The comments made by Sadiq Khan, the Mayor of London, on 3 January 2022.
A message to those who are yet to have the COVID-19 vaccine:
It’s not too late to change your mind, and you will not be judged. There are hundreds of places across the city where you can get your first dose at a time that suits you.
Get protected. Get vaccinated.
The post on Twitter made by Emily Thornberry, the Shadow Attorney General, on 3 January 2022.
I predict today’s Sunday Times story by @Gabriel_Pogrund won’t be the last time Liz Truss gets in trouble asking the taxpayer to foot the bill for her expensive tastes. She had a bit of form during her time as Trade Secretary. Let me take you through another example.
Back in December 2020, Truss and 3 staff went on a four-night trip to Singapore and Vietnam to sign the cut-and-paste rollover agreements to maintain free trade post-Brexit. After details of the visit were published on 7th May 2021, I asked how much it had all cost.
This was the first answer I got back, which was odd. If the only costs for the travelling party were flights and accommodation, who had paid for their meals and drinks? And why hadn’t that hospitality been declared? So my office put in an FOI on 1st June to ask them.
We got the usual delaying tactics on the FOI. First, they said they’d respond by 27th July. Then they pushed it back again to 24th August. But before then, on 5th August, I got this email providing a ‘corrected answer’ to my original PQ. Can you spot the corrections!?
How did they go from saying there were no subsistence expenses at all, to saying the travelling party incurred expenses of £1,000 per head, equivalent to £250 per night? And why did the cost of the accommodation go up £1,640 from the first answer to the second?
I never got answers to those questions, and some will say it doesn’t matter. But this is about character, and if Truss’s natural instinct is to hide the truth and hope no-one asks questions when it comes to small things, don’t be surprised when she does it about big things.
The comments made by Steve Barclay, the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, on 3 January 2022.
As people return to work following the Christmas break, the high transmissibility levels of Omicron mean business and public services will face disruption in the coming weeks, particularly from higher than normal staff absence.
We have been working through the Christmas period to prepare where possible for this, with all departments liaising closely with public and private sector leaders who are best placed to operationally manage their workforces.
The best way to combat Omicron is to get boosted and I encourage anyone who is eligible to get boosted now.
The comments made by Nadhim Zahawi, the then Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Children and Families, on 29 March 2018.
We want every child to have the support they need to unlock their potential, whatever their background and no matter what challenges they face. Our new Education, Health and Care Plans are putting the views of young people with special educational needs and disabilities and their families at the heart of the process so they can help shape the support they receive.
It’s been a huge task to transfer every young person to one of these plans but local authorities have risen to the challenge with almost 222,000 cases reviewed and I congratulate them for it. We are now working with councils to make sure they carry out the remaining reviews and the new EHC plans are of the highest quality.
To complement this work we are also opening new special free schools across the country that will provide tailored support for over a thousand children to ensure they have access to the excellent education that every child deserves.
The comments made by Nadhim Zahawi, the then Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Children and Families, on 15 March 2018.
Social workers do an incredible job providing some of our most vulnerable children in our society with life-changing care and support.
This investment for our Partners in Practice Programme will help the fantastic work councils are doing to deliver high-quality services and make a real difference to children’s lives.
I am also pleased to support the Local Government Association to drive good leadership, which is crucial if we want to support and encourage frontline staff to deliver excellent care for children and young people.
The comments made by Nadhim Zahawi, the then Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Children and Families, on 5 March 2018.
We owe a huge debt of gratitude to the social workers and other professionals who support the most vulnerable in our society, especially those who have been victims of abuse.
The response to this consultation shows the strength of feeling among the sector on this extremely important issue, and it’s vital that we work directly with people on the ground, supporting them to carry out their work sensitively and efficiently.
Decisions we make as a government should be with the ambition of improving outcomes for as many in society as possible, which is why we must listen to the views and experience of the sector as we progress further with our reform agenda.
The comments made by Nadhim Zahawi, the then Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Children and Families, on 7 February 2018.
Academic standards are rising, with 1.9 million more children now in ‘good’ or ‘outstanding’ schools than in 2010 and 9 out of 10 schools given this rating at their latest inspection.
It is right that we must continue to offer the most disadvantaged young people additional help and I am pleased that, following public consultations, we can extend free school meals and the free early education entitlement for disadvantaged two-year-olds.
Tens of thousands more children will be entitled to free school meals by 2022 compared to the previous benefits system.
I’d like to thank everyone who responded to these consultations; their views will help to ensure every child can access a world-class education and the support reaches those that need it most.
The comments made by Nadhim Zahawi, the then Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Children and Families, on 6 February 2018.
We welcome this thorough and insightful report into the fostering system, which first and foremost is about identifying and addressing the needs of children in foster care.
The report gives us an opportunity to celebrate foster care and to recognise the invaluable role foster parents play in the lives of vulnerable children. We are committed to supporting them in this role, and that’s why we recently announced that we will extend our 30-hour childcare offer to foster children to provide extra help for foster parents.
We will carefully consider the review’s recommendations, alongside those from the Education Select Committee, over the coming months to determine how they can help us to make sustainable improvements to the fostering system and to the outcomes for looked after children.
The comments made by Sajid Javid, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, on 2 January 2022.
The COVID-19 pandemic has been one of the biggest challenges our health service has ever faced and our historic vaccination programme has been vital in helping us step up to meet this challenge.
132 million vaccinations in a single year is astounding and a true reflection of the fantastic work of our NHS and its volunteers – I want to thank each and every one of them.
But we need to make sure people continue to come forward for their life saving jab. As we go into the New Year, make sure you Get Boosted Now to kick off 2022 with the best possible protection from Omicron.
The comments made by David Lammy, the Shadow Foreign Secretary, on 1 January 2022.
This New Year let’s save New Beacon Bookshop. The UK’s first specialist black bookshop, it would be a tragedy if it had to close after 55 years. A loss not just for the black community but our countries collective history. Independent bookshops are vital.
