The “dumping” of hundreds of thousands of pieces of unused personal protective equipment near a nature reserve on the edge of the New Forest has mystified and angered local people.

Emine Sinmaz www.theguardian.com 

But the council has revealed the giant pile of boxes containing medical aprons in Calmore, Hampshire, will be recycled into plastic bags.

Councillors said they reacted with horror after the discovery was made public at a Hampshire county council (HCC) meeting last week. It is not yet known if the items are linked to the Covid-19 pandemic, but the council has asked the Environment Agency to investigate.

The large-scale discovery in Calmore, near Testwood Lakes Nature Reserve, came after an investigation by New Forest District Council (NFDC) into use of land at Little Testwood Farm Caravan Park.

A report from HCC’s regulatory committee said: “It became apparent that thousands of packs of medical aprons had been dumped on the land with no obvious signs that they were being protected or stored for some future use. The concern is that they have been dumped with no intention of removal to a proper facility.

“The Environment Agency have been contacted to see if they can determine where the PPE originated and whether it was discarded by a health trust as substandard during the Covid procurement.”

Councillor Peter Latham, the committee chair, said: “It was a surprise, to put it mildly – a reaction of horror – that something like that could have happened in Hampshire and nobody knew about it.”

Councillor Neville Penman said: “I’m totally amazed at how much has been dumped. I just can’t believe it because somebody must have seen it being put there, but I’ve never seen so much waste in all my life … To be honest with you, I’m distraught over it.”

A report last year revealed that protective clothing worth £4bn bought early in the pandemic was set to be burned because it was substandard.

The Commons public accounts committee’s report said the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) had so much unneeded PPE that it had appointed two commercial waste firms to help it dispose of 15,000 pallets a month “via a combination of recycling and burning to generate power”.

On Monday, thousands of boxes – some labelled “apron” and “made in China” – containing more than 100 units apiece remained piled on pallets near the caravan park.

People living near the site said they did not see the pallets being unloaded and did not know how long they had been there for. But one man who lives in the caravan park said he was shocked by the amount of waste.

The man, who did not want to be named, said: “It’s just a load of crap dumped there. Taxpayers’ money just dumped there. I’m shocked.”

A nurse who lives nearby added: “I am surprised because I work as a nurse and I know during the pandemic how we didn’t have enough PPE and how difficult it was to find it. It’s shocking to find out some has been dumped here.”

A NFDC spokesperson said the discovery was made after an inspection at the caravan park on 4 April. “This inspection revealed that a large quantity of PPE was being stored on the land in contravention of the caravan site licence conditions. The council, in its licensing capacity, has requested that the stored items be removed from the land,” they added.

“Subsequent inspections have been carried out by Hampshire county council and The Environment Agency. All the material is packaged and palletized and is due to be removed from the site for processing and recycling into plastic bags over the coming weeks. The Environment Agency will continue to carry out further enquires as to source of the material and how it came to be present on the land.”

An inspector from The Environment Agency was seen taking samples of the equipment on Monday. A spokesperson added: “While any investigation is ongoing, we are unable to comment further in order to not prejudice any investigations or subsequent enforcement decisions.”

HCC confirmed it was working with the agency to investigate.

“This government will have integrity, professionalism and accountability at every level.”

Moral courage is the courage to take action for moral reasons despite the risk of adverse consequences.

Courage is required to take action when one has doubts or fears about the consequences. Moral courage therefore involves deliberation or careful thought. Reflex action or dogmatic fanaticism do not involve moral courage because such impulsive actions are not based upon moral reasoning.

Moral courage has been seen as the exemplary modernist form of courage.

More than half a trillion pounds’ worth of underinvestment by government and business over recent decades has left Britain’s economy trapped in a growth “doom loop”, according to a thinktank.

Richard Partington www.theguardian.com 

Sounding the alarm as the economy struggles to gain momentum, the Institute for Public Policy Research said the UK risked falling further behind comparable wealthy nations without a sharp turnaround in approach.

Business investment is lower in the UK than in any other country in the G7, and 27th out of 30 OECD countries, ahead of only Poland, Luxembourg and Greece.

Highlighting a severe shortfall in public and private investment stretching back over several decades, the IPPR’s research showed that Britain had ranked below the G7 average since 2005 for spending on infrastructure, research and development, skills and training.

Had the UK maintained its position at the G7 average since that date, the private sector would have invested an extra £354bn in real terms. If public sector investment had also held that position, the UK government would have invested an additional £208bn between 2006 and 2021.

However, the UK has steadily slipped down the global investment league tables as successive governments have held back from boosting expenditure, alongside a faltering performance in the private sector – amounting to a shortfall versus the G7 average worth the equivalent of 30 Elizabeth line rail projects.

The centre-left thinktank said low investment put Britain at risk of being left behind in a global race to develop the green industries of the future, which are forecast to be worth $10.3tn (£8tn) to the global economy by 2050.

The findings come as Rishi Sunak’s government attempts to reboot economic growth with a focus on boosting business investment, including with a package of tax reliefs announced as part of the spring budget. Business leaders say political and economic instability, Brexit, high inflation and rising interest rates are deterring firms from investing in Britain.

The IPPR said increased public investment could “crowd-in” private sector investment and give confidence to companies to choose the UK as a place to build the green companies of the future – provided the government invested with a sense of longevity and certainty, as Joe Biden’s administration had done in the US.

George Dibb, an associate director for economy at IPPR, said: “If the economy is the engine of a country, investment is its fuel. But the UK’s tank is running on empty and it’s harming economic growth, driving inequality and slowing progress towards net zero and energy security.

“Currently, the UK is experiencing a debilitating case of investment-phobia, and the government’s aversion to investing to seize future opportunities is stopping us from getting out of the growth doom loop we find ourselves in.”

The government was approached for comment.

Richard Foord and Simon Jupp both voted “Aye”. No Devon MP voted “No”.

Devon “no shows” include:

Kevin Foster (Conservative – Torbay); Anne Marie Morris (Conservative – Newton Abbot); Mel Stride (Conservative – Central Devon)

Division Number: 258
Division Date: 19 June 2023 – 21:26

Privilege Motion

Aye Count: 354
No Count: 7
Result: Question accordingly agreed.

Tellers

Ayes: Liz Twist (Labour – Blaydon) and Colleen Fletcher (Labour – Coventry North East)
Noes: Alan Campbell (Labour – Tynemouth) and Lilian Greenwood (Labour – Nottingham South)

