Alex Norris MP's Weekly Newsletter

Welcome to the latest issue of my weekly newsletter. 

This week I’ve been back in Parliament, and straight back to a very busy schedule – mostly centred around my Ten-minute Rule Bill which I introduced to Parliament this week. I’ll go into a lot more detail on that below, but it’s far from all I got up to, so read on to find out what I’ve been up to this week... 

As I’ve said before, I will strive to send you a newsletter like this each Friday to keep you updated on the work I’m doing in Parliament as well as in our community, and to inform you of any interesting events taking place in our area. To help me with the latter, if you are running or know of anything that you think may be of interest to others, feel free to drop me an email at alex.norris.mp@parliament.uk and I will include it in future issues. Please also forward it onto anyone you think may be interested. 

Assaults on Retail Workers (Offences) Bill

On Tuesday, after four lengthy bits of Government business, I introduced by Ten-Minute Rule Bill which would provide shopworkers with more legal protection from assault, by classing these assaults as aggravated and therefore increasing the maximum sentence from 6 months to a year. 

This is change that I believe is urgently needed, as according to the shop workers union USDAW, the number of assaults and threats made by customers against shop workers sharply increased in 2017, after five years of steady decline; and the terrifying experience of being violently attacked simply for doing your job now affects 265 shop workers every day. 

USDAW also found that in 2017 two thirds of retail staff were verbally abused by customers, up from half in 2016. More than four out of ten had been threatened with violence, up from less than 30 per cent the year before. Four per cent of shop workers surveyed said they had been physically assaulted by customers in 2017, the highest figure since 2012. 

Just last month, my Labour colleague Chris Bryant MP saw his Private Members Bill, the Assaults on Emergency Workers (Offences) Bill, receive Royal Assent and become law. This Bill changed the law so that assaults against emergency workers doing their jobs would also be treated as aggravated, and the maximum prison term for people found guilty would increase similarly. 

I fully supported this Bill during its passage through Parliament and was pleased that colleagues from all parties agreed. Of course, it’s easy to see why Chris’s bill gained government and public backing. Who could possibly argue against better protection for police officers, for paramedics, for firefighters, for prison officers, for search and rescue personnel or for custody officers? All these brave people go to work and risk their lives to provide services we couldn’t manage without. And rightly so, they should be protected, and deserve the extra protection this new legislation affords them. 

While I strongly believe that anyone assaulted while doing their job should be afforded additional protections by the law, what it is that sets retail workers apart – like the very nature of the job sets emergency workers apart – is that they have been entrusted with an important civic responsibility that goes beyond the duties and responsibilities that any employer would give an employee. Over many years and many laws, shop workers have been made responsible, by Parliament, for effectively policing the law on the sale of alcohol, knives, glue and now acid on behalf of us all. 

Sad to say it is almost inevitable that these items will attract trouble, but enforcing the laws surrounding them is an important job that must be done. It is Parliament that has given retail workers this responsibility, so I believe Parliament should be providing them with appropriate protection. Currently I am not sure we have this balance right. Indeed, the surveys show that 80% of shop workers think a new law is needed. 

Unfortunately, this law will almost certainly not be coming through my Bill, as even though it passed on the day, it is so far down the list for its Second Reading on 23rd November that it won’t get a chance to be discussed. However, this doesn’t mean the idea is dead, and I will be continuing to campaign for greater protections and urging the Government to allow a debate about the issue on their time. 

You can watch clips of me introducing the Bill here and here, or read it in full here. 

Transport Questions

If I’m drawn for two oral questions in a week, I feel very lucky, but on Thursday I was fortunate enough to be drawn for two in one sitting, to ask questions of the Ministers at the Department for Transport. 

