DOCSLIB.ORG

Whole Day Download the Hansard

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Whole Day Download the Hansard Tuesday Volume 639 24 April 2018 No. 126 HOUSE OF COMMONS OFFICIAL REPORT PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES (HANSARD) Tuesday 24 April 2018 © Parliamentary Copyright House of Commons 2018 This publication may be reproduced under the terms of the Open Parliament licence, which is published at www.parliament.uk/site-information/copyright/. 713 24 APRIL 2018 714 Richard Burgon (Leeds East) (Lab): Thousands of House of Commons key court staff were axed, but the Government are now spending tens of millions of pounds more on contracting agency staff. More than 100 courts were sold off, each Tuesday 24 April 2018 raising not much more than the average house price. Now the Secretary of State has appointed someone The House met at half-past Eleven o’clock with a slash-and-burn record as the new chair of the HMCTS board, telling the press that Tim Parker’s PRAYERS “expertise will be vital as we deliver our reform and modernisation of the courts”. [MR SPEAKER in the Chair] To allay concerns that Mr Parker has been appointed for his toughness on cuts, can the Minister outline the specific expertise that Mr Parker has in working in our Oral Answers to Questions court system? Lucy Frazer: The hon. Gentleman makes a number of points that I would like to refute, but I will mainly JUSTICE concentrate on two. It is important that where successful people in business put themselves forward for public The Secretary of State was asked— service, we should welcome them and not put off Court Closures experienced people from taking up important posts. Mr Parker has been successful in the businesses that he 1. Mohammad Yasin (Bedford) (Lab): What assessment operated and has operated them appropriately, and we his Department has made of the effect of court closures welcome him to his post. The hon. Gentleman also on access to justice. [904894] talks about cuts to our system. I would like to make it clear that the Ministry of Justice is proposing an extensive The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Justice reform programme, which will put £1 billion into our (Lucy Frazer): We are looking at ways to improve our courts service. justice system and to modernise the delivery of justice in many ways, including with technology.In circumstances Mr Philip Hollobone (Kettering) (Con): Benefit applicants where 41% of tribunals were used at half their capacity in Kettering tell me that they are now having to wait a in 2016-17, it is right that we consider whether spending completely unacceptable 45 weeks for tribunal appeal money on the physical estate is the best use of money. hearings due to a lack of a suitable location. Will the Minister look into that as a matter of urgency and get Mohammad Yasin: The Government like to say that that problem fixed? they have reallocated court services rather than closed them, but Bedford has lost its magistrates court and Lucy Frazer: It is very important that when cases are employment tribunal court, so the public and lay members started, they are heard expediently, so that people are must travel more than 30 miles to access justice. Can the not prejudiced and do not have to wait for justice. I am Minister reassure me that family court services, which happy to meet my hon. Friend to talk about those are heard in the highly utilised Shire Hall, will remain issues. in Bedford indefinitely? Community Sentences Lucy Frazer: The hon. Gentleman is right in relation to the changes taking place in Bedford to a certain 2. Carol Monaghan (Glasgow North West) (SNP): extent, but I emphasise that the closure of the tribunal What recent assessment he has made of the effectiveness court is nothing to do with any changes being made by of community sentences on reducing reoffending rates. the Ministry of Justice or Her Majesty’s Courts and [904895] Tribunals Service. The tribunal service is closing because the landlord did not extend the lease, and it was a The Minister of State, Ministry of Justice (Rory decision of listing, which is a judicial capacity, to move Stewart): This is something the Department studied in the tribunal court’s hearings elsewhere. Civil cases will detail in 2015, and we have conclusive evidence that be heard in Bedford magistrates court, and until another giving somebody a community sentence