Today the Government announced, as part of our commitment to advancing equality for lesbian, gay bisexual and transgender (LGB&T) people – that religious buildings will be allowed to host civil partnership registrations. 

The change, which will be entirely voluntary and will not force any religious group to host civil partnership registrations if they do not wish to do so, is being introduced as part of the Equality Act. It will give same-sex couples who are currently prevented from registering their civil partnership in a religious setting – the chance to do so.

As the Home Secretary says: ‘This Government is committed to both advancing quality for LGB&T people and ensuring religious freedom of religion for people of all faiths -which is why we will be allowing religious organisations to host civil partnership registrations if they choose to do so’.

The government’s LGB&T action plan, which was published last year, included a commitment to look at next steps for civil partnerships, and giving religious organisations the right to host registration is the first stage in that process.

We have also identified a real desire to move forwards to equal civil marriage and parnerships, and will be consulting further as to how legislation can develop, working with all those who have an interest in the area.

Over recent months I have spoken to many LGB&T people and campaign groups, and it quickly became clear that there is a real desire to address the differences between civil marriage and civil partnerships.

I have always been completely clear that equal rights means exactly that – the same rights not different rights.

So I am very, very pleased to be able to announce that we are going to be the fist British government to formally look at what steps can be taken to address this.

On Friday – the Protection of Freedoms Bill was introduced to Parliament.

Liberal Democrats have long campaigned for this piece of legislation. A “Freedom Bill” had its first incarnation four years ago when the Liberal Democrats proposed it while Nick Clegg was the party’s Home Affairs Spokesman.

The Bill will protect millions of people from unwarranted state intrusion in their private lives and marks a return to common sense government. It steps up our commitment to restore hard-won British liberties, lost under Labour, with an array of sweeping reforms that will put an end to the unnecessary scrutiny of law-abiding individuals.

PROVISIONS
The DNA database will be reformed along the lines of the Scottish model; the data of hundreds of thousands of innocent people will be removed from the database

Schools will no longer be able to take the fingerprints of children under 18, without obtaining prior permission from their parents.

Safeguards against the misuse of counter-terrorism legislation – reducing the maximum period of detention without charge to 14 days.

Replaces the powers to stop and search persons and vehicles without reasonable suspicion with a power that is exercisable in significantly more restricted circumstances.

Millions of law-abiding householders will be protected from town hall snoopers with the introduction of new safeguards in the use of surveillance powers (the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act) to better protect the public from disproportionate surveillance.

A new statutory code of practice for local authorities and police on the use of CCTV and ANPR to improve effectiveness and ensure proportionately. We will also appoint a new Surveillance Camera Commissioner to provide, for the first time, a single framework to which all users of such systems can operate.

We will ban wheel clamping without lawful authority but will strengthen the enforcement arrangements with regard to ticketing, by enabling the owner or occupier of land to reclaim unpaid parking charges from the keeper of the vehicle instead of the driver

We will return the Vetting and Barring Scheme and the disclosure of Criminal Records to common sense levels. But the maintenance of effective and robust public protection arrangements are paramount and we will continue to maintain a list of all those barred from working with children or vulnerable adults.

We will amend the Freedom of Information Act to ensure that public authorities proactively release datasets, and extend it to companies wholly owned by two or more public authorities

Any man with a conviction for consensual gay sex will be able to have it wiped from police and other official records.

Remember, under Labour:
Britain had 1% of the world’s population but a fifth of the world’s CCTV cameras. In 2008, the Metropolitan Police revealed that one crime was solved for every 1,000 CCTV cameras in London. Privacy International ranked the UK as the only “endemic surveillance society” in Europe, alongside Russia, China and Malaysia.

There were 6m people on the DNA database in the UK – nearly 10% of the population. The database was the largest in the world. It is estimated there were one million people on the DNA database with no record on the Police National Computer.

Labour used the fear of terrorism to establish the longest period of pre-charge detention in the free world. And tried to increase it further to 90 days.

The Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 (RIPA) was set up to deal with organised crime and terrorism. In reality, however, it has been used to spy on ordinary people, their children, their pets and their bins. Only 8 public bodies were able to use RIPA when it was first passed. This figure is now over 900!

So – hurrah – and I will be taking the Bill through its committee stages (with James Brokenshire) in Parliament- fantastic!

Last night at the National Portrait Gallery – All Walks Beyond the Catwalk – Erin O’Connor, Debra Bourne and Caryn Franklin held a fantastic event offering new views and reflections on women and representations of beauty.

All Walks are working to encourage greater diversity in the fashion industry. Obviously – given the Government Body Confidence campaign to push back against the relentless pressure on young people of impossibly perfect images – I was more than happy to support the evening.

Firstly, Rankin, celebrated photographer had worked with All Walks to create a more diverse portrait of the Spring/Summer 2011 catwalk designer collections on a wider range of models. The images – of women young and old, larger and smaller and all shades were on display in the Gallery alongside the portraits of the great Masters.

Apart from tours of the galleries – the key event of the evening was a panel debate on image and fashion. Caryn Franklin chaired the debate and the panellists were: model Erin O’Connor, Elle magazine editor Lorraine Candy, myself, psychologist Linda Papadopoulos and Kiki Kendrick – playwright, actress and former advertising creative.

