By Isle of Wight Observer
Spiking, including putting a harmful substance in another person’s drink, is set to become its own separate offence later this year. The average age of someone being spiked is 26 years old, and 74 per cent are women. The proposed new law has a significant loophole when it comes to ‘prank’ or reckless spiking and I have launched a national campaign to get the loophole closed. I tabled my own backbench amendment in the House of Commons which was supported by 189 MPs from different parties; however, the Government instructed their MPs to vote against it and we were defeated.
I am now working with campaigners Colin and Mandy Mackie (whose son, Greg, died from a suspected spiking incident) in order to reintroduce the amendment in the House of Lords. The campaign is getting traction nationally, having been featured on ITV, in The Times and in the Daily Mirror over the last few weeks.
I spoke last month at the national Care Innovation Summit on dementia. I was able to draw on my experiences having worked for Dementia UK and being a member of the Health and Social Care Select Committee. Dementia remains the leading cause of death in the UK and it is vital it remains at the top of the political agenda. I re‑iterated my call for the national dementia diagnosis targets to be re‑instated in the NHS’s planning guidance.
Earlier this week, MPs voted on the Government’s welfare reform bill. Whilst I support the need for welfare reform, that is not what this bill was about. It was an attempted cash grab of £5 billion to plug a hole that has opened up in the Chancellor’s finances since her Budget last October. Some people with disabilities would have lost out, and 170,000 would have been pushed into poverty, so the Government did a partial u‑turn to match their u‑turn on Winter Fuel Payments.
We need genuine, targeted welfare reform coupled with incentives to support people into work where they are able. I voted against the bill and have respect for Labour MPs who defied their whip and did the same.
I recently visited ‘Get Into Recovery’ at Somerton Lodge, Shanklin. John and his team do fantastic work with the workshops and programmes they offer, supporting people recovering from reliance on alcohol. I am delighted that they have been awarded funding from the Lottery to enable them to continue their work and look forward to supporting them to continue to grow and help others in the future.