rather than location is found, it will not close. a short custodial sentence reduces reoffending over a Kevin Hollinrake (Thirsk and Malton) (Con): one-year period. Northallerton magistrates court in my constituency is scheduled for closure. Will the Minister consider using Carol Monaghan: We have evidence of that in Scotland that court as a pilot for some of the future technology as well. The Scottish Government’s move towards solutions, to ensure that those are workable in practice, community payback orders has helped Scotland to before the closure is implemented? achieve its current 18-year low in reoffending. Is the Minister looking to the Scottish Government’s example Lucy Frazer: My hon. Friend makes a valid point, as and considering how they have managed to achieve has his neighbour, my hon. Friend the Member for these figures? Richmond (Yorks) (Rishi Sunak). I have met them both and the police and crime commissioner for the area. It is Rory Stewart: Absolutely. We have a lot to learn from important to consider the appropriateness of pilots for Scotland, specifically on community sentences, and indeed mobile technology, and we will do so. we will be looking at what more we can do to emphasise 715 Oral Answers 24 APRIL 2018 Oral Answers 716 that a custodial sentence in the short term should be a Alan Mak: I thank my right hon. Friend for his final resort. In reoffending terms, it is often much better answer. Will he update the House on the progress being for somebody to be given a community sentence. made towards the new key worker model and the impact it is having on prison officer recruitment? Derek Thomas (St Ives) (Con): In Cornwall, I work closely with Konnect Cornwall, headed up by Ian Curnow, Mr Gauke: My hon. Friend is absolutely right to raise which does a lot of work on behalf of the Government that point. The key worker model is crucial. It will allow and the Department for Work and Pensions to support prison officers to spend more time, both on a one-to-one ex-offenders and people who are on the way into trouble. basis and with small groups of prisoners, improving What more resources can be made available so that no staff-prisoner relationships. That can help us reduce one is left behind? both violence and reoffending. Some prisons, such as HMP Liverpool, are already running that scheme, and I Rory Stewart: A lot of this is about identifying those look forward to more prisons fully implementing that key local providers. The real challenge that we need to over the months ahead. overcome, which is true not just for justice but for local councils, is that of making sure that when we work with Luke Pollard (Plymouth, Sutton and Devonport) (Lab/ the third sector we work, not with big national providers, Co-op): Many of Dartmoor prison’s prison officers live but with small, grassroots local charities. in Plymouth and have told me of their concern that prison officer cuts, inexperienced new staff and increasing Kate Green (Stretford and Urmston) (Lab): I draw retirement ages are causing stress and concern. Can the the House’s attention to the fact that I am a life member Minister reassure me that there is a proper plan to of the Magistrates Association. In the all-party address staffing and morale in our Prison Service? parliamentary group on women in the penal system, we recently heard from the Magistrates Association that Mr Gauke: There is already a proper plan to address magistrates are not familiar with the content of community that point about staffing. That is why the numbers are penalties. That makes them reluctant to choose such going up, and that is the point I am setting out. The penalties. The issue, in part, seems to be a lack of numbers are at a five-year high. We are ahead of what funding for training. Will the Minister comment? we promised in October 2016. I am pleased that we are doing that and we will continue to recruit new prison Rory Stewart: This is a long-standing issue—it was officers—net new prison officers—into the Prison Service. true even in 2008-09—that consistently, the judiciary and magistrates have expressed concerns about community Jim Shannon (Strangford) (DUP): What additional sentences. We need to do much more to build confidence, training will these new officers be given to deal with the but the fact that this has been going on for nearly scourge of the availability of drugs in our prisons 10 years shows that it is a very challenging thing to do. throughout the United Kingdom? Training will be an important part of that. Mr Gauke: The hon. Gentleman makes an important Prison Officer Recruitment point. We are refreshing the way that training works for prison officers. It is very important that we deal with the 3. Craig Tracey (North Warwickshire) (Con): What issue of drugs, which has been a real game-changer in progress his Department is making on recruiting 2,500 new its effect on prisons. As we change and refresh our prison officers. [904896] training process, we need to ensure that new prison officers have the skills they need to deal with drugs.