This week the Government admitted for the first time that the use of ‘joint enterprise’ disproportionately jails black people, in response to my question the Justice Minister on the floor of the house. Under ‘joint enterprise’ prosecutors have the power to charge multiple people with a crime without the need to establish who specifically committed that crime. Hundreds of people have been to prison for crimes they quite literally didn’t commit. It’s clear that the use of joint enterprise further opens up black defendants to even more discrimination within the justice system. Black defendants are more than three times more likely to be prosecuted in such cases than white defendants.
However, until the Minister’s response to me on Tuesday, the Government had never publicly admitted this. The Government has so far refused to release the full data about who is or who isn’t convicted under Joint Enterprise and I pushed the Minister to do so. He responded by telling me he couldn’t tell me when the data would be released, but that the Government does recognise that convictions based on joint enterprise “appear” to affect Black, Asian, and Minority ethnic groups disproportionately.
I’m not sure how much comfort that will be to those currently behind bars as a result of this discrimination. Nonetheless, this acknowledgement is important and represents some progress from the Government on this issue. But while people remain unjustly behind bars and others face future prosecution under this discriminatory doctrine, this small amount of progress isn’t good enough. It’s time to rid of ‘joint enterprise’ for good.
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NHS Staffing Crisis
On Tuesday I spoke in an important debate on NHS staffing levels and used it as an opportunity to speak about the racism and discrimination that affects the wellbeing of black and minority ethnic staff. 22% of NHS staff in England are from BME backgrounds, but when it comes to senior leadership the BME community are underrepresented. Sadly, if you find yourself working in the NHS you may face a glass ceiling stopping your career from progressing if you’re from a Black and Ethnic Minority background.
In a recent sham ‘report’ into racism the Government found that no systemic racism exists in the UK. For ideological reasons, the Government has put itself in an impossible position when it comes to tackling racism and it simply doesn’t have the tools to challenge existing systemic problems and change them. But on Tuesday I pushed the Government to take action to ensure that leadership positions in the NHS are as representative as the overall NHS workforce. Our National Health Service does an incredible job at keeping the nation healthy, even in the face of Tory cuts. But it will only be there for us as long as it continues to innovate and modernise. We want a service fit for the 21st Century and that can’t happen unless we get Black and Ethnic minority workers into positions of leadership within the NHS.
NHS staff also need a pay rise in line with inflation. It’s often black and ethnic minority staff members who face the biggest disadvantage when wages are cut. If the government is to allow real terms wage cuts, it will be those workers who are more likely to leave the profession.
There is also more that can be done. We must ensure that bursaries for nursing students are restored so that many people, particularly those from more disadvantaged backgrounds, can access training. Lastly, the Government needs to provide a renewed commitment to ensure that the NHS delivers on its commitment to combat institutional racism alongside tackling health inequality.
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No-Recourse to Public Funds APPG
On Wednesday I chaired a very moving meeting of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on No Recourse to Public Funds. More than a million adults and almost 180,000 children live with the NRPF immigration status restriction in the UK, which prevents them from accessing the sort of public support the rest of us often rely on. At the same time, many are also banned from working. The consequences are awful, with families being left with absolutely nothing and nowhere to turn.
At our meeting on Wednesday, we heard from some of those who are directly affected by NRPF as well as Justina Kamara who works as NRPF Manager at Manchester City Council and William Flack, a solicitor with decades of experience helping NRPF families. What was clear listening to Justina is that even while the NRPF restriction remains in place there is much more than Local Authorities can be doing to assist families with NRPF. Manchester, under the leadership of Mayor Andy Burnham is a good example of pooling limited resourcing to protect the most vulnerable and tackle the hostile environment created by the Home Office.
The reality of the situation on the ground for those living with the NRPF restriction is terrible but often gets little publicity. Just a few months ago when our then Prime Minister Boris Johnson was questioned about NRPF by MPs he made it clear that he had no idea what NRPF was. Yet, this particular part of the Government’s hostile environment does nothing but push entire families into homelessness and Victorian levels of poverty. NRPF it’s compatible with a modern democratic country and the next Labour government must abolish it at the earliest opportunity.
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Many workers across Edmonton have been on strike this week and will be on strike in the coming weeks. They include nurses, university staff, posties and train drivers among others. Up and down the country workers are organising to fight back against the cost-of-living crisis. Our country is wealthier than ever but more and more of that wealth is being syphoned off by bosses and shareholders. Workers continue to keep our country running and wealthy but they share in less and less of that wealth. Ordinary people continue to get poorer even as profits for bosses climb to record rates. That will continue for as long as we let it. But the workers who are going on strike are determined not to let that continue and I back them all the way.
For decades Governments have eroded workers’ rights. We have some of the most oppressive anti-union laws in Europe and as a result, wages have stagnated, working conditions have deteriorated and economic growth has stalled. That needs to change and as ever it’s ordinary workers who are pushing for that change. It’s in all our interests that they succeed.
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This week I took part in several important votes on the remaining stages of the Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill. It is now clear this Government will not level up this country. It’s absurd, and smacks of total arrogance that the Tories talk about a ‘renaissance’ of our town centres, when inflation is at a 30-year high in every region and families and businesses are struggling to survive. The Government has made big promises but they are failing to deliver. A few pots of money to scrap over or some new mayors won’t touch the sides. The Levelling up Bill is lacking in ambition, with the substance of the Bill amounting to little more than the Government marking its own homework on 12 ‘missions’ lacking in new money and new ideas.
The central aim of the Bill is to introduce twelve “levelling-up missions” which require ministers to report annually on progress towards achieving those missions. Yet this Bill doesn’t even touch the surfaces of damage done by the Tories over the last twelve years. In the last decade, the Tories have stripped the nations and regions of funding and power, taking £431 from every person in cuts to council funding but handing back just £31 in levelling up funds.
I voted for a number of amendments to try and improve the Bill, including an amendment that would have committed the Government to fully funding combined authority and county combined authority projects but the Tories voted that down. I also voted for a provision allowing a Minister to make changes to mission progress methodology and metrics, to stop the Government from marking their own homework, but the Tories voted that amendment down. In the end, the Tories were able to vote down all amendments that would have made the Bill more likely to deliver for communities.
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Thank you for taking the time to read my latest update, if you have any issues that you would like to raise directly with me then please do email edmontonconstituency@parliament.uk .
I’m always happy to help whenever possible.
Kind regards,
Kate Osamor
Member of Parliament for Edmonton
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