture a nuclear weapon. Tulsi Gabbard, the US Director of National Intelligence, refuted that. Trump's bombing of Iran also broke international law, and also broke the constitution of the United States because it was an act of war. The US President can only declare war if Congress approves it. Congress can only approve war against a country if that country poses an immediate and grave military threat. Iran posed no threat to the United States. By breaking the constitution, Trump lays himself open to impeachment. Israel assassinated a number of Iranian nuclear scientists including the lead negotiator in the talks to discuss Iran's nuclear programme which were scheduled to take place on the Sunday after Israel attacked in what was described as a 'Pearl Harbour moment' for Iran, without declaration of war, and therefore a war crime. Like many, I believed Donald Trump's pre-election claims that he would end America's endless wars. Sadly I was wrong. As American military analyst Colonel Douglas Macgregor said commenting after the bombing of Iran: 'We are the rogue state in support of the other rogue state.' William Loneskie. Lauder, Scottish Borders No sense of shame Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad So Douglas Alexander, MP for Lothian East – who was complicit as a cabinet minister in the UK Government in taking the UK into an illegal war in Iraq and is now complicit in supporting a fanatical Israeli government regime accused of genocide in Gaza and engaged in bombing Syria, Yemen and Iran – proclaims that Scotland is in a 'voluntary union' but yet he cannot state (as evidenced on BBC Scotland's Sunday Show) a democratic route for Scotland to leave this union. It appears not only that Mr Alexander and the Labour Party have abandoned any remaining principles but they unapologetically have no sense of shame, having apparently learned little from past mistakes and resultant catastrophes. We can do better and the parliament we elect should have the power to conduct a constitutional referendum so that we in Scotland can determine our own future, including our own non-imperialist foreign policy. Stan Grodynski, Longniddry, East Lothian Gael force I am delighted that the national importance of Gaelic has been recognised, unanimously, by the Scottish Parliament. Gaelic is more than a language, it is part of the cultural identity of our nation. It is heritage and history, vital to the story of Scotland's sovereignty and indeed predates English by well over 1000 years. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad For those detractors that say it is a dead and useless language and a financial drain, I say shame on you. Through centuries of oppression and abuse Gaelic has survived and now with music and the arts and a longing for independence, there is a resurgence. Only in knowing the history of your country, can there ever be confidence in its future destiny. Wrapped around its ancient Celtic identity, Scotland remains a reawakening nation that has, in the past, given much to the world. Grant Frazer, Newtonmore, Highland Matter of principal I'm a proud son of Edinburgh and as a graduate (MA, 1966) of the Tounis College, I keep a strong interest in developments there. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad However, news can take time to reach London, where I am now based; and so I have only just seen an account of the Principal and Vice-Chancellor's appearance earlier this month in front of of the Education Committee of the Scottish Parliament. For Sir Peter Mathieson to say 'I do not carry the figure about in my head' when asked about his salary doesn't just beggar belief, it smacks of arrogance and disrespect. It's also worrying that, faced with a financial crisis in the university, its head seems not to be able to remember basic numbers. The principal has lost credibility and, I would suggest, any respect. He should at least try to preserve some fragment of his reputation, do the decent (and right) thing by the University of Edinburgh and resign. Sir James HodgeLondon Write to The Scotsman