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Broadcast Bulletin Issue Number 59
    * Ofcom broadcast bulletin Issue number 59 2 May 2006 Ofcom broadcast bulletin 59 2 May 2006 Contents Introduction 3 Standards cases In Breach 4 Resolved 8 Not in Breach 13 Fairness and Privacy cases Upheld in Part 16 Other programmes not in breach/outside remit 33 2 Ofcom broadcast bulletin 59 2 May 2006 Introduction Ofcom’s Broadcasting Code took effect on 25 July 2005 (with the exception of Rule 10.17 which came into effect on 1 July 2005). This Code is used to assess the compliance of all programmes broadcast on or after 25 July 2005. The Broadcasting Code can be found at http://www.ofcom.org.uk/tv/ifi/codes/bcode/ The Rules on the Amount and Distribution of Advertising (RADA) apply to advertising issues within Ofcom’s remit from 25 July 2005. The Rules can be found at http://www.ofcom.org.uk/tv/ifi/codes/advertising/#content The Communications Act 2003 allowed for the codes of the legacy regulators to remain in force until such time as Ofcom developed its own Code. While Ofcom has now published its Broadcasting Code, the following legacy Codes apply to content broadcast before 25 July 2005. • Advertising and Sponsorship Code (Radio Authority) • News & Current Affairs Code and Programme Code (Radio Authority) • Code on Standards (Broadcasting Standards Commission) • Code on Fairness and Privacy (Broadcasting Standards Commission) • Programme Code (Independent Television Commission) • Programme Sponsorship Code (Independent Television Commission) • Rules on the Amount and Distribution of Advertising From time to time adjudications relating to advertising content may appear in the bulletin in relation to areas of advertising regulation which remain with Ofcom (including the application of statutory sanctions by Ofcom).
    [Show full text]
  • NIGEL FARAGE Long Serving UKIP Leader and Brexit Campaigner
    NIGEL FARAGE Long serving UKIP Leader and Brexit Campaigner Nigel Farage adalah pendiri dan pemimpin lama Partai Kemerdekaan Inggris (UKIP). Dia adalah wajah dari kampanye yang sukses untuk membawa Inggris keluar dari Uni Eropa dalam referendum Brexit 2016, memposisikan referendum sebagai awal dari gelombang populis global melawan pendirian politik. Farage telah menjadi Anggota Parlemen Eropa untuk Inggris Tenggara sejak 1999 dan menjadi ketua bersama Kelompok Kebebasan dan Demokrasi Langsung Eropa. Dia terkenal karena pidato-pidatonya yang terkadang kontroversial di Parlemen Eropa dan kritiknya yang kuat terhadap mata uang euro. Dia melakukan 7 upaya untuk menjadi Anggota Parlemen Inggris tetapi tidak pernah terpilih. Dalam Topics Pemilihan Umum pertamanya pada tahun 1995 ia menerima 1,5% suara, dalam upayanya yang terbaru dalam Pemilu 2015, ia menerima 32,4% suara. Brexit Europe Pada bulan September 2016, Farage mengundurkan diri sebagai pemimpin UKIP Government setelah 15 tahun. Menulis di The Spectator, jurnalis Rod Liddle menggambarkan Leadership Farage sebagai 'politisi Inggris paling penting dalam dekade terakhir dan paling sukses'. Farage telah menjadi "pengganggu" besar politik Inggris dan Eropa dan Motivation secara luas dikonsultasikan untuk pandangannya tentang perubahan sifat politik Politics barat. Dia terpilih untuk Person of the Year 2016 TIME Magazine, tetapi dikalahkan oleh Donald Trump. Dia memenangkan Lifetime Achievement Award di Spectator's Awards Awards 2016. Dia telah membentuk hubungan pribadi yang dekat dengan Presiden Trump setelah berbicara di rapat umum pemilihannya di Mississippi. Dia berada di peringkat kedua dalam jajak pendapat sayap kanan The Daily Telegraph Top 100 paling berpengaruh pada 2013, di belakang Perdana Menteri David Cameron, ia juga dinobatkan sebagai "Orang Inggris Tahun Ini" oleh The Times pada 2014.