The debate ranged across the various issues of conformity of image, fashion’s place in this, the psychological effects of repeat images and so on.

It was a great success and demonstrated more clearly than ever – that this issue is rising and rising on the agenda. Congratulation to All Walks!

Having just seen the actual motion from the back-benchers on prisoner voting for the debate on Thursday – it’s negative. Basically it calls for the status quo – ie prisoners to continue to be denied the vote.

So I won’t be able to vote for prisoners to have the vote on Thursday as that is not on offer – and will abstain. However, my opinion remains as per my previous post – and I will have to wait a further opportunity to vote for a lawful outcome.

The European Court of Human Rights ruled in 2005 that the UK’s ban on prisoners voting was unlawful. The matter has now wended its way forward in time to a need for action.

So – should prisoners get the vote? As far as my own vote on Thursday (in what is a debate accepted by the Back Bench committee) I will vote for prisoners to get the vote. It is not one of the issues that exercises me hugely – but I understand from the tabloids that it is an issue that does exercise a lot of people.

Apart from the issue of Britain being in breach of the European Court of Human Rights and as a Minister voting for a lawful outcome – I have always believed prison is the punishment – the removal from society and being kept in a cell. Outside of that – I think it would be a good thing if prisoners had any interest in outside matter and current events – although I fear many may not even be interested in voting.

Should prisoners get the vote?

We are changing the tax system to make it fairer by lifting the poorest workers out of Income Tax altogether and cutting taxes for most people. This April 880,000 workers will stop paying Income Tax when the lower threshold is raised from £6,475 to 7,475.

The Institute for Fiscal Studies says the tax changes will mean the richest tenth will lose around 3% more of their income and that the main winners from the 2011 tax changes will be lone parents who are not working, and low-to-middle income households.

The IFS report concluded that:
· The main winners from the 2011 tax changes will be lone parents who are not working, and low-to-middle income households
· For example a family with two children and one person earning £20k will be £530 better off
· Those earning up to about £42.5k a year (including tax credit) will also be better off owing to the changes being introduced in April
· The biggest losers are the very richest households owing to restrictions on the amount that can be contributed to a private pension. They have also been affected by the 50% income tax rate on earnings above £150,000 and withdrawal of the income tax personal allowance above £100,000.

My column from this week’s Ham & High:

A room full of older people socialising, having lunch, talking and laughing – that’s what luncheon clubs and drop-in centres deliver for our older residents.

If it wasn’t for such facilities – some older people might never even get out of their homes and wouldn’t necessarily see another living soul from one week to the next. They might not eat properly. They might not get any exercise. And as many of those who use Abyssinia Court (near Crouch End) luncheon and drop club in Haringey told me when I visited last week – if it wasn’t for this haven of warmth and friendship – they would be depressed, would fall ill and become a much greater cost than the £425,000 per year that Haringey currently spends in total on all its luncheon clubs and drop-in centres. That is an amount which totals 0.2% of Haringey’s budget of £182million. Value for money – and then some!

The £425,000 cut proposed to drop-in centres, day centres and luncheon clubs is less than the annual cost to residents for the write off of the residents’ money that the Labour Council lost in the Icelandic bank collapse.

At Abyssinia Court which provides extra care housing, assisted living, close care, continuing care housing and is run by Hornsey Housing Trust – residents and locals alike drop into the community rooms for lunch and company. They also have access to other services that visit there. There is a hairdresser, a chair exercise teacher and other services like foot care. But it is the getting out of your room or your home, the company and good, healthy food – and of course bingo twice weekly – that mean that this expenditure is not only a vital lifeline – but an investment.

So – yes – it’s a time of austerity and yes the Government grants to local authorities mean that there will have to be cuts. However, where to cut is entirely at Labour Haringey’s discretion.

Haringey Council was banged to rights in a television interview with Lib Dem Minister Andrew Stunell (Department of Local Communities – the department who award local authority grants) last week. Mr Stunell made it crystal clear in the television interview that Haringey Council is receiving 5 times more for each resident than richer boroughs – because of the greater levels of need in the borough. (Not to mention that Haringey has the fifth highest council tax in London).

The cameras had gone into Willoughby Road luncheon club when it came to light that very first in line for local Labour cuts were Haringey’s luncheon clubs. They interviewed the elderly people there who rely on it – and they certainly made it clear how vital the club was to their well-being.

But what really gets me is that Haringey seem to be ducking the hard choices. For example – if you take their Communication and Policy budget of £6million – the cuts they are proposing to that is £124,000 – peanuts!

My Liberal Democrat councillor colleagues are studying the Labour Council’s budget proposals closely currently in draft. No doubt they will be mounting a ferocious challenge to save the soft targets whilst pointing the way to Haringey on where cuts could and should be made.

Without doubt – there are tough times ahead for local authorities and they will have to make cuts and not everything can be back office (although quite a lot can). But Haringey have muddled along for years. If Haringey could only do something once and do it right – that in itself would probably save a bomb.