Ayes

Diane Abbott (Independent – Hackney North and Stoke Newington) (Proxy vote cast by Bell Ribeiro-Addy)
Debbie Abrahams (Labour – Oldham East and Saddleworth)
Bim Afolami (Conservative – Hitchin and Harpenden)
Nickie Aiken (Conservative – Cities of London and Westminster)
Peter Aldous (Conservative – Waveney)
Rushanara Ali (Labour – Bethnal Green and Bow)
Tahir Ali (Labour – Birmingham, Hall Green)
Rosena Allin-Khan (Labour – Tooting)
Mike Amesbury (Labour – Weaver Vale)
Edward Argar (Conservative – Charnwood)
Jonathan Ashworth (Labour – Leicester South)
Duncan Baker (Conservative – North Norfolk)
Steve Baker (Conservative – Wycombe)
Harriett Baldwin (Conservative – West Worcestershire)
Paula Barker (Labour – Liverpool, Wavertree)
John Baron (Conservative – Basildon and Billericay)
Apsana Begum (Labour – Poplar and Limehouse)
Aaron Bell (Conservative – Newcastle-under-Lyme)
Hilary Benn (Labour – Leeds Central)
Clive Betts (Labour – Sheffield South East)
Ian Blackford (Scottish National Party – Ross, Skye and Lochaber)
Kirsty Blackman (Scottish National Party – Aberdeen North)
Olivia Blake (Labour – Sheffield, Hallam)
Paul Blomfield (Labour – Sheffield Central)
Crispin Blunt (Conservative – Reigate)
Steven Bonnar (Scottish National Party – Coatbridge, Chryston and Bellshill)
Peter Bottomley (Conservative – Worthing West)
Andrew Bowie (Conservative – West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine)
Karen Bradley (Conservative – Staffordshire Moorlands)
Ben Bradshaw (Labour – Exeter)
Graham Brady (Conservative – Altrincham and Sale West)
Kevin Brennan (Labour – Cardiff West)
Andrew Bridgen (The Reclaim Party – North West Leicestershire)
Steve Brine (Conservative – Winchester)
Deidre Brock (Scottish National Party – Edinburgh North and Leith)
Alan Brown (Scottish National Party – Kilmarnock and Loudoun)
Nicholas Brown (Independent – Newcastle upon Tyne East)
Lyn Brown (Labour – West Ham)
Anthony Browne (Conservative – South Cambridgeshire)
Fiona Bruce (Conservative – Congleton)
Chris Bryant (Labour – Rhondda)
Felicity Buchan (Conservative – Kensington)
Karen Buck (Labour – Westminster North)
Robert Buckland (Conservative – South Swindon)
Richard Burgon (Labour – Leeds East)
Dawn Butler (Labour – Brent Central)
Ian Byrne (Labour – Liverpool, West Derby)
Liam Byrne (Labour – Birmingham, Hodge Hill)
Ruth Cadbury (Labour – Brentford and Isleworth)
Amy Callaghan (Scottish National Party – East Dunbartonshire) (Proxy vote cast by Brendan O’Hara)
Dan Carden (Labour – Liverpool, Walton)
Alistair Carmichael (Liberal Democrat – Orkney and Shetland)
Andy Carter (Conservative – Warrington South)
Alex Chalk (Conservative – Cheltenham)
Wendy Chamberlain (Liberal Democrat – North East Fife)
Sarah Champion (Labour – Rotherham)
Jo Churchill (Conservative – Bury St Edmunds)
Feryal Clark (Labour – Enfield North) (Proxy vote cast by Chris Elmore)
Greg Clark (Conservative – Tunbridge Wells)
Theo Clarke (Conservative – Stafford) (Proxy vote cast by Marcus Jones)
Geoffrey Clifton-Brown (Conservative – The Cotswolds)
Elliot Colburn (Conservative – Carshalton and Wallington)
Daisy Cooper (Liberal Democrat – St Albans)
Yvette Cooper (Labour – Normanton, Pontefract and Castleford)
Ronnie Cowan (Scottish National Party – Inverclyde)
Geoffrey Cox (Conservative – Torridge and West Devon)
Neil Coyle (Labour – Bermondsey and Old Southwark)
Stephen Crabb (Conservative – Preseli Pembrokeshire)
Stella Creasy (Labour – Walthamstow)
Jon Cruddas (Labour – Dagenham and Rainham)
John Cryer (Labour – Leyton and Wanstead)
Janet Daby (Labour – Lewisham East)
Ashley Dalton (Labour – West Lancashire)
Ed Davey (Liberal Democrat – Kingston and Surbiton)
Wayne David (Labour – Caerphilly)
David T C Davies (Conservative – Monmouth)
Mims Davies (Conservative – Mid Sussex)
Alex Davies-Jones (Labour – Pontypridd)
David Davis (Conservative – Haltemprice and Howden)
Martyn Day (Scottish National Party – Linlithgow and East Falkirk)
Marsha De Cordova (Labour – Battersea)
Thangam Debbonaire (Labour – Bristol West)
Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour – Slough)
Samantha Dixon (Labour – City of Chester)
Jonathan Djanogly (Conservative – Huntingdon)
Martin Docherty-Hughes (Scottish National Party – West Dunbartonshire)
Anneliese Dodds (Labour – Oxford East)
Dave Doogan (Scottish National Party – Angus)
Allan Dorans (Scottish National Party – Ayr, Carrick and Cumnock) (Proxy vote cast by Brendan O’Hara)
Stephen Doughty (Labour – Cardiff South and Penarth)
Peter Dowd (Labour – Bootle)
Jackie Doyle-Price (Conservative – Thurrock)
Flick Drummond (Conservative – Meon Valley)
David Duguid (Conservative – Banff and Buchan)
Philip Dunne (Conservative – Ludlow)
Angela Eagle (Labour – Wallasey)
Maria Eagle (Labour – Garston and Halewood)
Colum Eastwood (Social Democratic & Labour Party – Foyle)
Jonathan Edwards (Independent – Carmarthen East and Dinefwr)
Ruth Edwards (Conservative – Rushcliffe)
Clive Efford (Labour – Eltham)
Julie Elliott (Labour – Sunderland Central)
Tobias Ellwood (Conservative – Bournemouth East)
Chris Elmore (Labour – Ogmore)
Florence Eshalomi (Labour – Vauxhall)
Bill Esterson (Labour – Sefton Central)
Chris Evans (Labour – Islwyn)
Luke Evans (Conservative – Bosworth)
Laura Farris (Conservative – Newbury)
Tim Farron (Liberal Democrat – Westmorland and Lonsdale)
Stephen Farry (Alliance – North Down)
Simon Fell (Conservative – Barrow and Furness)
Marion Fellows (Scottish National Party – Motherwell and Wishaw)
Mark Fletcher (Conservative – Bolsover)
Stephen Flynn (Scottish National Party – Aberdeen South)
Richard Foord (Liberal Democrat – Tiverton and Honiton)
Vicky Ford (Conservative – Chelmsford)
Yvonne Fovargue (Labour – Makerfield)
Vicky Foxcroft (Labour – Lewisham, Deptford)
Mary Kelly Foy (Labour – City of Durham)
George Freeman (Conservative – Mid Norfolk)
Richard Fuller (Conservative – North East Bedfordshire)
Gill Furniss (Labour – Sheffield, Brightside and Hillsborough)
Barry Gardiner (Labour – Brent North)
Nick Gibb (Conservative – Bognor Regis and Littlehampton)
Patricia Gibson (Scottish National Party – North Ayrshire and Arran)
Peter Gibson (Conservative – Darlington)
Jo Gideon (Conservative – Stoke-on-Trent Central)
Mary Glindon (Labour – North Tyneside)
Patrick Grady (Scottish National Party – Glasgow North)
Richard Graham (Conservative – Gloucester)
Peter Grant (Scottish National Party – Glenrothes)
Damian Green (Conservative – Ashford)
Sarah Green (Liberal Democrat – Chesham and Amersham)
Margaret Greenwood (Labour – Wirral West)
Nia Griffith (Labour – Llanelli)
Andrew Gwynne (Labour – Denton and Reddish)
Luke Hall (Conservative – Thornbury and Yate)
Fabian Hamilton (Labour – Leeds North East)
Paulette Hamilton (Labour – Birmingham, Erdington)
Stephen Hammond (Conservative – Wimbledon)
Matt Hancock (Independent – West Suffolk)
Neale Hanvey (Alba Party – Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath)
Emma Hardy (Labour – Kingston upon Hull West and Hessle)
Harriet Harman (Labour – Camberwell and Peckham)
Carolyn Harris (Labour – Swansea East)
Simon Hart (Conservative – Carmarthen West and South Pembrokeshire)
Helen Hayes (Labour – Dulwich and West Norwood)
John Healey (Labour – Wentworth and Dearne)
Drew Hendry (Scottish National Party – Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey)
Meg Hillier (Labour – Hackney South and Shoreditch)
Damian Hinds (Conservative – East Hampshire)
Wera Hobhouse (Liberal Democrat – Bath)
Margaret Hodge (Labour – Barking)
Sharon Hodgson (Labour – Washington and Sunderland West)
Kate Hollern (Labour – Blackburn)
Paul Holmes (Conservative – Eastleigh)
Rachel Hopkins (Labour – Luton South)
Stewart Hosie (Scottish National Party – Dundee East)
George Howarth (Labour – Knowsley)
Rupa Huq (Labour – Ealing Central and Acton)
Imran Hussain (Labour – Bradford East)
Christine Jardine (Liberal Democrat – Edinburgh West)
Dan Jarvis (Labour – Barnsley Central)
Bernard Jenkin (Conservative – Harwich and North Essex)
Diana Johnson (Labour – Kingston upon Hull North)
Kim Johnson (Labour – Liverpool, Riverside)
Andrew Jones (Conservative – Harrogate and Knaresborough)
Darren Jones (Labour – Bristol North West)
Fay Jones (Conservative – Brecon and Radnorshire)
Gerald Jones (Labour – Merthyr Tydfil and Rhymney)
Kevan Jones (Labour – North Durham)