    [Show full text]
  • Centre for Media Monitoring (Cfmm) Was Set up in 2018 by the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB)
    Promoting Fair And Responsible Reporting Of Muslims And Islam Submission to the IMPRESS Standards Code Review Call for Evidence March 2021 The Centre for Media Monitoring (CfMM) was set up in 2018 by the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB). Our aims are to: . Create an evidence base on how Islam and Muslims are reported in national print and broadcast media. Develop insights on potential areas of improvement through evidence-based analyses, reports, and guidelines. Advocate change through constructive engagement with key stakeholders. Empower Muslim communities to proactively engage with the media and help change the narrative. CfMM monitors and analyses thousands of articles and broadcast clips daily. Our monitoring methodology has been developed and approved by leading academics and experts in the field of corpus linguistics. CfMM is recognised as an authority in this field and a valuable resource by all stakeholders, including the media, regulators, politicians, and community organisations. CfMM works closely with editors and journalists from the national print and broadcast media to highlight inaccuracies, generalisations and misrepresentations of Muslims and Islam in the media as well as promote good practice and increase Religious Literacy. We hold roundtable discussions and ‘Meet the Media’ events between media executives and community organisations. We deliver media skills training, publish evidenced-based reports, sit on advisory boards, and make submissions to inquiries and consultations such as OFCOM’s Thematic Review of Representation and Portrayal on the BBC, the BBC’s Editorial Guidelines Consultation, the Editor’s Code Review, and the Lords Select Committee Inquiry on the Future of Journalism. CfMM was also part of IPSO’s working committee, inputting into developing guidelines for journalists on the reporting of Islam and Muslims.
    [Show full text]
  • Impartiality at the BBC? an Investigation Into the Background and Claims of Stuart Prebble's 'Independent Assessment for the BBC Trust'
    Impartiality at the BBC? An investigation into the background and claims of Stuart Prebble's 'Independent Assessment for the BBC Trust' David Keighley and Andrew Jubb April 2014 Civitas: Institute for the Study of Civil Society Impartiality at the BBC? • 1 David Keighley has worked in the media for most of his career. A graduate of Emmanuel College, Cambridge, where he worked on the university newspaper, Varsity, he was a reporter on the Wakefield Express and The Evening Gazette, Middlesbrough. He worked for the BBC for seven years, rising to become television news and current affairs television publicity officer with responsibility for all the corporation’s highest-profile programmes in that domain. He was controller of public affairs at the breakfast channel TV-am from 1985- 92, where he was in charge of all aspects of the £100m company’s public profile, including editorial compliance. From 1993 to the present, he has worked as a media business development consultant, and his clients have ranged from Reuters Television to Channel Nine, Australia. He was the originator and director of News World, the world’s first international conference for news broadcasters and founded Newswatch in 1999. Andrew Jubb read English and Media studies at Sussex University, with a strong focus on media bias, politics and representation. He has worked for Newswatch since its inception in 1999. He has overseen more than 6,000 hours of broadcast media monitoring, and conducted extended analyses of the tabloid and broadsheet press. He has co-authored more than 30 Newswatch reports and has provided statistical evidence for papers published by the CPS and Migration Watch.
    [Show full text]
  • Our Ref: MGLA260419-1320 24 May 2019 Dear Thank You for Your
    (By email) Our Ref: MGLA260419-1320 24 May 2019 Dear Thank you for your request for information which the GLA received on 25 April 2019. Your request has been dealt with under the Freedom of Information Act 2000. You asked for; I’m seeking copies of correspondence sent or received by members of the mayoral team in relation to the recent climate change protests by the activist group Extinction Rebellion. Please provide: • Copies of all relevant emails sent or received by Sadiq Khan between 14 April 2019 and 25 April 2019. • Copies of all relevant emails sent or received by Shirley Rodrigues between 14 April 2019 and 25 April 2019. To help you locate the relevant correspondence, please search these email accounts for messages sent or received between the specified dates and containing the keywords “Extinction Rebellion”, “climate”, “protest” or “protests”. Please find attached information. Please note that the emails we have located within scope of your request relating to the Mayor are from members of the public and third parties. Some of the information is therefore exempt from disclosure under s.40 (Personal information) of the Freedom of Information Act. This information could potentially identify specific employees or members of the public and as such constitutes as personal data which is defined by Article 4(1) of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) to mean any information relating to an identified or identifiable living individual. It is considered that disclosure of this information would contravene the first data protection principle under Article 5(1) of GDPR which states that Personal data must be processed lawfully, fairly and in a transparent manner in relation to the data subject.
