Newspaper column 30 July 2020 - Summer Recess

Parliament has now broken up for the Summer Recess and after a busy last week in Westminster, including my first ever Prime Minister’s Question, in which the PM highlighted money from the Towns Fund that Truro will be receiving in response to my question on support for communities as we continue to come out of the COVID-19 pandemic.

One of the many misconceptions about the work that MPs do is that we are on holiday when Parliament is not sitting.

This couldn’t be further from the truth.

Although a major part of my role as Member of Parliament for Truro and Falmouth is to represent you and the area we live in in Parliament itself, scrutinising and voting on the laws of the land, it is equally important for me to be able to be on the ground in our constituency, ensuring I am connected to the issues that matter to you and can represent you on local as well as national issues.

As MP’s we are required to be in Parliament, when it is sitting, for at least four days a week. When you factor in travelling times to and from Cornwall, this means I normally only have one or two days to spend in the constituency when Parliament is sitting.

So Recess times, when Parliament is not sitting, are very important for MPs, as it gives us time to go around our constituencies, meet with local people and businesses, and focus on the local and national matters that are important to you.

This is particularly important to me as a new MP. Normally when MP’s are first elected the first few months are spent catching up with all of the major businesses and organisations in the constituency. Sadly but unavoidably, due to the COVID-19 pandemic and resulting lockdown, I have been unable to do this to the degree that I would have otherwise liked to.

So this Summer Recess will be particularly important to me as it will allow me to get out 

there and meet with and speak to so many different people and businesses without having to do it virtually or having to rush back up to Parliament every few days.

I have already visited Falmouth Docks to see the work done there and joined local police in Truro on their beat to see first hand the challenges they face.

Of course another thing that I will be able to do moving forwards is work in my new office, which is on William Street in Truro, this will be a nice change from working from home, but it will be good to work from there with my team from now on, as we are able to socially distance and adjust to this new normal.

I look forward to being in Cornwall for the summer and well as getting out about across our constituency over the next few weeks  - please do get in touch if you would like me to visit your business or organisation and I do my best to book something in.

Please continue to stay safe. If you need my assistance with anything, please get in touch at Cherilyn.mackrory.mp@parliament.uk, or on 01872 229698 or you can write to me by letter at Lemon Chapel, William Street, Truro, TR1 2ED.

Supertrawlers open letter – Campaign Response

Thank you to the hundreds of constituents who have emailed in as part of a campaign on Supertrawlers.

Due to the vast volume I have received I cannot respond individually which is why I have written a blog post:

The UK is a global leader in the fight to protect our seas with our ‘Blue Belt’ of protected waters.

The Common Fisheries Policy has restricted our ability to implement fisheries management measures within offshore Marine Protected Areas (MPAs). The Fisheries Bill proposes a new power to allow the introduction of measures for conservation purposes.

The Fisheries Bill currently going through Parliament will help to protect our marine resources and develop plans to restore our fish stock back to more sustainable levels. This builds on a manifesto commitment which promised to introduce a legal commitment to fish sustainably as we become an independent coastal state once again. The Bill strengthens the MMO’s powers in a variety of areas, including ensuring that they can restore and enhance, as well as conserve, the marine environment in the offshore zone, and to continue to support the delivery of the Government’s Blue Belt Programme.

The Government is currently considering the recommendations of the Benyon Review into HPMAs. HPMAs are defined as areas of the sea that allow the protection and recovery of marine ecosystems.

As set out in the Withdrawal Agreement, during the transition period, we have agreed that we will continue to apply current fisheries rules and shared access to waters will continue until the end of 2020.

While we are still part of the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) EU registered vessels are legally entitled to fish in our waters.

We will automatically take back control of our waters, and others’ right to fish in them, at the end of 2020. For the first time in 40 years, we will be free to decide who can access our waters to fish and on what terms.

The Fisheries Bill prohibits any commercial fishing vessel (including foreign-registered vessels) from operating in UK waters without a licence. It also provides powers to attach conditions (such as the areas that can be fished, species that can be caught and the type of fishing gear that can be used) to fishing vessel licences. Foreign vessels operating in UK waters will have to follow UK rules, including the conditions that are attached to their commercial fishing licence.

Once again thank you to everyone who has contacted me on this issue and I can be of further assistance with any other matter, then please do not hesitate to contact me.

Newspaper column 23 July 2020 - Toilets, council funding and police

Last week I was able to follow up further for the good news announced previously for Truro and Falmouth in previous weeks.