Sarah Jones (Labour – Croydon Central)
Simon Jupp (Conservative – East Devon)
Mike Kane (Labour – Wythenshawe and Sale East)
Daniel Kawczynski (Conservative – Shrewsbury and Atcham)
Alicia Kearns (Conservative – Rutland and Melton)
Gillian Keegan (Conservative – Chichester)
Barbara Keeley (Labour – Worsley and Eccles South)
Liz Kendall (Labour – Leicester West)
Stephen Kinnock (Labour – Aberavon)
Kate Kniveton (Conservative – Burton)
Peter Kyle (Labour – Hove)
Ben Lake (Plaid Cymru – Ceredigion)
David Lammy (Labour – Tottenham)
John Lamont (Conservative – Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk)
Robert Largan (Conservative – High Peak)
Ian Lavery (Labour – Wansbeck)
Kim Leadbeater (Labour – Batley and Spen)
Andrea Leadsom (Conservative – South Northamptonshire)
Emma Lewell-Buck (Labour – South Shields)
Andrew Lewer (Conservative – Northampton South)
Clive Lewis (Labour – Norwich South)
Julian Lewis (Conservative – New Forest East)
Simon Lightwood (Labour – Wakefield)
David Linden (Scottish National Party – Glasgow East)
Tony Lloyd (Labour – Rochdale) (Proxy vote cast by Chris Elmore)
Rebecca Long Bailey (Labour – Salford and Eccles)
Tim Loughton (Conservative – East Worthing and Shoreham)
Caroline Lucas (Green Party – Brighton, Pavilion)
Holly Lynch (Labour – Halifax)
Kenny MacAskill (Alba Party – East Lothian)
Justin Madders (Labour – Ellesmere Port and Neston)
Khalid Mahmood (Labour – Birmingham, Perry Barr)
Shabana Mahmood (Labour – Birmingham, Ladywood)
Seema Malhotra (Labour – Feltham and Heston)
Anthony Mangnall (Conservative – Totnes)
Julie Marson (Conservative – Hertford and Stortford)
Rachael Maskell (Labour – York Central)
Theresa May (Conservative – Maidenhead)
Jerome Mayhew (Conservative – Broadland)
Steve McCabe (Labour – Birmingham, Selly Oak)
Kerry McCarthy (Labour – Bristol East)
Siobhain McDonagh (Labour – Mitcham and Morden)
Andy McDonald (Labour – Middlesbrough)
Stuart C McDonald (Scottish National Party – Cumbernauld, Kilsyth and Kirkintilloch East)
John McDonnell (Labour – Hayes and Harlington)
Pat McFadden (Labour – Wolverhampton South East)
Alison McGovern (Labour – Wirral South)
Catherine McKinnell (Labour – Newcastle upon Tyne North)
Anne McLaughlin (Scottish National Party – Glasgow North East) (Proxy vote cast by Brendan O’Hara)
Jim McMahon (Labour – Oldham West and Royton)
Anna McMorrin (Labour – Cardiff North)
John McNally (Scottish National Party – Falkirk)
Ian Mearns (Labour – Gateshead)
Edward Miliband (Labour – Doncaster North)
Maria Miller (Conservative – Basingstoke)
Nigel Mills (Conservative – Amber Valley)
Navendu Mishra (Labour – Stockport)
Andrew Mitchell (Conservative – Sutton Coldfield)
Carol Monaghan (Scottish National Party – Glasgow North West)
Robbie Moore (Conservative – Keighley)
Layla Moran (Liberal Democrat – Oxford West and Abingdon)
Penny Mordaunt (Conservative – Portsmouth North)
Jessica Morden (Labour – Newport East)
Helen Morgan (Liberal Democrat – North Shropshire)
Stephen Morgan (Labour – Portsmouth South)
Grahame Morris (Labour – Easington)
Holly Mumby-Croft (Conservative – Scunthorpe)
David Mundell (Conservative – Dumfriesshire, Clydesdale and Tweeddale)
Ian Murray (Labour – Edinburgh South)
James Murray (Labour – Ealing North)
Andrew Murrison (Conservative – South West Wiltshire)
Lisa Nandy (Labour – Wigan)
Robert Neill (Conservative – Bromley and Chislehurst)
Gavin Newlands (Scottish National Party – Paisley and Renfrewshire North)
Charlotte Nichols (Labour – Warrington North)
John Nicolson (Scottish National Party – Ochil and South Perthshire) (Proxy vote cast by Brendan O’Hara)
Caroline Nokes (Conservative – Romsey and Southampton North)
Jesse Norman (Conservative – Hereford and South Herefordshire)
Alex Norris (Labour – Nottingham North)
Brendan O’Hara (Scottish National Party – Argyll and Bute)
Sarah Olney (Liberal Democrat – Richmond Park)
Chi Onwurah (Labour – Newcastle upon Tyne Central)
Guy Opperman (Conservative – Hexham)
Abena Oppong-Asare (Labour – Erith and Thamesmead)
Kate Osborne (Labour – Jarrow)
Kirsten Oswald (Scottish National Party – East Renfrewshire)
Taiwo Owatemi (Labour – Coventry North West)
Sarah Owen (Labour – Luton North)
Stephanie Peacock (Labour – Barnsley East)
Matthew Pennycook (Labour – Greenwich and Woolwich)
John Penrose (Conservative – Weston-super-Mare)
Toby Perkins (Labour – Chesterfield)
Jess Phillips (Labour – Birmingham, Yardley)
Bridget Phillipson (Labour – Houghton and Sunderland South)
Chris Philp (Conservative – Croydon South)
Luke Pollard (Labour – Plymouth, Sutton and Devonport)
Dan Poulter (Conservative – Central Suffolk and North Ipswich)
Rebecca Pow (Conservative – Taunton Deane)
Lucy Powell (Labour – Manchester Central)
Victoria Prentis (Conservative – Banbury)
Anum Qaisar (Scottish National Party – Airdrie and Shotts)
Angela Rayner (Labour – Ashton-under-Lyne)
Steve Reed (Labour – Croydon North)
Ellie Reeves (Labour – Lewisham West and Penge)
Rachel Reeves (Labour – Leeds West)
Jonathan Reynolds (Labour – Stalybridge and Hyde)
Bell Ribeiro-Addy (Labour – Streatham)
Nicola Richards (Conservative – West Bromwich East)
Angela Richardson (Conservative – Guildford)
Marie Rimmer (Labour – St Helens South and Whiston)
Rob Roberts (Independent – Delyn)
Laurence Robertson (Conservative – Tewkesbury)
Matt Rodda (Labour – Reading East)
Douglas Ross (Conservative – Moray)
Lee Rowley (Conservative – North East Derbyshire)
Lloyd Russell-Moyle (Labour – Brighton, Kemptown)
David Rutley (Conservative – Macclesfield)
Gary Sambrook (Conservative – Birmingham, Northfield)
Liz Saville Roberts (Plaid Cymru – Dwyfor Meirionnydd)
Selaine Saxby (Conservative – North Devon)
Paul Scully (Conservative – Sutton and Cheam)
Bob Seely (Conservative – Isle of Wight)
Andrew Selous (Conservative – South West Bedfordshire)
Virendra Sharma (Labour – Ealing, Southall)
Barry Sheerman (Labour – Huddersfield)
Alec Shelbrooke (Conservative – Elmet and Rothwell)
Tulip Siddiq (Labour – Hampstead and Kilburn)
Chris Skidmore (Conservative – Kingswood)
Andy Slaughter (Labour – Hammersmith)
Alyn Smith (Scottish National Party – Stirling)
Cat Smith (Labour – Lancaster and Fleetwood)
Chloe Smith (Conservative – Norwich North)
Jeff Smith (Labour – Manchester, Withington)
Julian Smith (Conservative – Skipton and Ripon)
Nick Smith (Labour – Blaenau Gwent)
Karin Smyth (Labour – Bristol South)
Alex Sobel (Labour – Leeds North West)
John Spellar (Labour – Warley)
Ben Spencer (Conservative – Runnymede and Weybridge)
Keir Starmer (Labour – Holborn and St Pancras)
Chris Stephens (Scottish National Party – Glasgow South West)
Jo Stevens (Labour – Cardiff Central)
John Stevenson (Conservative – Carlisle)
Jamie Stone (Liberal Democrat – Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross)
Gary Streeter (Conservative – South West Devon)
Graham Stringer (Labour – Blackley and Broughton)
Julian Sturdy (Conservative – York Outer)
Zarah Sultana (Labour – Coventry South)
James Sunderland (Conservative – Bracknell)
Robert Syms (Conservative – Poole)
Mark Tami (Labour – Alyn and Deeside)
Sam Tarry (Labour – Ilford South)
Nick Thomas-Symonds (Labour – Torfaen)
Richard Thomson (Scottish National Party – Gordon)
Emily Thornberry (Labour – Islington South and Finsbury)
Maggie Throup (Conservative – Erewash)
Stephen Timms (Labour – East Ham)
Jon Trickett (Labour – Hemsworth)
Tom Tugendhat (Conservative – Tonbridge and Malling)
Karl Turner (Labour – Kingston upon Hull East)
Derek Twigg (Labour – Halton)
Valerie Vaz (Labour – Walsall South)
Martin Vickers (Conservative – Cleethorpes)
Christian Wakeford (Labour – Bury South)
Robin Walker (Conservative – Worcester)
Charles Walker (Conservative – Broxbourne)
Claudia Webbe (Independent – Leicester East)
Catherine West (Labour – Hornsey and Wood Green)
Andrew Western (Labour – Stretford and Urmston)
Matt Western (Labour – Warwick and Leamington)
Alan Whitehead (Labour – Southampton, Test)
Philippa Whitford (Scottish National Party – Central Ayrshire)
Nadia Whittome (Labour – Nottingham East)
Craig Williams (Conservative – Montgomeryshire)
Hywel Williams (Plaid Cymru – Arfon)
Munira Wilson (Liberal Democrat – Twickenham)
Pete Wishart (Scottish National Party – Perth and North Perthshire)
William Wragg (Conservative – Hazel Grove)
Mohammad Yasin (Labour – Bedford)
Daniel Zeichner (Labour – Cambridge)