    [Show full text]
  • Palestine News 2007 Summer
    summer07 palestine NEWS palestine NEWS £.50 / e2.00 Summer 2007 The death of democracy? THE WEST TORPEDOES PALESTINIAN HOPES Shattered INSIDE: lives Jocelyn Sheila Samia Hurndall Whittaker Glen Botmeh and Palestine Rangwala Feeding Jamila film The ’67 war Palestine Asleh festival page 4 page 8 page 2 page 26 Palestine Solidarity Campaign Box BM PSA London WC1N 3XX tel 020 7700 6192 email [email protected] web www.palestinecampaign.org 2 palestine NEWS summer07 summer07 palestine NEWS palestine NEWS £.50 / E2.00 Summer 2007 Contents 3 The shattered window of opportunity The West never gave the National Unity Government a chance, says Betty Hunter 4 Repeating a failed strategy Ali Abunimah sees historical precedents for US and Israeli policies in the Middle East 5 1967: myth and reality Glen Rangwala deconstructs the ‘official’ account of the war 6 Azmi Bishara: traitor – or democrat? The death of democracy? The campaign to silence Palestinian MKs THE WEST TORPEDOES PALESTINIAN HOPES Shattered INSIDE: lives Jocelyn Sheila Samia Hurndall Whittaker 7 Separate and unequal Glen Botmeh and Palestine Rangwala Feeding Jamila film The ’67 war Palestine Asleh festival reviews the early labour history in Palestine and Israel Marie Badarne page 4 page 8 page 2 page 26 Palestine Solidarity Campaign Box BM PSA London WC1N 3XX tel 020 7700 6192 email [email protected] web www.palestinecampaign.org Cover picture: A funeral in Gaza 8 Palestine on the breadline PHOTO: MAANIMAGES/WISSAM NassER Samia Botmeh looks at the reasons for the increasing reliance on food aid ISSN 1477 - 5808 0 Remember us Victoria Brittain revisits Palestinian camps in Lebanon Also in this issue..
    [Show full text]
  • Religious Right
    Is there a ‘Religious Right’ Emerging in Britain? Is there a ‘Religious Right’ Emerging in Britian? Andy Walton in Britian? Andy Emerging Right’ ‘Religious a Is there Recent years have seen an increasing number of This report gives a reliable overview of evidence claims that a US-style Religious Right either exists or concerning the purported rise of the Christian is rapidly emerging in Britain. This report examines Right in Britian. Drawing on new research, it profiles Is there a ‘Religious Right’ whether or not the claims are accurate. several new Christian groups. By placing them in context, it shows why rumours that an American- Superficially, it argues, the case looks quite strong: style movement is crossing the Atlantic are greatly there is evidence of greater co-ordination among exaggerated. Christian groups with a strong socially-conservative Emerging in Britain? commitment, in particular relating to human Linda Woodhead, Professor of Sociology of sexuality, marriage, family life, and religious freedom, Religion, Lancaster University about which they are vocal and often willing to resort to legal action. This is a familiar picture within US This is a measured and thoughtful piece of research, politics. contributing to a topic where there is too much heat Andy Walton and too little light in contemporary debate. It assesses However, on closer inspection, research and analysis the presence – or, rather, the current absence – of a suggest that it is highly misleading to describe this coherent ‘Religious Right’ in British politics through with phenomenon as a US-style Religious Right. For a a detailed comparison with the characteristics of the number of reasons – economic, social, ecclesiastical movement in the US.
