Grenfell costs hit half a billion
Nearly four years since the Grenfell catastrophe, the public costs have surpassed £500 million following the announcement that the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea had spent £406 million on its response and recovery work.
Britain to host global LGBT rights conference
Next year, the first-ever worldwide conference on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights is to be held in Britain. Meanwhile the Tory government has yet to accomplish its promises to the global 42-country Equal Rights Coalition. Coinciding with the 50th anniversary of the first authorised London Pride marches, the “Safe to Be Me” event is anticipated to be the biggest of its kind and will encourage international and domestic elected officials, campaigners and policymakers to take part in London over two days in June 2022.
Special Educational Needs and Disabled (SEND) children robbed of support
Spending cuts and service reviews are being outlined as a result of a funding shortage of over half a billion pounds for educating children with special needs, across councils in England. Due to a government ruling, local authorities are not permitted to employ other reserves to boost funds for the special educational needs and disabilities (Send) system, leaving families anxious that their loved ones could lose support to ensure gaping historical shortfalls are cleared.
Missed Clare’s Law deadlines put women at risk
Nearly 25% of applications for background checks accepted last year by the police took longer than a month to reveal information about the criminal histories of suspected abusers. Under Clare’s Law, implemented in 2014, people have the “right to ask” police about any past domestic violence or offences that mean their partners could be a potential risk to them.
Will the Domestic Abuse Bill keep women safe?
Between 2009 and 2018, 272 young women aged 14 to 25 were killed. In many of these cases, stalking, coercive control, the influence of pornography and the men’s failure to cope with rejection helped lead to the death of the women and girls. Half of the 272 killings were labelled “overkills” due to the excessive violence committed.
Home Office undermines investigations into deaths in detention
Amid the renewed onslaught against asylum seekers and immigrants, new claims have emerged that suggest many potential key witnesses to deaths in detention have been deliberately deported, preventing them from giving evidence in inquests. Furthermore, the Home Secretary, Priti Patel, has ignored the concerns from a coroner, voiced last year, that the actions of the Home Office could have impaired investigations.
Tory Party & David Cameron face corruption scandal
At the behest of Lex Greensill, a disreputable financier at the helm of a now collapsed firm, it has been revealed that David Cameron lobbied a senior Downing Street aide and the Health Secretary, Matt Hancock. Following the Treasury’s renunciation of Cameron’s efforts to assure the company access to a Covid emergency loan scheme, Cameron contacted a No 10 adviser, illustrating the exhaustive attempts the former prime minister was willing to use to guarantee political connections for Greensill Capital, which employed him as an adviser.
Sharp increase in modern slavery during the pandemic
Amid the pandemic, reports of sexual and criminal exploitation have severely increased, as stated in new figures calculating the extent of modern slavery and trafficking in the UK. Compared with the preceding year, cases of sexual exploitation, which includes people held captive in brothels and those strong-armed into prostitution, increased by a quarter in 2020. Almost a quarter of cases concerned children.
Home Office scheme to deport non-UK rough sleepers relaunched
A contentious program that employs councils and homelessness charities to glean personal data has been quietly reinstituted by the Home Office, potentially causing the deportation of non-UK rough sleepers. Since the relaunch six months ago, two charities and six councils have enrolled in the scheme, as reported by Liberty Investigates, a journalism group of the human rights organisation Liberty.
Vulnerable families facing further devastation
Current research has revealed an increase in the use of food banks in more than nine out of 10 district councils and a rise in family disputes necessitating mediation in two-thirds of the district councils across England, exposing the additional burdens families have endured since the start of the pandemic.