Noes

William Cash (Conservative – Stone)
Nick Fletcher (Conservative – Don Valley)
Adam Holloway (Conservative – Gravesham)
Karl McCartney (Conservative – Lincoln)
Joy Morrissey (Conservative – Beaconsfield)
Heather Wheeler (Conservative – South Derbyshire)

No Vote Recorded

Adam Afriyie (Conservative – Windsor)
Lucy Allan (Conservative – Telford)
Fleur Anderson (Labour – Putney)
Lee Anderson (Conservative – Ashfield)
Stuart Anderson (Conservative – Wolverhampton South West)
Stuart Andrew (Conservative – Pudsey)
Caroline Ansell (Conservative – Eastbourne)
Tonia Antoniazzi (Labour – Gower)
Sarah Atherton (Conservative – Wrexham)
Victoria Atkins (Conservative – Louth and Horncastle)
Gareth Bacon (Conservative – Orpington)
Richard Bacon (Conservative – South Norfolk)
Kemi Badenoch (Conservative – Saffron Walden)
Shaun Bailey (Conservative – West Bromwich West)
Siobhan Baillie (Conservative – Stroud)
Steve Barclay (Conservative – North East Cambridgeshire)
Hannah Bardell (Scottish National Party – Livingston)
Simon Baynes (Conservative – Clwyd South)
Margaret Beckett (Labour – Derby South)
Órfhlaith Begley (Sinn Féin – West Tyrone)
Scott Benton (Independent – Blackpool South)
Paul Beresford (Conservative – Mole Valley)
Jake Berry (Conservative – Rossendale and Darwen)
Saqib Bhatti (Conservative – Meriden)
Mhairi Black (Scottish National Party – Paisley and Renfrewshire South)
Bob Blackman (Conservative – Harrow East)
Peter Bone (Conservative – Wellingborough)
Ben Bradley (Conservative – Mansfield)
Mickey Brady (Sinn Féin – Newry and Armagh)
Suella Braverman (Conservative – Fareham)
Jack Brereton (Conservative – Stoke-on-Trent South)
Paul Bristow (Conservative – Peterborough)
Sara Britcliffe (Conservative – Hyndburn)
Alex Burghart (Conservative – Brentwood and Ongar)
Conor Burns (Conservative – Bournemouth West)
Rob Butler (Conservative – Aylesbury)
Alun Cairns (Conservative – Vale of Glamorgan)
Lisa Cameron (Scottish National Party – East Kilbride, Strathaven and Lesmahagow)
Gregory Campbell (Democratic Unionist Party – East Londonderry)
James Cartlidge (Conservative – South Suffolk)
Miriam Cates (Conservative – Penistone and Stocksbridge)
Maria Caulfield (Conservative – Lewes)
Douglas Chapman (Scottish National Party – Dunfermline and West Fife)
Bambos Charalambous (Independent – Enfield, Southgate)
Joanna Cherry (Scottish National Party – Edinburgh South West)
Rehman Chishti (Conservative – Gillingham and Rainham)
Christopher Chope (Conservative – Christchurch)
Simon Clarke (Conservative – Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland)
Brendan Clarke-Smith (Conservative – Bassetlaw)
Chris Clarkson (Conservative – Heywood and Middleton)
James Cleverly (Conservative – Braintree)
Thérèse Coffey (Conservative – Suffolk Coastal)
Damian Collins (Conservative – Folkestone and Hythe)
Jeremy Corbyn (Independent – Islington North)
Alberto Costa (Conservative – South Leicestershire)
Robert Courts (Conservative – Witney)
Claire Coutinho (Conservative – East Surrey)
Angela Crawley (Scottish National Party – Lanark and Hamilton East)
Virginia Crosbie (Conservative – Ynys Môn)
Tracey Crouch (Conservative – Chatham and Aylesford)
Judith Cummins (Labour – Bradford South)
Alex Cunningham (Labour – Stockton North)
James Daly (Conservative – Bury North)
James Davies (Conservative – Vale of Clwyd)
Gareth Davies (Conservative – Grantham and Stamford)
Geraint Davies (Independent – Swansea West)
Philip Davies (Conservative – Shipley)
Dehenna Davison (Conservative – Bishop Auckland)
Caroline Dinenage (Conservative – Gosport)
Sarah Dines (Conservative – Derbyshire Dales)
Leo Docherty (Conservative – Aldershot)
Jeffrey M Donaldson (Democratic Unionist Party – Lagan Valley)
Michelle Donelan (Conservative – Chippenham)
Nadine Dorries (Conservative – Mid Bedfordshire)
Steve Double (Conservative – St Austell and Newquay)
Oliver Dowden (Conservative – Hertsmere)
Richard Drax (Conservative – South Dorset)
James Duddridge (Conservative – Rochford and Southend East)
Rosie Duffield (Labour – Canterbury)
Iain Duncan Smith (Conservative – Chingford and Woodford Green)
Mark Eastwood (Conservative – Dewsbury)
Michael Ellis (Conservative – Northampton North)
Natalie Elphicke (Conservative – Dover)
George Eustice (Conservative – Camborne and Redruth)
Nigel Evans (Deputy Speaker – Ribble Valley)
David Evennett (Conservative – Bexleyheath and Crayford)
Ben Everitt (Conservative – Milton Keynes North)
Michael Fabricant (Conservative – Lichfield)
Margaret Ferrier (Independent – Rutherglen and Hamilton West)
John Finucane (Sinn Féin – Belfast North)
Anna Firth (Conservative – Southend West)
Katherine Fletcher (Conservative – South Ribble)
Kevin Foster (Conservative – Torbay)
Liam Fox (Conservative – North Somerset)
Mark Francois (Conservative – Rayleigh and Wickford)
Lucy Frazer (Conservative – South East Cambridgeshire)
Mike Freer (Conservative – Finchley and Golders Green)
Louie French (Conservative – Old Bexley and Sidcup)
Marcus Fysh (Conservative – Yeovil)
Roger Gale (Deputy Speaker – North Thanet)
Mark Garnier (Conservative – Wyre Forest)
Nusrat Ghani (Conservative – Wealden)
Michelle Gildernew (Sinn Féin – Fermanagh and South Tyrone)
Preet Kaur Gill (Labour – Birmingham, Edgbaston)
Paul Girvan (Democratic Unionist Party – South Antrim)
John Glen (Conservative – Salisbury)
Robert Goodwill (Conservative – Scarborough and Whitby)
Michael Gove (Conservative – Surrey Heath)
Helen Grant (Conservative – Maidstone and The Weald)
James Gray (Conservative – North Wiltshire)
Chris Grayling (Conservative – Epsom and Ewell)
Chris Green (Conservative – Bolton West)
Andrew Griffith (Conservative – Arundel and South Downs)
James Grundy (Conservative – Leigh)
Jonathan Gullis (Conservative – Stoke-on-Trent North)
Louise Haigh (Labour – Sheffield, Heeley)
Robert Halfon (Conservative – Harlow)
Greg Hands (Conservative – Chelsea and Fulham)
Claire Hanna (Social Democratic & Labour Party – Belfast South)
Mark Harper (Conservative – Forest of Dean)
Rebecca Harris (Conservative – Castle Point)
Trudy Harrison (Conservative – Copeland)
Sally-Ann Hart (Conservative – Hastings and Rye)
John Hayes (Conservative – South Holland and The Deepings)
Chris Hazzard (Sinn Féin – South Down)
Oliver Heald (Conservative – North East Hertfordshire)
James Heappey (Conservative – Wells)
Chris Heaton-Harris (Conservative – Daventry)
Gordon Henderson (Conservative – Sittingbourne and Sheppey)
Mark Hendrick (Labour – Preston)
Darren Henry (Conservative – Broxtowe)
Antony Higginbotham (Conservative – Burnley)
Simon Hoare (Conservative – North Dorset)
Richard Holden (Conservative – North West Durham)
Kevin Hollinrake (Conservative – Thirsk and Malton)
Philip Hollobone (Conservative – Kettering)
John Howell (Conservative – Henley)
Paul Howell (Conservative – Sedgefield)
Lindsay Hoyle (Speaker – Chorley)
Nigel Huddleston (Conservative – Mid Worcestershire)
Neil Hudson (Conservative – Penrith and The Border)
Eddie Hughes (Conservative – Walsall North)
Jane Hunt (Conservative – Loughborough)
Jeremy Hunt (Conservative – South West Surrey)
Tom Hunt (Conservative – Ipswich)
Alister Jack (Conservative – Dumfries and Galloway)
Sajid Javid (Conservative – Bromsgrove)
Ranil Jayawardena (Conservative – North East Hampshire)
Mark Jenkinson (Conservative – Workington)
Andrea Jenkyns (Conservative – Morley and Outwood)
Robert Jenrick (Conservative – Newark)
Caroline Johnson (Conservative – Sleaford and North Hykeham)
Gareth Johnson (Conservative – Dartford)
David Johnston (Conservative – Wantage)
David Jones (Conservative – Clwyd West)
Marcus Jones (Conservative – Nuneaton)
Ruth Jones (Labour – Newport West)
Afzal Khan (Labour – Manchester, Gorton)
Julian Knight (Independent – Solihull)
Greg Knight (Conservative – East Yorkshire)
Danny Kruger (Conservative – Devizes)
Kwasi Kwarteng (Conservative – Spelthorne)
Eleanor Laing (Deputy Speaker – Epping Forest)
Pauline Latham (Conservative – Mid Derbyshire)
Chris Law (Scottish National Party – Dundee West)
Edward Leigh (Conservative – Gainsborough)
Ian Levy (Conservative – Blyth Valley)
Brandon Lewis (Conservative – Great Yarmouth)
Ian Liddell-Grainger (Conservative – Bridgwater and West Somerset)
Carla Lockhart (Democratic Unionist Party – Upper Bann)
Chris Loder (Conservative – West Dorset)
Mark Logan (Conservative – Bolton North East)
Marco Longhi (Conservative – Dudley North)
Julia Lopez (Conservative – Hornchurch and Upminster)
Jack Lopresti (Conservative – Filton and Bradley Stoke)
Jonathan Lord (Conservative – Woking)
Craig Mackinlay (Conservative – South Thanet)
Cherilyn Mackrory (Conservative – Truro and Falmouth)
Rachel Maclean (Conservative – Redditch)
Angus Brendan MacNeil (Scottish National Party – Na h-Eileanan an Iar)
Alan Mak (Conservative – Havant)
Kit Malthouse (Conservative – North West Hampshire)
Scott Mann (Conservative – North Cornwall)
Paul Maskey (Sinn Féin – Belfast West)
Paul Maynard (Conservative – Blackpool North and Cleveleys)
Jason McCartney (Conservative – Colne Valley)
Stewart Malcolm McDonald (Scottish National Party – Glasgow South)
Conor McGinn (Independent – St Helens North)
Stephen McPartland (Conservative – Stevenage)
Esther McVey (Conservative – Tatton)
Mark Menzies (Conservative – Fylde)
Johnny Mercer (Conservative – Plymouth, Moor View)
Huw Merriman (Conservative – Bexhill and Battle)
Stephen Metcalfe (Conservative – South Basildon and East Thurrock)
Robin Millar (Conservative – Aberconwy)
Amanda Milling (Conservative – Cannock Chase)
Gagan Mohindra (Conservative – South West Hertfordshire)
Francie Molloy (Sinn Féin – Mid Ulster)
Damien Moore (Conservative – Southport)
Anne Marie Morris (Conservative – Newton Abbot)
David Morris (Conservative – Morecambe and Lunesdale)
James Morris (Conservative – Halesowen and Rowley Regis)
Jill Mortimer (Conservative – Hartlepool)
Wendy Morton (Conservative – Aldridge-Brownhills)
Kieran Mullan (Conservative – Crewe and Nantwich)
Sheryll Murray (Conservative – South East Cornwall)
Lia Nici (Conservative – Great Grimsby)
Neil O’Brien (Conservative – Harborough)
Matthew Offord (Conservative – Hendon)
Kate Osamor (Labour – Edmonton)
Ian Paisley (Democratic Unionist Party – North Antrim)
Priti Patel (Conservative – Witham)
Mark Pawsey (Conservative – Rugby)
Mike Penning (Conservative – Hemel Hempstead)
Andrew Percy (Conservative – Brigg and Goole)
Christopher Pincher (Independent – Tamworth)
Mark Pritchard (Conservative – The Wrekin)
Tom Pursglove (Conservative – Corby)
Jeremy Quin (Conservative – Horsham)
Will Quince (Conservative – Colchester)
Yasmin Qureshi (Labour – Bolton South East)
Dominic Raab (Conservative – Esher and Walton)
Tom Randall (Conservative – Gedling)
John Redwood (Conservative – Wokingham)
Christina Rees (Independent – Neath)
Jacob Rees-Mogg (Conservative – North East Somerset)
Gavin Robinson (Democratic Unionist Party – Belfast East)
Mary Robinson (Conservative – Cheadle)
Andrew Rosindell (Conservative – Romford)
Dean Russell (Conservative – Watford)
Naz Shah (Labour – Bradford West)
Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party – Strangford)
Grant Shapps (Conservative – Welwyn Hatfield)
Alok Sharma (Conservative – Reading West)
Tommy Sheppard (Scottish National Party – Edinburgh East)
David Simmonds (Conservative – Ruislip, Northwood and Pinner)
Greg Smith (Conservative – Buckingham)
Henry Smith (Conservative – Crawley)
Royston Smith (Conservative – Southampton, Itchen)
Amanda Solloway (Conservative – Derby North)
Mark Spencer (Conservative – Sherwood)
Alexander Stafford (Conservative – Rother Valley)
Andrew Stephenson (Conservative – Pendle)
Jane Stevenson (Conservative – Wolverhampton North East)
Bob Stewart (Conservative – Beckenham)
Iain Stewart (Conservative – Milton Keynes South)
Wes Streeting (Labour – Ilford North)
Mel Stride (Conservative – Central Devon)
Graham Stuart (Conservative – Beverley and Holderness)
Rishi Sunak (Conservative – Richmond (Yorks))
Desmond Swayne (Conservative – New Forest West)
Alison Thewliss (Scottish National Party – Glasgow Central)
Derek Thomas (Conservative – St Ives)
Gareth Thomas (Labour – Harrow West)
Owen Thompson (Scottish National Party – Midlothian)
Edward Timpson (Conservative – Eddisbury)
Kelly Tolhurst (Conservative – Rochester and Strood)
Justin Tomlinson (Conservative – North Swindon)
Michael Tomlinson (Conservative – Mid Dorset and North Poole)
Craig Tracey (Conservative – North Warwickshire)
Anne-Marie Trevelyan (Conservative – Berwick-upon-Tweed)
Laura Trott (Conservative – Sevenoaks)
Elizabeth Truss (Conservative – South West Norfolk)
Shailesh Vara (Conservative – North West Cambridgeshire)
Matt Vickers (Conservative – Stockton South)
Theresa Villiers (Conservative – Chipping Barnet)
Ben Wallace (Conservative – Wyre and Preston North)
Jamie Wallis (Conservative – Bridgend)
David Warburton (Independent – Somerton and Frome)
Matt Warman (Conservative – Boston and Skegness)
Giles Watling (Conservative – Clacton)
Suzanne Webb (Conservative – Stourbridge)
Helen Whately (Conservative – Faversham and Mid Kent)
Mick Whitley (Labour – Birkenhead)
Craig Whittaker (Conservative – Calder Valley)
John Whittingdale (Conservative – Maldon)
Bill Wiggin (Conservative – North Herefordshire)
James Wild (Conservative – North West Norfolk)
Gavin Williamson (Conservative – South Staffordshire)
Sammy Wilson (Democratic Unionist Party – East Antrim)
Beth Winter (Labour – Cynon Valley)
Rosie Winterton (Deputy Speaker – Doncaster Central)
Mike Wood (Conservative – Dudley South)
Jeremy Wright (Conservative – Kenilworth and Southam)
Jacob Young (Conservative – Redcar)
Nadhim Zahawi (Conservative – Stratford-on-Avon)