    [Show full text]
  • Report of the Independent Review of Deaths and Serious Incidents in Police Custody
    Report of the Independent Review of Deaths and Serious Incidents in Police Custody Rt. Hon. Dame Elish Angiolini DBE QC January 2017 Contents Acknowledgments 5 Executive Summary 7 Background 7 Key findings 7 Guarding the Vulnerable 14 1. Introduction 21 Background 21 Terms of Reference 22 Families 23 Previous reports 23 Other Ongoing Reviews and Action 24 The Legal Framework 25 Trends in deaths in police custody and suicides following police custody 26 Summary 28 2. Restraint 31 Introduction 31 Mental Health and restraint 33 Positional asphyxia 35 Training 36 Length of prone restraint 37 Excited Delirium/Acute Behavioural Disturbance 38 Struggle and restraint 40 The safety officer approach 41 Alternatives to manual force 42 Transportation in police vehicles 45 Recording of police use of force 46 3. Intoxication 51 Introduction 51 Observation regimes 51 ‘Drying out’ Centres 55 Denial of healthcare to intoxicated detainees 57 Alcohol withdrawal 59 Training on intoxication 59 4. Mental Health 63 Introduction 63 Modern policing and mental health 67 The inappropriateness of police custody 68 | 1 Mental health training 69 Removing mentally ill people from the policing context 70 Arresting for criminal offences rather than section 136 of the Mental Health Act 1983 71 Detention under section 136 in the police station as a ‘place of safety’ 72 Liaison and Diversion Schemes 75 Avoiding detention under section 136 Mental Health Act 1983 76 Use of police officers to conduct restraint within mental health detention settings 77 5. Ethnicity 83 Introduction 83 Race and the investigative process 85 Stereotypical assumptions 87 Statistics on ethnicity 89 Accountability 91 6.
    [Show full text]
  • Culture Wars in the UK Media 14 3
    “Culture wars” in the UK Bobby Duffy, Kirstie Hewlett, George Murkin, Rebecca Benson, Rachel Hesketh, Ben Page, Gideon Skinner and Glenn Gottfried June 2021 Contents Executive summary 03 1. What are culture wars? 10 2. Culture wars in the UK media 14 3. Culture wars among the UK public 25 4. The four sides in the UK’s culture wars 95 5. Culture wars around the world: how countries perceive divisions 127 6. Conclusions 147 References and technical note 151 Culture wars in the UK | June 2021 2 Executive summary Executive summary The concept and language of culture wars originated in the US in the 1990s Debate about the supposed emergence of “culture wars” in the UK has exploded in • It described tensions that emerged between “orthodox” and “progressive” recent years, accompanied by concerns that the country may be headed in a worldviews around that time, but is often traced back to cultural transformations similar direction to the US, hugely polarised and divided. that began in the 1960s. Through a review of academic literature, national and international surveys in • Yet researchers generally hold that shifting cultural debates cannot be seen solely partnership with Ipsos MORI, media content analysis and latent class analysis, this as a simple bottom-up movement, led by public opinion, beliefs and expression. study provides insights into: The way that political parties and the media engage in these debates also plays a role in growing division. • The origins of culture wars as a concept and how the debate about them is now being conducted and shaped in the UK.