While previously I’ve always focused on the cancelled Electrification of the Midland Mainline, this week my focus was a little different. As the initial question provided me with an opportunity to ask a follow-up too, I had a real chance to hold the Department to account: 

• Growth in the number of rail users has slowed significantly in the last few years, so I asked Ministers what steps are being taken in response, but of course Jo Johnson MP, the Minister responsible for rail, didn’t outline any steps, instead just reeling off some stats.
• I used my supplementary question to highlight how rail fares have increased at a far sharper rate than wages since the Conservatives have been in Government, and asked the Ministers for assurance that people living in poorer communities, like Nottingham North, won’t be priced out further and will still be able to use rail services as much as they do now, at the very minimum. Again, I didn’t get much in the way of assurance. You can watch this here. 
• And for my topical question, which gives a chance to ask a question on a subject that the Ministers haven’t seen in advance, I asked the Minister, what role they see for sub-national transport bodies - such as Midlands Connect in our region - when prioritising investment in our major road network. I know all about the great work Midlands Connect are doing so it is important that Government work closely with them and includes them in their investment plans. 

This week I have also been drawn out for a question to the Prime Minister, so keep an eye out next Wednesday. 

In Parliament

While the Ten-minute Rule Bill kept me busy far beyond the ten minutes it took to introduce it this week, I still had plenty of time in Parliament beyond that and my questions. Here’s what I got up to: 

• I had my standing Wednesday morning engagement on the Parliamentary Constituencies (Amendment) Bill Committee. The Government still hasn’t laid down a money resolution and continue to waste all our time. We’ve now met 14 times with no progress. 
• I caught up with Morgan Flynn and Mark Scott from the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association to follow-up from my trip to Malawi – to talk about the project in general and discuss next steps. 
• I also met with my Co-Chair on the APPG for Sport, Modern Slavery and Human Rights APPG, Baroness Lola Young, to discuss our respective tasks in spreading the APPG’s work. 
• And finally, I sat on the Second Delegated Legislation Committee for the Draft Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency Trading Fund (Amendment) (EU Exit) Order 2018, part of the legislation that will ensure that our medical regulations carry on following Brexit. Safe to say this was slightly drier than most of my week, but still very important. 

Nottingham

This has very much been a Westminster week - as its the first week back. Nevertheless still lots of matters of local interest:

• I met with Barry Harness and Ruth Davison from the National Housing Federation to discuss the Voluntary Right to Buy pilot in the Midlands, and housing association participation therein, as we aim to help more people own their own homes locally. 
• Along with fellow Nottingham MPs Lilian Greenwood and Chris Leslie, I met Rishi Sunak, the Minister for Local Government, to discuss how the Government’s Troubled Families Programme is faring in Nottingham. Troubled Families is a programme of targeted intervention for families with multiple problems, including crime, anti-social behaviour, truancy, unemployment, mental health problems and domestic abuse. This is a positive initiative that we are determined to get the very best out of locally. As of 8th October 2018, the City Council have worked with 3594 families and delivered significant and sustained outcomes for 1929 families (including 570 continuous employment claims), much of which has depended on funding from this Programme. Emerging analysis recently showed that the outcomes for families supported by these early help services is promising. Of 630 families supported during Q2 of 2017/18, 82% of children have not had any further social care or early help engagement. It is important to note that the majority (68%) of those families had previously been referred to social care, so these were complex and vulnerable families. This really shows the difference that can be made, and I hope it continues and expands! 
• I met with Alex Ball who is responsible for communications for local NHS projects. Alex and I served on the Council together but were meeting this time to talk about how best to engage with local community and politicians to make sure we are getting the best out of our Health Service.

Looking ahead to next week

Really busy constituency days from Thursday next week but prior to that Nottingham is coming to Westminster where I’ll be supporting the launch of Nottingham Citizens hate crime report. You can read all about that and more next week!

What's On

I want these emails to be as interesting as possible. That means there’ll be some politics – it’s important that I am held accountable. But I also want to offer information about what’s on locally. So, if you have an event you’d like me to advertise, let me know.

If you would like your events advertised here, or further information on those advertised, please email me at alex.norris.mp@parliament.uk.

That’s all for now! Details of how to get in touch or to have a look at the things I’m doing are below…

All the best,

Alex

• 9am for Learn to cycle and beginners
• 10:15am for on road cycle training
• 11:30am for a led cycle ride

GOSPEL STREET is a powerful mix of theatre, comedy and spoken word – a breath-taking ride through all the important issues of life, death… and miraculous street food. Good news with wisdom, laughter, energy and insight.

At Bulwell United Reformed Church:
Saturday 17th November
7:00pm

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