• Retrospective application for planning and listed building consent for the extension of a dwelling to incorporate a redundant store/workshop The Barn Higher Watchcombe Farm Shute Axminster EX13 7QNRef. No: 23/1239/FUL | Validated: Fri 09 Jun 2023 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Retrospective application for planning and listed building consent for the extension of a dwelling to incorporate a redundant store/workshop The Barn Higher Watchcombe Farm Shute Axminster EX13 7QNRef. No: 23/1240/LBC | Validated: Fri 09 Jun 2023 | Status: Awaiting decision
• T1, Golden Lawson cypress : reduce by 3m and lift lower branches to approximately 3m. T2, Golden Thuja : reduce by 3 – 4m and shorten lower branches. T3-8, Group of six Thuja : fell to as near ground level as possible. Woodrising Bickwell Valley Sidmouth Devon EX10 8RFRef. No: 23/1232/TCA | Validated: Thu 08 Jun 2023 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Modification of S106 Agreement dated 8 May 1992 between East Devon District Council and Devon and Cornwall Housing Association 1-3 Hazel Grove & 19 Birch End Rockbeare Exeter EX5 2HHRef. No: 23/1234/V106 | Validated: Thu 08 Jun 2023 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Roofing over silage clamp 1 Shermans Farm Gittisham EX14 3AURef. No: 23/1221/FUL | Validated: Wed 07 Jun 2023 | Status: Awaiting decision
• T5: Walnut (twin-stemmed) – fell diseased trunk and crown, leaving the healthy trunk and crown. The Round House Stoke Hill Stoke Canon EX5 4EERef. No: 23/1216/TRE | Validated: Wed 07 Jun 2023 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Proposed roofing over silage clamp 2. Shermans Farm Gittisham Honiton EX14 3AURef. No: 23/1222/FUL | Validated: Wed 07 Jun 2023 | Status: Awaiting decision
• TP1 Oak – reduce crown via thinning and trim away from overhead BT lines , reducing branch lengths up to 3m, making cuts no bigger than 80mm TP2 Oak – remove deadwood over council footpath and communal parking area and garden. 18 Westbourne Terrace Budleigh Salterton EX9 6BRRef. No: 23/1189/TRE | Validated: Mon 05 Jun 2023 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Construction of extensions, internal alterations. carport and rear store. Red Gable Sid Road Sidmouth EX10 9ALRef. No: 23/1188/FUL | Validated: Mon 05 Jun 2023 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Proposed horticultural store Millers Farm Shop Gammons Hill Kilmington EX13 7RARef. No: 23/1203/FUL | Validated: Thu 08 Jun 2023 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Proposed agricultural store Millers Farm Shop Gammons Hill Kilmington Devon EX13 7RARef. No: 23/1193/FUL | Validated: Thu 08 Jun 2023 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Proposed part conversion of front garden into hardstanding vehicle driveway 53 Moormead Budleigh Salterton EX9 6PXRef. No: 23/1186/FUL | Validated: Tue 06 Jun 2023 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Proposed new showroom for JRC Carpets 5 Clyst Works Clyst Road Topsham Devon EX3 0DBRef. No: 23/1182/FUL | Validated: Thu 08 Jun 2023 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Proposed agricultural storage building (retrospective) Sunnylands Dalwood Devon EX13 7EARef. No: 23/1173/FUL | Validated: Mon 05 Jun 2023 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Installation of a demountable building to be used as a changing room facility Devon And Somerset Fire And Rescue Service Headquarters Clyst St George Devon EX3 0NWRef. No: 23/1170/FUL | Validated: Wed 07 Jun 2023 | Status: Awaiting decision
• To erect an Agricultural building. Land At Salcombe RegisRef. No: 23/1161/FUL | Validated: Wed 07 Jun 2023 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Change of use from disused assembly building to one residential unit Kingdom Hall Russell Street Sidmouth EX10 8DDRef. No: 23/1158/FUL | Validated: Wed 07 Jun 2023 | Status: Awaiting decision
• 5m x 4m single storey ‘infill’ extension to North elevation in between the existing kitchen and garage. 30 Livonia Road Sidmouth Devon EX10 9JBRef. No: 23/1152/FUL | Validated: Mon 05 Jun 2023 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Alterations to ground floor window and door arrangements. Construction of first floor extension, and second floor loft conversion. 39 West Clyst Exeter Devon EX1 3TLRef. No: 23/1150/FUL | Validated: Tue 06 Jun 2023 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Conversion of existing building from barn into dwelling Land North Of Railway WhimpleRef. No: 23/1147/FUL | Validated: Thu 08 Jun 2023 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Proposed two storey side extension, to include the removal of existing garage and kitchen. 1 Kersbrook House Kersbrook Budleigh Salterton EX9 7ABRef. No: 23/1135/FUL | Validated: Fri 09 Jun 2023 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Siting of temporary stables South Field Bicton Arena Bicton Park Bicton East BudleighRef. No: 23/1127/FUL | Validated: Fri 09 Jun 2023 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Proposed detached workshop and installation of boundary fencing 9 Chestnut Crescent Stoke Canon Devon EX5 4AARef. No: 23/1057/FUL | Validated: Thu 08 Jun 2023 | Status: Awaiting decision
• Two storey rear extension. 1 The Villas Seaton Junction Axminster EX13 7PRRef. No: 23/0969/FUL | Validated: Wed 07 Jun 2023 | Status: Awaiting decision

Will they, won’t they vote today?

After threats of deselection for Conservative MPs voting to accept and approve the Privilege Committee findings on Boris Johnson, the man himself asked his followers not to vote against the report. Some say that was because it might show how small in number his supporters were, though his reasoning could be more devious.

There has then been further speculation that the report would be “nodded through” without division so we would never know whether our MP voted for or against.

Rishi Sunak’s position still seems uncertain, even over whether he will attend the debate.

Unless and until  Rishi Sunak condemns Boris Johnson, the issue of the Tory Party partying while we sheltered will continue to haunt all Conservatives.

Michael Gove has said he disagrees with the parliamentary investigation that found Boris Johnson deliberately misled MPs over the Partygate scandal, and will abstain from voting on it in the Commons.

“I’ll vote against the privileges committee’s Boris report – for the sake of Parliament.” Sir Bill Cash MP

It now looks as though Sir Bill Cash might help to force a vote, as he often does.

Although the decsion to divide is at the discretion of the speaker. If the “yes” voices are much louder and more numerous than the “no” ones, he may just declare the motion carried “nodded through”, and move on to the next business.

Issue of malnutrition raised by Paul Arnott now reaches  the National News.

“We’re ignored when complaints are raised and so have resorted to weighing some of the families to evidence the weight loss and push for changes to be made.”

Cranbrook Education Campus near Exeter, now feeding 47 asylum-seeking children attending the school because they were coming to school hungry.

Diane Taylor www.theguardian.com 

Health professionals have raised concerns about the increasing number of children in asylum seeker hotel accommodation being diagnosed with malnutrition, the Guardian has learned.

Cases of malnutrition among both children and adults have been confirmed in various different areas of England, including hotels in London and in the south-west.

In some areas health professionals have started weighing children at the hotels who have become dangerously thin and in need of frequent monitoring.

Those working with families in hotels reported that some parents have been found rummaging through bins to find food for their children and adults were losing as much as 10-15kg (22-33lbs) of weight.

Rupert Blomfield, manager of Refugee Support Devon, which is providing support to asylum seekers in hotels across the county, said: “Some children are simply not eating. We have had cases of malnutrition confirmed. Some children have been losing weight to quite a dangerous degree.”

One health and social care professional who is also involved with weighing asylum seekers in the Devon area said: “The situation for families is dire and no matter how many times issues are raised with the contractor or the Home Office, nothing changes. The children are losing weight rapidly, going to school and saying they’re starving, eating two portions of lunch. They are saying that they don’t want to return to the hotel which they describe as ‘prison’.

“We’re ignored when complaints are raised and so have resorted to weighing some of the families to evidence the weight loss and push for changes to be made.”

Stephen Farmer, headteacher at Cranbrook Education Campus near Exeter, which is part of the Ted Wragg Trust, confirmed that the school was feeding 47 asylum-seeking children attending the school because they were coming to school hungry.

“We do have concerns and we have raised these concerns with MPs, local authorities and various other agencies. There are a lot of meetings going on,” he said. “Our job as school leaders is to ensure that children are safe and healthy. We are providing more food for these pupils because we have noticed they are hungry.”

One family who spent nine months in a hotel in another part of the country after fleeing persecution and death threats by security services in their home country have lost significant amounts of weight. The father said he had lost 9kg (20lbs), his wife 5kg and their 11-year-old son 4kg. Their seven-year-old daughter has also lost a significant amount of weight since the family arrived in the UK in May of last year.

“My son is allergic to certain foods as he has a disorder of his red blood cells. I asked the chef in the hotel to tell me the ingredients in the food so I could make sure there was nothing my son is not allowed to eat in it. He refused to give me that information. When I asked him if he would give this food to his children he replied ‘no way’. I am so concerned about my children’s health. We took a photo of my son when we arrived here and he was a healthy weight. In a recent photo we took all his bones are sticking out.”

A Syrian mother who is accommodated in a London hotel with her family and has been in the UK for 14 months said: “Seeing my children lose weight in the hotel is breaking my heart. Children are supposed to gain weight as they grow not lose it.”

“My three-year-old daughter has lost a lot of weight since we arrived. She only weighs 13 kilos now. When we ask for milk for the children they don’t always give it to us and the milk we do get looks like it’s mixed with water. We’re given rice swimming in water and stinky chicken.”

Steve Smith, CEO of refugee charity Care4Calais said: “A system that allows private contractors to profit while human beings, including children, are losing weight from being denied access to nutritious food, is a system that is broken. This is a public health issue and one that the government must urgently get on top of.”

A Home Office spokesperson said: “The welfare of those in our care is absolutely paramount. Asylum seekers in receipt of catered accommodation are provided with three meals a day, along with fresh fruit and snacks. The food provided in asylum hotels meets NHS Eatwell standards and responds to all cultural and dietary requirements. Where concerns are raised about any aspect of the service delivered in a hotel, we work with the provider to ensure these concerns are swiftly addressed.”