On Friday I visited the Hall for Cornwall along with the leaders of the Conservative Group on Cornwall Council. As I have mentioned in previous columns I am very keen for the Hall for Cornwall, as a ‘shovel ready project’ to benefit from some of the recently announced funding from the Prime Minister’s New Deal announcement. It was good to meet with Cllr Linda Taylor and Truro Trehaverne’s Cllr David Harris, along with the team from Hall for Cornwall to get the latest information on this project that is important not just for Truro but for the whole of Cornwall. I will continue to make representations to Ministerial colleagues on the benefits of the Hall for Cornwall and hope to see them make a decision soon.

I also took the opportunity to discuss with the councillors how Cornwall Council will be using the additional nearly £5million of funding the Government announced it would be giving it last Thursday. I have not been impressed with how the Liberal Democrat and Independent-led Cornwall Council has used (or not used) some of the funding given to it by the government recently, and want to ensure this new funding is properly used. In particular as Co-Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group for Local Democracy, which works with the National Association of Local Councils to represent local town and parish councils in Parliament, I want to see Cornwall Council use some of this money to assist these smaller councils, something which it can do, but has so far failed to do.

To go with my work with the APPG for Local Democracy, on Thursday I was pleased to speak in the debate on the second reading of the Parliamentary Bill to exempt public toilet operators from having to pay business rates. This is small but important law, which my Cornish MP colleague Steve Double has been leading on for the past eight years, and one which I have supported since my time on Cornwall Council. Bizarrely, the operators of public toilets, many of them already hard-pressed local parish and town councils, have in the past had to pay business rates on these facilities, despite them not being businesses. These rates can run to thousands of pounds a year and can mean the difference to keeping these toilets open or not. I hope the passing of this Bill will help parish and town councils be able to run them more cost-effectively in the future.

Also on Friday, following Truro and Perranporth’s confirmation of funding from Police and Crime Commissioner Alison Hernandez, to crack down on anti social behaviour, I was pleased to welcome Alison to our city today, along with Truro BID, local police, Truro City Council, Truro Safe and local businesses.

We discussed how the funding would be spent, on CCTV and street marshals, to help the community and police deal with this issue.

Finally, I am delighted to be walking 7.5km on 8 August, from Tresillian to Truro along the banks of the River Fal, to support the good work of Endo UK and help raise awareness of this devastating condition.

I was shocked to hear that it takes on average 7.5 years to diagnose endometriosis and will also be working with Endo UK to change this.I look forward to taking part in the walk to raise awareness and funds for Endo UK.

If you would like to donate to my charity walk for Endo UK, please follow the below link:

https://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/CherilynMackrory

Please continue to stay safe. If you need my assistance with anything, please get in touch at Cherilyn.mackrory.mp@parliament.uk, or on 01872 229698 or you can write to me by letter at Lemon Chapel, William Stree

Campaign Response – Trade Bill

I have received a huge amount of campaign emails from constituents regarding the Trade Bill. I cannot respond individually to all of them due to the vast volume that I have received which is why I am doing a blog post.

I voted for the Bill and voted down the amendments put forward. I wanted to explain my reasons which you can see below:

Regarding scrutiny, Parliament will retain, through the Constitutional Reform and Governance Act (CRAG), the right to block any treaty from being ratified. Free Trade Agreements cannot change UK law. Parliament will retain the right to reject any domestic implementing legislation necessary for a trade treaty. By blocking any legislation, should it be required, it can also block ratification. This is in line with similar systems such as Canada. It goes further than countries such as Australia and New Zealand, where Parliament cannot directly block ratification of a trade treaty. Any trade treaty will be made public before ratification, Parliament will be able to act should it choose to do so having seen all the draft text. Government has committed, where time allows, for a report to be drafted by the relevant committee before ratification takes place to allow for independent scrutiny.

The EU and US are not comparable to the UK. In EU UK Parliament could simply be overruled by majority in European Parliament and QMV in the European Council. In the US, this is a separation of powers system where Congress retains control through the Constitution and delegates to the Executive.

On food standards, the Government has consistently been clear that it will not compromise on our standards. Our manifesto, to which we were all elected individually and collectively, is clear that in all our trade negotiations, we will not compromise on our high environmental protection, animal welfare and food standards. We remain firmly committed to upholding our high environmental, food safety and animal welfare standards outside the EU and the EU Withdrawal Act will transfer all existing EU food safety provisions, including existing export requirements, onto the UK statute book. These import standards include a ban on using artificial growth hormones in domestic and imported products and set out that no products, other than potable water, are approved to decontaminate poultry carcases. Decisions on these standards are a matter for the UK and will be made separately from any trade agreement.

