In Westminster
Proceedings in the House commenced on Monday and William Hague made an extremely important Statement on the recent controversy surrounding the collection of intelligence by the US security services. The Foreign Secretary was keen to stress that stories such as we have seen often provide a partial and potentially misleading picture that can give rise to public anxieties. The Foreign Secretary reminded the House that the Intelligence Services Act (1994) and the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (2000) require our own security services to seek authorisation for their operations from a Secretary of State. He suggested he receives hundreds of operational proposals every year. Each one sets out in detail the planned operation, the potential risks and the intended benefits of the intelligence. They include comprehensive legal advice describing the basis for the operation, and comments from senior Foreign Office officials and lawyers. To intercept the content of any individual’s communications in the UK requires a warrant signed personally by a Secretary of State. Without that authorisation, such interceptions cannot happen.
The House then moved onto consider the Anti-Social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Bill. The Coalition Government has a good record when it comes to tackling crime and rates are down by 10%. This is, in no small measure down to the professionalism and dedication of police officers and police staff working day in, day out to keep our neighbourhoods safe. For its part, the Government have allowed officers to focus on their core task of cutting crime by abolishing national targets and reducing pointless form-filling and needless bureaucracy. This new Bill recognises that there is still much to be done though. For example, there were 8.9 million crimes against adults last year, 9 million against our businesses and approximately 2.3 million incidents of antisocial behaviour. Any Bill that empowers the police to deal with this has to be a good thing that I will support.
Back Home
Back home, it was with enormous pleasure that I joined Sir Ray Tindell to celebrate 150 years of the Mid Devon Advertiser. The role of local newspapers in both reporting what is going on in our communities and holding those of us who represent you to account should never be underestimated. Our local newspapers are an indispensable part of our communities and we must never forget when discussing regulation of the press that our locals had no role whatsoever to play in any of the controversy that has been reported. I am proud my constituency is served by papers like the Mid Devon Advertiser and long may that continue! I also want to congratulate Hunters brewery for bringing along “hop off the press" which they brewed to mark the occasion.
It was then off to my constituency office for a meeting with Connecting Devon and Somerset to discuss progress on the rollout of superfast broadband before hosting a meeting with local church leaders from Dawlish. They organised a very successful community street party as a prelude to offering more extensive services throughout the area. They want to coordinate school and youth engagement is well as organise an event designed to inspire local businesses.
I began Friday with an extremely busy surgery in Dawlish – one of the busiest I have done since being elected as your Member of Parliament! I then hosted a meeting with flooding officials from Devon County Council. Our campaigning has helped get major flood defence schemes in Shaldon, Teignmouth and Dawlish. However, Devon County Council are also in the business of helping local communities at risk of flash flooding. Kingsteignton is one area I am keen to deliver a result on in this respect and I will keep making the case moving forward.
I finished the day by holding one of my regular Parish Council meetings. These are always wonderful opportunities to bring people together and talk about the issues that matter in the here and now and we covered subjects as diverse as planning, freeview reliability, potholes, neighbourhood plans and weeds/hedge cutting. We also invited the local police to come and talk about the work they are doing to solve crime in our communities. We had a constructive discussion and the police agreed to look into a number of issues on our behalf.
Surgeries
My next surgery is on Saturday 29th June at 10am in Newton Abbot. Please phone 01626 368277 for an appointment or to discuss an issue that cannot wait until my next surgery.