A video has emerged showing some Conservative Party workers drinking and dancing at a Christmas party during the Covid pandemic.

Police investigated the event last year and no fines were issued.

BBC News www.bbc.co.uk

The Daily Mirror previously obtained and published still images from the same party

In the video, published by the Mirror, one person is heard saying it is OK to film “as long as we don’t stream that we’re, like, bending the rules”.

The paper says the video sheds new light on a gathering that police had previously looked into.

The Conservatives said disciplinary action had already been taken.

The video, taken at the Conservative party’s headquarters in Westminster, dates from December 2020 when London was in Tier 2 restrictions.

This meant people were banned from socialising indoors, except with members of their household or a support bubble.

People in London who did want to socialise at that stage of the pandemic had to do so in a garden or at a pub with outdoor seating – but such gatherings were limited to groups of six people.

Police investigated the event last year and no fines were issued.

Shaun Bailey, who was given a peerage in Boris Johnson’s resignation honours list this week, was running for London mayor in December 2020, and members of his campaign team attended this gathering inside the Tory party’s HQ.

The event has been reported before, but only still photographs were published by the Daily Mirror. Although Mr Bailey was photographed surrounded by party workers in those images, he is not seen in this newly-obtained video.

The Conservative Party said four people seconded to Mr Bailey’s campaign were disciplined.

In the 45-second video on the Mirror website, people can be seen drinking and standing in groups, while a man and a woman can be seen holding hands and dancing.

Labour’s Angela Rayner said the attendees had “openly mocked” the rules of Covid pandemic.

“The Tories think it’s one rule for them and one rule for everyone else,” added the deputy leader.

Liberal Democrat deputy leader Daisy Cooper Tory MPs and ministers should be “sick to their stomachs” seeing this new footage.

“While families grieved and NHS staff worked on the front line, Conservative Campaign Headquarters partied.”

The Metropolitan Police have not yet responded to the new video footage.

Rules only apply to the “little people”! – Owl

Boris Johnson has committed a “clear breach” of the rules surrounding jobs outside parliament after only informing a key watchdog of his new Daily Mail column half an hour before it was publicly announced.

Faye Brown news.sky.com 

Whitehall’s anti-corruption panel said the former prime minister – who has vowed to offer uncensored views – had not sought its advice on the matter within an appropriate timeframe.

Former ministers are meant to apply to the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments (Acoba) before taking up a new appointment or role for up to two years after leaving government.

An Acoba spokesperson said: “The Ministerial Code states that ministers must ensure that no new appointments are announced, or taken up, before the committee has been able to provide its advice.

“An application received 30 mins before an appointment is announced is a clear breach.

“We have written to Mr Johnson for an explanation and will publish correspondence in due course, in line with our policy of transparency.”

Earlier, a source close to Mr Johnson insisted that he had written to Acoba, but did not say when the letter was sent.

The Daily Mail, a right-leaning outlet and one of Mr Johnson’s biggest supporters, confirmed on Friday that it had hired Mr Johnson as a weekly columnist, calling him “one of the wittiest and most original writers in the business”.

In a video shared alongside the announcement, Mr Johnson said he was “thrilled” to contribute to “those illustrious pages”, and promised to deliver “completely unexpurgated stuff”.

Although he quipped he will only cover politics when “I absolutely have to”, the column gives him a powerful platform to take shots at Prime Minister Rishi Sunak with whom he has been publicly clashing.

But the announcement, which comes a day after the privileges committee concluded Mr Johnson lied to parliament with his denials of Downing Street lockdown parties, has drawn the ire of opposition MPs.

Labour MP Angela Eagle said “this is what no shame looks like”.

Former shadow chancellor John McDonell said he could not think “of a more appropriate vehicle for Johnson to peddle more of his lies” than in the newspaper, which he claimed was a “rag” that “contributes so much to dividing our society and lowering the standards of public life”.

There has been speculation about whether Mr Johnson would return to his journalism roots after he dramatically quit as an MP last week ahead of the damning privileges verdict becoming public.

Before he became party leader, Mr Johnson received a £275,000 salary to write for The Telegraph, which will likely pale in comparison to the sum he will pocket as a former premier.

POLITICO, which first broke the news of Mr Johnson’s new writing gig, reported he will receive a “very high six figure sum”.

News of his lucrative new job came as the prime minister was urged to “stand up to” his predecessor and force him to pay back the tax payer cash spent on his partygate legal fees.

Mr Johnson joins the ranks of his staunch ally Nadine Dorries, who writes a weekly Tuesday column for the Daily Mail.

The former culture secretary, who has also announced her exit from the Commons, used her most recent piece to suggest “sinister forces” were behind the decision to exclude her from Mr Johnson’s controversial resignation honours list – something Downing Street has denied.

The former long-standing Daily Mail editor Paul Dacre was also once tipped to be on the list but was reportedly removed during the House of Lords vetting process.

Elephant in the room: Since 2020, Devon’s total running overspend on caring for children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) service – effectively debt – has risen to around £127 million, and is projected to increase to £153 million by next March. The amount is more than the county has in reserves.

Ollie Heptinstall, local democracy reporter www.radioexe.co.uk

A small budget surplus was recorded by Devon County Council in the last financial year following an unprecedented cost-cutting programme.

It finished the 2022/23 financial year with an underspend £156,000 of its revenue budget of almost £630 million.

It comes less than a year after Devon’s finance chief warned councillors that Devon faced a £30.5 million overspend with a potential further £10 million on top because of soaring inflation.

That led to Angie Sinclair calling for urgent action to cut costs, with a group of leaders from each council department set up to go through the budget line-by-line to identify savings as part of a ‘financial sustainability programme’.

In a report to Devon’s ruling Conservative cabinet on Wednesday [14 June], Ms Sinclair said it meant the authority avoided overspending, while it also managed to increase income and make more use of funding sources.

But she warned that – in common with councils across the country – Devon continued to face financial challenges.

“Demand for services is higher than ever before, prices continue to rise and labour market shortages are still being experienced,” she said.

“This is being felt acutely within our adults and children’s services. This trend of rising demand pressure and rising prices is expected to continue into 2023/24 which will create a very challenging financial environment for the council going forward.”

Cabinet member for finance, Councillor Phil Twiss (Conservative, Feniton), told the meeting: “If we hadn’t responded, the alternative would have been a significant budget overspend and we would today be taking tens of millions of pounds out of our diminished reserves.

He added: “The work in the 2022/23 financial year has bought us time to truly start transforming our services, investing in new systems, and streamlining our operations.

“This is only the end of the beginning, make no mistake,  as recovery continues and DCC is put back onto a medium and long-term sustainable track.

“However, there is no sugar-coating that 23/24 financial year is clearly going to be very tough with very difficult choices to make on how we deliver services to the residents of Devon.”

But opposition leader Julian Brazil (Lib Dem, Kingsbridge) highlighted the “elephant in the room” – a growing overspend on Devon caring for children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).

Councils across the country have been told by the government to put their overspends into separate ring-fenced accounts while it develops a new funding model – an arrangement recently extended to 2026.

Since 2020, Devon’s total running overspend on the SEND service – effectively debt – has risen to around £127 million, and is projected to increase to £153 million by next March. The amount is more than the county has in reserves.

“We haven’t underspent, we’ve overspent,” Cllr Brazil said. “We’ve overspent by tens of millions of pounds.”

He questioned whether discussions between Devon and the Department for Education about the debt would “save us,” warning: “Until we have a much more candid approach to our budget position and our revenue budget we will continue to go merrily on until we hit the buffers.”

Cllr Brazil added: “I just worry for the most vulnerable and needy people in Devon because they, inevitably, will suffer the most when we make the cuts.”

Meanwhile, Labour’s Carol Whitton claimed it was an “absolute disgrace that the [SEND] overspend is sitting there and has not been sorted.”

She was in “absolute support that there has to be more work done to control spending and to create a sustainable budget in future years” but believes there is a “lack of appreciation” of under-funding from central government.

In response, chief executive Donna Manson said a first formal meeting with government civil servants will take place about the overspend next week.

Cabinet member for children’s services, Cllr Andrew Leadbetter (Conservative, Wearside & Topsham) added he didn’t share the “pessimism” of the two opposition leaders and is “confident” a solution will be found.

An East Devon seaside town has reached “saturation point” with homes for older people at a point where it’s not “economically sustainable.” Plans for a new block of retirement apartments in the centre of Exmouth were thrown out by councillors, who argued more homes need to be built with younger people in mind.

Ollie Heptinstall www.devonlive.com

Churchill Retirement Living had applied to build 54 retirement apartments along with six retirement cottages, communal facilities, car parking, landscaping, and commercial space on the site of builders’ merchants Jewson on Fore Street. East Devon District Council planning officers recommended approval, deciding it would be “sustainable development” and help improve housing supply.

But the majority of the planning committee members voted against the plans due to the lack of a “mixed balance” of properties, a loss of employment land, and because the site hasn’t been marketed for the required time of at least a year. The committee’s decision came after several objections were heard at the meeting, including from Exmouth Town Council.

It raised concerns about the loss of employment land, perceived “overdevelopment,” and criticism about more housing exclusively for elderly residents. “It puts a very particular type of development – retirement properties – in an area awash with them when we’re in desperate need of affordable homes for young families and couples,” a statement from the council said.

Speaking in favour on behalf of the applicant, Rosie Roome claimed there was a “clear local need” for such a development, stating: “Retirement housing is not for everyone, but it is important to provide choice within the housing market.”

She added: “The proposal will have benefits throughout the whole housing market; freeing up larger properties for families which in turn frees up homes for first-time buyers.

“The proposal will create new jobs on site. There will also be an increase in local spending in the town centre as residents will be basket shoppers and use the services and facilities during the week when they are quietest.”

Ms Roome revealed there would be “no loss of employment” from the current Jewson store, with all staff transferred to nearby Withycombe Road. However, East Devon’s economic development officer Tom Winters told the meeting there will be “more economic harm than benefit deriving from this particular application.”

He explained there is a “chronic lack” of employment land in East Devon, while the district is “currently losing many employers because they cannot find sufficient space.” And whilst it was estimated the application would lead to 12 jobs on the site, Mr Winters believed guidance suggested “23 jobs is the right amount of jobs which should be accommodated at this type of site for this type of use.”

He added East Devon has the third highest proportion of pensioners of any local authority in the country. “That’s not economically sustainable.”