All imports must meet our strict food safety standards. All food safety will be carried over into UK law when we leave the transition period. Parliament retains final say over such standards, it can block any changes should it wish to do so. Amendments demanding that all agricultural imports meet our domestic production standards could have negative effects for UK food supply, UK food manufacturers who rely on imports, the price of goods in the shops and the ability of developing countries to sell to the UK.

Regarding the NHS, it is not, it has never been and it never will be up for sale in any form of trade negotiations.

West Briton column 9 July 2020 - Arts and ASB

The past weekend saw further easing of lockdown across Truro and Falmouth, which has allowed a multitude of cafes, restaurants, pubs and other services such as hairdressers to re-open providing they are able to safely do so.

It was good to see so many places re-opening and also that the vast majority of people out in city’s streets were able to successfully socially distance and enjoy themselves while supporting local businesses.

Another concern from the weekend is that we were all going to be swamped with visitors with the lifting of the overnight stay restrictions and reopening of holiday accommodation. Again, while it certainly was busier than it has been, the forecast 80,000 visitors simply did not come to Cornwall.

One area where we have had issues in recently, perhaps due to lockdown issues, is with anti-social behaviour. This has been reported to me by many local residents and businesses and is something I have discussed solutions to with the local police during my regular meetings with them.

I was pleased to see last week then, an announcement from our Police and Crime Commissioner Alison Hernandez, that Truro will be receiving an additional £20,000 to help tackle these specific issues on Lemon Quay, as well as another £20,000 to address similar issues at Perranporth.

This funding can be spent on street marshals, CCTV, assisting volunteer schemes like Street Pastors and the provision of temporary toilets, and £3,000 of it should already have been made available ahead of last weekend.

Anti-social behaviour can often become more of an issue in the summer months and particularly now, when our businesses and town centres need all the help they can get in reopening following the COVID-19 pandemic, this funding could not have come at a better time.

I congratulate our police for the recent arrests they have already made in Truro in the last week, and hope this additional funding will provide a solution with the communities to allow additional ways to be considered to crackdown further on anti social behaviour in these areas.

Away from policing matters, as Sunday drew to a close I was really pleased to see the announcement from the Chancellor of a £1.5billion support for our arts, culture and heritage sectors.

This is an amazing and unprecedented move from the Government that is sadly needed given the extraordinary times we are living through. While I await to see details of how this funding will be allocated and drawn down, I am very aware of how much these sectors are a part of Truro and Falmouth.

I will certainly do all I can to ensure Truro and Falmouth benefits from this and any other funding that becomes available.

Please continue to stay safe. If you need my assistance with anything, please get in touch at Cherilyn.mackrory.mp@parliament.uk, or on 01872 229698 or you can write to me by letter at Lemon Chapel, William Street, Truro, TR1 2ED.

Campaign reply - Domestic Abuse Bill

The Domestic Abuse bill was announced in the Queen’s Speech on 19 December 2019, following a commitment in the Conservative Party manifesto to ’Support all victims of domestic abuse and pass the Domestic Abuse Bill’ The Bill aims to ensure that victims have the confidence to come forward and report their experiences, safe in the knowledge that the state will do everything it can, both to support them and their children and pursue the abuser. 

What is the Bill going to do? 

Raise awareness and understanding about the devastating impact of domestic abuse on victims and their families.  

Improve the effectiveness of the justice system in providing protection for victims of domestic abuse and bringing perpetrators to justice 

Strengthen the support for victims of abuse by statutory agencies.  

Victoria Atkins – Minister for Safeguarding: 

Domestic abuse is an abhorrent crime perpetrated on victims and their families by those who should love and care for them. This landmark Bill will help transform the response to domestic abuse, helping to prevent offending, protect victims and ensure they have the support they need.  

The Bill will: 

Create a statutory definition of domestic abuse, emphasising that domestic abuse is not just physical violence, but can also be coercive or controlling, emotional, and economic abuse.  

Establish a Domestic Abuse Commissioner, to stand up for victims and survivors, raise public awareness, monitor the response of local authorities the justice system and other statutory agencies and hold them to account in tackling domestic abuse.  

Provide for a new Domestic Abuse Protection Notice and Domestic Abuse Protection Order 

Place a duty on local authorities in England to provide support to victims of domestic abuse and their children in refuges and other safe accommodation. 

Prohibit perpetrators of abuse from cross-examining their victims in person in the family courts in England and Wales 

Create a statutory presumption that victims of domestic abuse are eligible for special measures in the criminal courts – for example enabling them to give evidence via video link 

Enable domestic abuse offenders to be subject to polygraph testing as a condition of their licence following their release from custody.  

