Carla Denyer MP
Carla proposed and spoke in favour of several amendments to the Renters’ Rights Bill, including in support of rent controls, as a member of the committee looking at the legislation in detail.
She and Siân have also tabled an Early Day Motion in support of funding a 4 Day Working Week pilot trial by local authorities, which you can see here. Carla also asked a written question about better support for trans children.
Ellie Chowns MP
Ellie asked the Prime Minister to use his influence to push for an ambitious climate finance agreement at COP29, to match the levels of support identified by countries in the global South and to ensure funding would be delivered in the form of grants, not loans – see here.
She has also tabled two Early Day Motions, calling on the government to exempt both charities and not for profit social care providers from increased employer NI contributions.
Siân Berry MP
Siân spoke in a debate about funding for youth services, to highlight the urgent need to fund the creation of new permanent youth worker posts.
And she spoke during Parliament’s debate to mark Black History Month, including about redress and action on reparations for the transatlantic trade in trafficked and enslaved Africans, and about institutionalised racism in the justice system. You can read her speech here.
Adrian Ramsay MP
Adrian has been standing up for his constituents on a wide range of topics this month, including setting out for the Minister the impact that the loss of dentists has on rural areas, highlighting how villages in Waveney Valley are struggling with poor broadband speeds, and speaking during a debate about flood preparedness. His contribution to the latter focused on nature based solutions in particular and can be read in full here.
Baroness Jenny Jones
Jenny put amendments on the duties of the water regulator and on water companies using nature based solutions to deal with sewage and flooding. Both of these amendments led to the government responding with their own versions and it is expected that these will become law. Thanks to pressure in the House of Lords and from campaign groups Ofwat will now have a duty to protect the environment.
Jenny faced the united opposition of Labour and Conservative benches when she proposed that Ministers must consider public ownership as an option if water companies fail. She also tried to stop water bills rising in order to bailout failing private water companies and to bring water companies into Special Administration if they failed to meet minimum environmental standards.
Our Green Peers supported the government legislation to take the railways back into public ownership, and to set up GB Energy. Jenny also supported a Conservative amendment ensuring that Salmon farms on Crown Estate properties meet minimum environmental standards.
Baroness Natalie Bennet
Natalie has spent a lot of the past month hosting events in parliament, which gives scientists, NGOs and campaigners the crucial access to MPs, Peers, officials, and journalists. In the past month Natalie has hosted:
- The Green Economics Institute, celebrating 20 years of work to create a global network of intelligent and caring voices for social, environmental and economics justice and creating a multidisciplinary academic narrative of green economics! Speakers included Miriam Kennet, Anjikwi Mshelbwalla, Bianca Madison-Vuleta, and Gwendoline Delbos-Corfield.
- A roundtable on Accelerating Human-Specific Technologies on behalf of Animal Free Research UK brought together leading experts in human-specific technologies and was attended by several MPs. The event included a call for Herbie’s Law to enable the phase out of animal testing in medical research.
- A meeting of experts on Bovine TB Policy acknowledging that the science behind the badger cull is deeply and fatally flawed and has been a very costly distraction to the primary control effort needed – biosecurity to control this cattle disease.
Natalie has also secured a debate in the Lords about Anaesthesia Associates and Physician Associates.