A number of councillors then criticised the plan, including Councillor Olly Davey (Green, Exmouth Town). “The local plan says there is a need for balanced communities, securing employment provision, reducing the need for commuting, and encouraging development for younger people and families.

“Well, Exmouth already has a high proportion of older people,” he said, adding: “I think a better use could be found for this site. A better use would be a mixed residential and commercial – say an office development.”

Cllr Davey also believed the level of developer contributions was lower than it should have been.

Meanwhile, Cllr Brian Bailey (Conservative, Littleham) said: “Exmouth is in a situation where we’re all getting older. The population in Exmouth is getting older and older on a daily basis.

“We have a housing need in Exmouth for one- and two-bedroom flats and houses,” he added. “We need those types of housing. Why are we getting this? We don’t need this. There is no demand for this.”

This was further echoed by Cllr Steve Gazzard (Lib Dem, Withycombe Raleigh). “Do we need any more [retirement homes]?” he asked. “I don’t think we do. I think we’ve got to what I would call saturation point in Exmouth for these types of developments.”

The committee rejected the plan by a margin of six votes to one, with three abstentions.

OF COURSE IT’S HIM: Three separate figures have confirmed to Playbook that the mystery “erudite new columnist” trailed on the front of today’s Mail is, of course, of course, the new Steward of the Chiltern Hundreds, aka Boris Johnson. One of Playbook’s moles says he’s on a “very high six-figure sum” to pen what will be a weekly column.

www.politico.eu 

Artificial intelligence will be used in south-west England to predict pollution before it happens and help prevent it.

By Jonah Fisher www.bbc.co.uk 

It’s hoped the pilot project in Devon will help improve water quality at the seaside resort of Combe Martin, making it a better place for swimming.

Sensors placed in rivers and fields will build a picture of the state of local rivers, rainfall and soil.

AI will then combine that data with satellite imagery of local land use.

It will predict when the local river system is most vulnerable to things like agricultural runoff, allowing for measures such as asking farms to hold off on applying fertiliser.

Computer systems company CGI is running the artificial intelligence project with mapping experts Ordnance Survey. CGI said it was more than 90% accurate during a test run.

It’s being trialled in what’s known as the North Devon Biosphere Reserve, a 55-sq-mile (142-sq-km) protected area that includes important natural habitats as well as farmland and small towns.

“We’ll give (the AI) the history,” said CGI’s chief sustainability officer Mattie Yeta. “We’ll give it all of the geographic information, as well as data sets from the sensors for it to learn and develop the predictive mechanisms to be able to inform where these incidents are occurring and indeed when they will take place.”

It’s hoped the project could clean up the seaside resort town of Combe Martin, where the quality of bathing water has long been a concern.

“It’s always been bumping along the bottom in terms of water quality,” says Andy Bell from the North Devon Biosphere Reserve.

Though the water at Combe Martin was last year rated by the Environment Agency as ‘good’, Mr Bell says that was mainly down to dry weather. More typical years, he says, were 2018 and 2019 when it received a ‘poor’ rating, which meant a notice being posted advising people not to swim.

“There is very much a fear in the community of what would happen if the bathing water status was rescinded.” Andy says

“It would impact on the cafes, the restaurants, the B&B’s… people want to come to a clean place to enjoy themselves.”

The River Umber is the main culprit, according to Mr Bell. It reaches the sea through a corridor of lush green algae on the edge of the beach. The Umber is usually little more than a stream but it receives discharges both from a sewage treatment plant and agricultural runoff from farms.

Cleaning up the Umber is seen as a first step towards improving the water quality on the beach and the key to that, according to the artificial intelligence project, is a huge amount of real-time information.

A couple of kilometres upstream from Combe Martin beach, a floating water sensor is being installed in the river. It’s a square black box with solar panels on top and is moored by a cable to the bank.

It automatically transmits a stream of data on six key indicators of water health including acidity (pH), ammonia, the amount of dissolved oxygen in the water and how clear the water is (turbidity).

“It’s a really good overview of water quality,” said Glyn Cotton, the chief executive of environment-focussed technology company Watr, which is supplying the £2,000-a-go ($2,557) sensors to the project.

“If sewage was being discharged upstream we would see spikes in things like ammonia and pH and we can then cross-reference that with temperature and dissolved oxygen levels.”

About 50 connected sensors are being used across the catchment area, a mix of water, soil and rain gauges. Mapping company Ordnance Survey are providing the expertise to integrate that information with location specific data and satellite imagery.

Mapping experts Ordnance Survey are helping integrate the sensors with satellite imagery in the AI model Image source, Ordnance Survey

“We can start training the model using data to get it understanding that when there was a pollution event – whether it was associated with a particular area?” said Donna Lyndsay from Ordnance Survey. “Was there for example a particular rainfall event that washed it all off?”

The hope is that the AI might, for example, advise a farmer to stop putting more fertiliser on his field, if the soil is dry and heavy rain forecast because of the likelihood of it being washed into the waterways.

Preventing raw sewage being discharged by water treatment plants – a practice allowed when heavy rainfall overwhelms facilities – is more complicated. The AI might see it coming after heavy rainfall but that doesn’t mean the water company has the capacity to stopped it being released.

The first phase of the AI project was a desk-based model using historic data, with CGI saying it predicted pollution events with 91.5% accuracy. Now the AI model is being unleashed ‘in the wild’ and the question is whether it can do the same.

“We’re starting very small here (in North Devon) … but the idea is very much to scale up and roll this out to different parts of the UK.” said CGI’s Mattie Yeta.

Snouts still in troughs – Owl

Downing Street has rejected calls to strip Boris Johnson of the £115,000 a year expense allowance given to former prime ministers – after an inquiry found he had repeatedly misled parliament.

Jon Stone www.independent.co.uk 

The ex prime minister is facing a ban from holding a parliamentary security pass after a devastating cross-party committee blasted his handling of the Partygate scandal.

But there are now calls that Mr Johnson should be stripped of the other trappings of office, including generous lifetime expenses and gongs for his allies and cronies.

Under rules, former prime ministers are entitled to claim the Public Duty Costs Allowance of up to £115,000 a year, for life, for the “necessary office costs and secretarial costs arising from their special position in public life”.

The system was established after Margaret Thatcher resigned and it currently pays out more than half a million pounds a year on total to former PMs.

In 2020/21 both Tony Blair and John Major claimed the full £115,000 for their work, with Gordon Brown and David Cameron claiming slightly under. Theresa May was an outlier and claimed just £57,832.

“Rishi Sunak must cut off Johnson’s ex-Prime Minister allowance to stop him milking the public purse for his own personal gain,” said Daisy Cooper, deputy leader of the Liberal Democrats.

“Anything less would be an insult to bereaved families who suffered while Boris Johnson lied and partied.”

The senior MP said the report “should be the final nail in the coffin for Boris Johnson’s political career”, branding him “a law-breaker and serial liar, who treated the public and Parliament with total disdain”.

But asked whether the allowance should be rescinded from Mr Johnson, Rishi Sunak’s official spokesman told reporters:

“I’m not aware of any plans to do that.These arrangements are fairly long-standing – it’s not a personal salary or allowance, it’s the reimbursement of expenses for office and secretarial costs.”

No 10 also rejected suggestions that Mr Johnson’s resignation honours list should be rescinded, as called for by some opposition politicians.

“When it comes to honours, that’s a long-standing convention, the Prime Minister has abided by convention, that’s not going to change.”

There are also “no plans” to recoup the cost of Mr Johnson’s publicly-funded legal fees for the inquiry, the spokesperson said.

As well as the secretarial allowance, former prime ministers also continue to receive security protection after they leave office.

And like ministers, PMs are entitled to a severance payment of 25 per cent of their annual salary if they hold office and are not appointed within three weeks. Mr Johnson was entitled to a severance payment of £18,860, according to the Istitute for Government think-tank.

Polling conducted on Thursday by Savanta found that two thirds (66 per cent) of voters agree with the privilege’s committee report’s conclusion that he deliberately misled the House of Commons, with just 19 per cent believing he did not.

The vote to accept and approve the “House of Commons Committee of Privileges: Matter referred on 21 April 2022 (conduct of Rt Hon Boris Johnson): Final Report”, takes place on Monday. 

The report is forensic and worth a read.

It will be a free vote and already there is much press speculation on how many Tories will find it politic to be absent. 

Supporters of Boris Johnson have vowed to target Conservative members of the privileges committee and Tory MPs who endorse its findings for deselection. They are likely to be very vociferous over the weekend.

For example, Boris Johnson describes the findings as follows:

“The committee now says that I deliberately misled the House, and at the moment I spoke I was consciously concealing from the House my knowledge of illicit events.

This is rubbish. It is a lie. In order to reach this deranged conclusion, the Committee is obliged to say a series of things that are patently absurd, or contradicted by the facts.”

Though a small proportion of the electorate, the influence of Party Members is disproportionate to their number.

It was the membership who chose both Boris Johnson and Liz Truss. So any Conservative voting to approve the report risks upsetting diehard party members, maybe face deselection.

Not voting will send a strong signal to the electorate at large that such an MP is not prepared to “move on”.

Simon Jupp has been a PPS under both Boris and Truss. We wait to see which way he jumps.  

The BBC even  speculates on whether Rishi Sunak will attend. 

That’s the Prime Minister who promised that his government will have integrity, professionalism and accountability at every level.

The council ran up a £500m deficit after gambling hundreds of millions of pounds on risky commercial investments and declared effective bankruptcy in December.

Anyone spot any familiar themes in the official findings? – Owl

Thurrock Council Best Value Inspection Report (extract from “Our Findings”)

“Our inspection has found that Thurrock Council has experienced repeated failures both in the delivery of its investment strategy, and in the delivery of major infrastructure and regeneration projects. These failures have resulted in the loss of substantial sums of public money. When initially faced with these failures, members and senior officers within the Council have attempted to conceal bad news and avoid public scrutiny.

This pattern of failure, and the nature of the Council’s response, has been enabled by dereliction in political and managerial leadership, inadequate governance arrangements and serious weaknesses in internal control. 

The Council’s lack of openness and transparency has given rise to a culture of insularity and complacency. Internal challenge has been discouraged, and external criticism and challenge have been routinely dismissed. This has undermined the Council’s ability to learn from others and from its own previous mistakes. It has placed the Council in a state of ‘unconscious incompetence’ and has undermined its ability to secure continuous improvement. Thurrock Council has, therefore, failed to meet the ‘Best Value Duty’ placed on all local authorities. 

