Antoinette Sandbach Newsletter

All Party Parliamentary Group for Baby Loss Annual Meeting

I chaired the Annual General Meeting of the All Party Parliamentary Group for Baby Loss. This is a hugely important group for me as it gives me the chance to meet with other people who have lost a child and discuss how we can change the law to help those who suffer such a horrible loss.

I updated the group about the progress of my Fetal Dopplers Bill and listened to updates on what other progress we have made. I was very pleased that Jackie Doyle-Price, the minister responsible for this area at the Department for Health, was able to join us and hear about the progress we have made.

HS2 Select Committee

Last week I spoke at the HS2 Select Committee. This is the committee which hears complaints about the decisions made by HS2 and allows local people the chance to have their voices heard in Parliament. I brought up two big issues that will affect a lot of people locally, construction traffic and tenants' compensation- an issue which has consistently failed to be addressed by DfT/HS2. During the construction phase, HS2 expects baseline traffic volumes to increase by 14% in 2023 compared with 2016 on some roads near the constituency. This will have a big impact on many people in Eddisbury, who rely on these roads to get about.

Likewise there have been numerous issues with compensation. The problem is that the current compensation provisions ' both the statutory Compensation Code and the discretionary compensation schemes ' only apply to certain types of tenancies. They do not apply to all types of tenancy. This is unfair and leaves some tenants with certain types of tenancies unable to access any kind of compensation in the event that their landlord sells his or her property to HS2.

If you are affected by HS2 please get in touch with my office and I will take up the case.

National Carers Week

Last week was National Carers Week

which is an annual campaign to raise awareness of caring, highlight the challenges carers face and recognise the contribution they make to families and communities throughout the UK.

Around 6.5 million people in the UK are carers, looking after a parent, partner, child or friend. In my constituency one in eight provide care to a family member or friend. These people are unpaid and support people with disabilities or illnesses who need a helping hand to live their lives to the fullest.

This is why I pledged my support to Carers Week and will be supporting carers in my constituency, and why the Government is looking at what more can be done to support existing and future carers. An extra £104 million of funding to local authorities to support them and so they can get better access to right to assessments. A public consultation was held to hear from carers directly and will be looking at a new strategy in the coming months.

Daily Politics appearance

Last Monday I appeared on the Daily Politics to talk about a range of issues, including a new report about Brexit, the Government;s counter-terrorism strategy and plans to ban the sale of ivory.

This was a great chance to talk about the fantastic work being done by Sajid Javid, Our new home Secretary, to keep the country safe, as well as Michael Gove's work to protect the environment and elephants across the world.

This article is from our news archive. As a result pictures or videos originally associated with it may have been removed and some of the content may no longer be accurate or relevant.