Local government has to make savings, but it is up to the local authority where those savings rest. Haringey Labour are going for soft targets, but I believe this drastic cut to services for older people is a very poor decision. We should protect our most vulnerable not close services they cherish.

Labour’s financial mismanagement nationally got the country into this mess (together with the irresponsible banks and our individual live now pay later attitude) and locally Labour has made it much much worse.

I really couldn’t believe it when I heard that Haringey Labour Council had announced late last year – plans to increase Council charges to residents for street parties from £60 to £3000. Charging local residents £3000 just to have a street party was an outrageous proposal.

Well done to my LibDem councillor colleagues who took action to force Labour to reverse this truly draconian proposal. The planned increase has now been abandoned and at the Council’s cabinet meeting last week the Labour councillor responsible announced that charges would increase, but only to £80 for small street parties. Liberal Democrats welcomed the climb-down following LibDem councillors having raised the issue in December 2010.

Given the number of streets likely to hold street parties for the Royal Wedding – and we are a pretty sociable and street party borough anyway – even without the Royal Wedding – as my LibDem Councillor Colleague Gail Engert said ‘ thank goodness Labour have seen sense’.

My view – pity they didn’t have any sense in the first place!

Just a quick catch up on some constituency visits over the last week:

– met with Catch 22 who have a project running in Haringey where they have taken on Intensive Intervention with 50 young people who need a huge amount of support to help them stay out of trouble. I met two of the young people – who really are benefiting from the support they are getting as well as the organisation key people nationally and the lead for the local project.

– met with the Tavistock who are working in partnership with Haringey on mental health support services. Very interesting meeting and an opportunity (I think) for integration between the Tavi and the work on Early Intervention. The government program to get a 100,000 of the most chaotic families back into work is absolutely right – but very challenging. I suggested the Tavi perhaps look into whether there was any support they could give if mental health issues were a barrier to success in any of those families.

– I met with about 20 young people who are concerned in case Haringey decide their youth clubs are a soft target for cuts. Given that I just read that their Communication and Policy budget is only being cut by £124,000 – it is clear that the hard choices are being ducked and no doubt they will focus on the soft targets – rather than really dealing with the structural faults. I am meeting with the Council Leader later this week to discuss this.

– I attended Holocaust Memorial Day at Bruce Castle – always moving. A huge thank you to all who every year make sure that this is not only done – but done extremely well. I was talking to one of the holocaust survivors in attendance – and that is always such a privilege. This year also marked the opening of an exhibition there of portraits of Haringey’s Holocaust Survivors – worth a visit for sure.

– I went to Cranwood (old peoples’ home) to see the children who come in from St James’s Church every Sunday to sing, play their instruments and generally engage with the residents. Clearly both the elderly and the children enjoy this hugely and it benefits both. There are rumours that Haringey may look to close Cranwood – with the obvious concerns that brings to staff, residents and their relatives. I have not heard about this – but will now investigate.

– went to the Big Green Bookshop for the launch of the 3rd edition of Zoom Rockman’s comic. When I chose the illustration from all the entries for my Christmas card competition this year – and it was Zoom’s – I had no idea he was already a recognised artist!

– As for Parliament and Government – that was a week in politics with so much happening – I wouldn’t know where to begin – Alan Johnson to Andy Coulson to Ed Balls – to Tony Blair – so am not going to try. For myself, many governmental meetings, speeches and other meetings – too many to list. Coming week – Home Office and Equality Orals – Monday and Thursday respectively. Tuesday am appearing before both APPG on Sexuality and Home Affairs Select Committee on a range of issues.

– an apologies for lack of blogging generally – am struggling to find time – but don’t want to just give it up so am just working on a when I can basis – but not very satisfactory

I went to visit a new ‘PassivHaus’ in Hornsey. It is a terraced house belonging to Metropolitan Housing Association in a conservation area which has been retro-fitted to meet the Passivhaus standards

From the PassivHaus website the following is a description of a dwelling that achieves the PassivHaus standard and typically includes:

– very good levels of insulation with minimal thermal bridges well thought out utilisation of solar and internal gains
– excellent level of airtightness
– good indoor air quality, provided by a whole house mechanical ventilation system with highly efficient heat recovery

By specifying these features the design heat load is limited to the load that can be transported by the minimum required ventilation air. Thus, a PassivHaus does not need a traditional heating system or active cooling to be comfortable to live in – the small heating demand can be typically met using a compact services unit which intergrates heating, hot water and ventilation in one unit (although there are a variety of alternative solutions).

For Europe (40o – 60o Northern latitudes), a dwelling is deemed to satisfy the PassivHaus criteria if:

the total energy demand for space heating and cooling is less than 15 kWh/m2/yr treated floor area;
the total primary energy use for all appliances, domestic hot water and space heating and cooling is less than 120 kWh/m2/yr

These figures are verified at the design stage using the PassivHaus Planning Package.

As the Hornsey house was a retrofit rather than a new build – the standard is marginally different.

It was very impressive – and very warm. Between insulation, special air circulation, triple-glazing, special door fittings and solar panels – it is an example of what can be done where there is a will to actually take the measures that will enable our housing to become environmentally neutral.