Urgent change is required. The scale of the financial challenge now facing the Council means it is inevitable that, in addition to making extensive efficiency savings, the Council will have to undertake a significant and rapid reduction in the scope of local services. Many services, which have been relatively well funded over the past decade may, as a consequence, be equipped to do little more than the statutory minimum for the foreseeable future. Leading this transformation will be a hugely difficult task, not least because the Council does not have a good record in delivering major projects. This transformation will need to be effectively managed at both the corporate and service level if the Council is to avoid serious operational failures.“

Southern Water is refusing demands by the information watchdog to publish internal communications between board members relating to discussions about raw sewage discharges.

Not much transparency here – owl

Sandra Laville www.theguardian.com 

The company, which was fined £90m in 2021 for discharging billions of litres of raw sewage into protected coastal waters, was ordered to publish 53 documents by the information commissioner at the end of last year because of the “substantial and weighty public interest”.

But the company said they contained “sensitive” internal decision-making processes on a live issue relating to sewage discharges, and has refused to release them. Seven months on from the information commissioner’s order to publish, Southern is taking the case to the first-tier tribunal to appeal against the ruling and to keep the documents secret.

First reported in Private Eye, the 53 documents relate to discussion at board level in 2020 and 2021, including agendas and minutes of meetings of the board discussing sewage spills or storm overflows.

Ofwat, the industry’s regulator, has promised to apply new scrutiny to the boardrooms of water companies.

Southern has tried to cite exceptions under the environmental information request (EIR) rules to defend its decision not to release the documents. But the information commissioner has said the exceptions largely do not apply and there is a public interest in releasing the documents.

The company argued that the documents should remain secret because of “the need to protect Southern Water’s internal processes of deliberation and decision-making and with regard to the sensitivity of the information and the circumstances surrounding the request”. The company said the request for the documents on sewage spills or overflows in 2020-2021 related to live issues and should not be published.

But the commissioner said the public interest favoured disclosing the information, and said there was even greater public interest because the company had pleaded guilty in July 2021 to 51 individual offences of discharging sewage illegally. Evidence presented showed the company had presented a picture of compliance to regulators that was deliberately misleading.

“Set against this backdrop, the commissioner considers that there is a substantial and weighty public interest in understanding what measures the public authority was taking, during the period covered by the request, to improve its performance and put measures in place to prevent a recurrence of the offences,” the information commissioner has said.

Ed Acteson, of the campaign group SOS Whitstable, said: “Southern is repeatedly saying it is going to be more transparent but we are just not sure that is the case.”

He said data on the company’s Beachbuoy app had recently been changed to make it more difficult for the public to see where raw sewage discharges were taking place or their impact.

Last year Southern was accused of “environmental vandalism” after discharging raw sewage for more than 3,700 hours at 83 bathing water beaches during the first eight days of November alone.

The information commissioner said the company operated a monopoly and if customers were dissatisfied with the way wastewater was being handled, they did not have the right to ask another company to handle it instead.

“One of the few powers consumers do have, is to make use of the EIR to seek environmental information such as this and use that information to hold the public authority to account, the information commissioner said.

Southern Water said as there was a court process under way it could not comment.

Furious Boris Johnson Accuses ‘Deranged’ Privileges Committee Of Lying

Furious Boris Johnson has lashed out at the “deranged” findings of the partygate probe which found he misled parliament.

Sophia Sleigh www.huffingtonpost.co.uk  (Full 1,700 word rant published in the Telegraph – owl)

A crossbench group of MPs, on the privileges committee, concluded the former prime minister made “repeated contempts” of parliament with his partygate denials.

Their report published on Thursday morning said his actions warranted a 90-day suspension.

It would have paved the way for a by-election for the former prime minister if he had not resigned ahead of the publication.

Johnson quit the Commons last week after reading the report’s findings.

But he issued a blistering statement as the report was published, hitting out at what called a “deranged conclusion”.

Johnson called the committee led by Labour veteran Harriet Harman “beneath contempt” and claimed its investigation had delivered “what is intended to be the final knife-thrust in a protracted political assassination”.

He said: “The committee now says that I deliberately misled the house, and at the moment I spoke I was consciously concealing from the house my knowledge of illicit events.

“This is rubbish. It is a lie. In order to reach this deranged conclusion, the committee is obliged to say a series of things that are patently absurd, or contradicted by the facts.”

Johnson argued that the police investigated his role in events highlighted by the panel, adding: “In no case did they find that what I had done was unlawful.”

The outgoing MP also said Downing Street did not believe that what they were doing was wrong, adding: “After a year of work the privileges committee has found not a shred of evidence that we did.”

He also took aim at Tory MP on the committee Sir Bernard Jenkin who has been accused of attending a gathering during covid rules.

“The hypocrisy is rank,” Johnson said. “Like Harriet Harman, he should have recused himself from the inquiry, since he is plainly conflicted.”

During his lengthy statement, Johnson claimed the “craziest assertion” was their “Mystic Meg claim” that he saw a December 18 event with his own eyes.

He goes on to describe the report as a “charade” and that it marked a “dreadful day” for MPs and for democracy.

“For the privileges committee to use its prerogatives in this anti-democratic way, to bring about what is intended to be the final knife-thrust in a protracted political assassination – that is beneath contempt.”

The MPs recommended that Johnson should not be given a former member’s pass, which would grant him access to the parliamentary estate.

“We have concluded above that in deliberately misleading the House Mr Johnson committed a serious contempt,” the MPs said.

“The contempt was all the more serious because it was committed by the prime minister, the most senior member of the government.

“There is no precedent for a prime minister having been found to have deliberately misled the House.

“He misled the House on an issue of the greatest importance to the House and to the public, and did so repeatedly.

“He declined our invitation to reconsider his assertions that what he said to the House was truthful.

“His defence to the allegation that he misled was an ex post facto justification and no more than an artifice. He misled the committee in the presentation of his evidence.”

“The question which the house asked the committee is whether the house had been misled by Mr Johnson and, if so, whether that conduct amounted to contempt. It is for the house to decide whether it agrees with the committee. The house as a whole makes that decision. Motions arising from reports from this committee are debatable and amendable. The committee had provisionally concluded that Mr Johnson deliberately misled the house and should be sanctioned for it by being suspended for a period that would trigger the provisions of the Recall of MPs Act 2015. In light of Mr Johnson’s conduct in committing a further contempt on 9 June 2023, the committee now considers that if Mr Johnson were still a member he should be suspended from the service of the House for 90 days for repeated contempts and for seeking to undermine the parliamentary process, by:

a) Deliberately misleading the house.

b) Deliberately misleading the committee.

c) Breaching confidence.

d) Impugning the committee and thereby undermining the democratic process of the house.

e) Being complicit in the campaign of abuse and attempted intimidation of the committee.

We recommend that he should not be entitled to a former member’s pass.”

House of Commons Committee of Privileges: Matter referred on 21 April 2022 (conduct of Rt Hon Boris Johnson): Final Report. Ordered by the House of Commons to be printed 15 June 2023

Emotional appeals have been made to stop potential cuts to adult services by Devon County Council.

Ollie Heptinstall, local democracy reporter www.radioexe.co.uk

The local authority has consulted on plans to withdraw a number of services across adult social care, including stopping £1.5 million being spent on preventing homelessness and closing its North Devon mental health and wellbeing service.

It could also close a respite service for people with learning difficulties in East Devon, seven learning disability and older persons day services, and stop its funding contribution towards a scheme called Wellbeing Exeter.

The council says no decisions have yet been taken but it needs to “prioritise spending on our statutory responsibilities” as part of savings of around £45 million.

Final proposals are expected to come before Devon’s ruling cabinet for a decision in mid-July, but the council’s health and adult care scrutiny committee has agreed to hold a special meeting before then to look at the plans.

It comes after hundreds of consultation respondents criticised the potential cuts. On Tuesday [13 June] the committee heard from several public speakers – including heads of local homeless charities – urging councillors to think again.

Peter Stephenson, head of St Petrock’s, a charity in Exeter, said: “Instead of enabling people to live in a place they call home, ending this funding will render some of the most vulnerable and traumatised people in our county homeless, without any real hope they will ever be able to access shelter, let alone a home.

“The numbers of vulnerable adults sleeping rough will rocket, making the government’s commitment to end rough sleeping by next year completely unattainable.”

Mr Stephenson described the consultation as “half-baked at best, with almost no effort to make the public aware it was even taking place … Despite this, the people of Devon have spoken. They recognise the dangerous injustice of this proposal and the 990 responses were almost entirely opposed [to the council’s proposals].”

He called on the committee to ask Devon’s ruling cabinet to scrap the proposed homeless budget cut “for the sake of basic humanity and democratic accountability.”

Si Johns, joint CEO of YMCA Exeter, also criticised the consultation process. He said the council had posted more times on social media about a cycle path consultation and claimed that both service users and homeless people weren’t properly consulted.

He added the scrutiny committee was being “bypassed” with no firm proposals on the table before they’re due to be decided by Devon’s ruling cabinet in mid-July.

“Aren’t you meant to see what is being recommended and scrutinise it?” he asked. “Maybe tweak a proposal or two before it goes on. Aren’t you meant to scrutinise the recommendations on health and adult care, as the health and adult care scrutiny committee?”

Meanwhile, on the future of the North Devon mental health centres, which provide day services and drop-in sessions, one public speaker warned their closure would lead to a “large increase in mental health related emergencies,” as well as “self-harm and suicides.”

And, in a tearful address to the committee, a user of the service said they had been made to feel like “second-class citizens,” adding: “This should be about lives, not money.”

“We have the right to preventative care,” they said. “The link centre often prevents escalations to a mental health crisis.

“Please treat us with respect and dignity. We are not stupid. We are intelligent people. This is going to detrimentally affect service users and our families.

“So, please don’t close our support network. Save the links. Save our lives.”

Several members of the committee then criticised the potential impact of the cuts, and why it had no formal proposals to scrutinise. Councillors subsequently voted for a special meeting once plans had been drawn up, so it could look at them before July’s cabinet meeting.

In a statement, Councillor James McInnes (Conservative, Hatherleigh & Chagford), cabinet member for adult social care, said: “I would personally like to thank everyone who has responded to our consultations. No decisions have been made and won’t be until we have fully analysed all the feedback.

“These are challenging times, and I do not for one moment underestimate the impact of these proposals.

“I said at the very start of these consultations that these are the difficult decisions a council has to make. We have a duty to deliver the best value out of every pound we spend; to make sure services are as effective as possible; and that they are services people want to use.  Never has that been more important than now, amid rising costs and increasing demand for our adult social care services.

“And having put forward these proposals, it is only right now that we take this time to fully consider all the responses we’ve received before reaching our decisions at our cabinet meeting in July.”