    [Show full text]
  • Masks: the Big Question Iron-Age Murder Mystery
    thevictorybugle Masks: The Big Question JULY 2020 ISSUE IX RUBY, YEAR 9—CURRENT AFFAIRS REPORTER For promotions and contributions: HOW WOULD THE PUBLIC Victorybugle REACT TO WEARING MASKS @ormistonvictoryacademy.co.uk IN PUBLIC BEING MADE COMPULSORY? The Bugle’s Statement: 1) The contemplation of safety. Our commitment to an B) The contemplation of respect. inclusive, entertaining and C) The contemplation of the environment. informative newsletter is what Also yes the 1,B&C was intentional. drives the contributors of this and do whatever they can get away with. publication. If you have any 1) Would it be safer to wear a mask as a Through this lockdown, have you seen comments or suggestions, groups of people doing activities together compulsory rule, or is social distancing contact us and we’ll address enough? who obviously aren’t from the same household? These people still have to get you issues as quickly as we can. We can only publish if you Logistically, yes, it would be safer but essential items, who’s to say they wouldn’t carry on with a careless attitude? politically, no, as the number of daily cases is still going down with the correct amount of C) The environment would suffer with the Follow us people doing what they’re doing. @victoryacad sudden amount of waste. Paper masks are a one-use product. B) Would people actually obey this as a rule and try to enter places anyway? Too many questions I know, enjoy the Personally, I would say yes, people will try potential sleep deprivation. Iron-Age Murder Mystery CITY’S FINAL FIXTURES MAISIE, YEAR 9—ENVIRONMENTAL REPORTER On the 11th of July, the skeleton of an iron age man was Norwich City v discovered in Buckinghamshire, near London.
    [Show full text]
  • INQUEST Evidence Submission to the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Report on “Systemic Racism, Violations Of
    INQUEST evidence submission to the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights report on “systemic racism, violations of international human rights law against Africans and people of African descent by law enforcement agencies, especially those incidents that resulted in the death of George Floyd and other Africans and people of African descent, to contribute to accountability and redress for victims” December 2020 Introduction 1. INQUEST Charitable Trust is an independent non-governmental organisation which provides expertise on state-related deaths and their investigation to bereaved people, lawyers, advice and support agencies, the media and parliamentarians. Our policy, parliamentary, campaigning and media work is grounded in the day to day experience of working with bereaved people. 2. Our specialist casework with bereaved families focuses on deaths in police and prison custody, immigration detention, mental health settings and deaths involving multi- agency failings or where wider issues of state and corporate accountability are in question, such as Hillsborough and the Grenfell Tower fire. INQUEST works primarily in England and Wales, and advises on a small number of cases in Scotland. We have also shared our expertise on the investigation of state related deaths and the treatment of bereaved people at an international level. 3. Over the past 40 years, INQUEST has advised and assisted countless bereaved families, including many families bereaved by deaths in contact with the police. As a result, we have a unique overview of the investigatory processes, the treatment of bereaved people and the issues arising from these deaths. We have worked consistently to strengthen the institutional framework for accountability for deaths in all forms of state detention and how this works in pursuit of goals of truth, justice and accountability for bereaved families.
    [Show full text]
  • David Aaronovitch Columnist and Presenter Media Masters – November 28, 2019 Listen to the Podcast Online, Visit
    David Aaronovitch Columnist and presenter Media Masters – November 28, 2019 Listen to the podcast online, visit www.mediamasters.fm Welcome to Media Masters, a series of one-to-one interviews with people at the top of the media game. Today I’m joined by the columnist and presenter David Aaronovitch. Starting his career in the 1980s as a television researcher and producer, he moved to print journalism in 1995 as chief leader writer for the Independent. Now a columnist for the Times, he has since written for many major UK newspapers and won numerous accolades, including the Orwell Prize for Political Journalism. His television work includes the TV documentary series, The Blair Years, for BBC One, and regular appearances on shows such as Newsnight, the Andrew Marr Show, and Have I Got News for You. He has also written three books, including a personal memoir. David, thank you for joining me. You’re welcome. David, you describe yourself as a “radical moderate” on your Times biography. Is that a popular position in this era of polarisation? The first thing is, I had to describe myself as something. So when people say to you, “We need an encapsulation of your views in about eight words, what’s the best you can give us?” It’s a bit like, “What’s your favourite movie?” You’re flustered and you start looking around, “Oh, what genre should I go for? What period should I go for?” And so on. So there’s several things I could conceivably call myself politically. But I dislike the term ‘centrist’ and I don’t really like the term ‘moderate’ very much.
    [Show full text]