Place the guidance supporting the Domestic Violence Disclosure Scheme ‘Clare’s law’ on a statutory footing.  

Ensure that where a local authority, for reasons connected with domestic abuse, grants a new secure tenancy to a social tenant who had or has a secure lifetime or assured tenancy this must be a secure lifetime tenancy.  

Extend the extraterritorial jurisdiction of the criminal courts in England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland to further violent sexual offences.  

End the ‘rough sex’ defence - A very significant milestone in ending violence against women.  

Diana Johson Amendments: 

Two amendments had been tabled by Diana Johnson MP (Labour) to the landmark Domestic Abuse Bill that would have made the most extreme changes to abortion legislation since 1967. 

Clause 28 sought to make home abortions legal for victims of domestic abuse. 

Clause 29 sought to repeal sections 58 and 59 of the Offences against the Person Act (1861) which would have removed non-clinically approved abortion from criminal law. 

Clause 28 has now been withdrawn and Clause 29 was not selected by the speaker.  

If these Clauses had gone to a vote, I would have opposed them.  

My reasons below: 

By removing the requirement for an in-person consultation, it would have been difficult for doctors to ascertain if abuse or coercion was involved and prevented the abused from seeking professional help.  Routine enquiry into domestic abuse has been a fundamental part of the skills and practice of every health professional for many years and ensures that every woman who attends for advice about abortion has the opportunity to disclose abuse they may be experiencing.  These clauses would likely have resulted in a far greater number of women being coerced or forced into an unwanted abortion without the means to speak to a professional, who are trained to pick up on subtle hints and signs. 

I believe that the focus of this Bill should be on protecting those who suffer from domestic abuse, which is the motivation behind this Bill. Bringing forward broad, sweeping changes to abortion legislation would have distracted from this focus and this is not the place to do this. 

West Briton column 2 July 2020 - Recovery

Last week it was great to see so many of the ‘non-essential’ retail shops re-open across Truro and Falmouth with social distancing measures in place.

As we continue to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic from Saturday this week further restrictions are being lifted to enable holiday accommodation, restaurants and pubs and further services like hairdressers to re-open if they are safely able to do so.

Last week was another busy one in Parliament. Among other things, in the Chamber during Health Questions I asked the Minister about more support for people with mental health, loneliness and isolation issues in rural areas, something which has been highlighted during the recent lockdown with a rise in these issues in rural areas like we have in Truro and Falmouth.

On Wednesday I joined the Cornwall MPs in a virtual meeting with our Prime Minister. We spoke about what the recently announced Lockdown easings will mean for Cornwall and why it is so important that we allow our seasonal tourism and hospitality businesses every opportunity to have a decent remainder of the season while extending a warm and positive welcome to Cornwall.

We also spoke to him about the need to continue investing in Cornwall, our jobs, infrastructure and farming and fishing communities through Brexit and beyond. It was good to see the Prime Minister in agreement with us and so positive and upbeat about the future of Cornwall.

On Thursday I was pleased to see the Government announcing a further £105 million to support local authorities in ensuring that people currently accommodated in emergency accommodation do not return to the streets.

Cornwall Council has done a tremendous job in quickly housing nearly every rough sleeper in Cornwall at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, and I hope that this money will allow them and their providers to continue to build on this work and ensure that rough sleeping is ended in Truro and Falmouth.

On Friday I took part in a meeting with the Cornish MPs and representatives from the holiday industry to talk about their Save our Summer Season campaign. As with our conversation with the PM, the message given is that it is crucial that as we rebound from the past few months that Cornwall is able to send a united positive message that we are open for business so that that the many businesses that are directly or indirectly linked to our tourism economy are able to trade successfully in what is left of the season.

Finally on Friday it was great to get back to physical meetings, albeit socially distant, with a visit to see Chris Jones’s Cornwall Beaver Project with the Cornwall Wildlife Trust.

Apart from the merits of reintroducing a native species like the beaver to its original natural habitat, there is also a myriad of potential in looking at the natural work to alleviate flooding in the area that could provide a natural solution to this tricky issue in the future. I look forward to seeing the project continue and depending on the results there certainly could be the potential to reintroduce them in other suitable sites in Cornwall too.

Please continue to stay safe. If you need my assistance with anything, please get in touch at Cherilyn.mackrory.mp@parliament.uk, or on 01872 229698 or you can write to me by letter at Lemon Chapel, William Street, Truro, TR1 2ED.