January 2008

The New Year has been greeted with some horrendous fatalities with violent crime and road crashes both locally and across the country. I would wish to give my condolences to the families of the victims, particularly in my constituency. An immediate reaction is to see if something can be done to prevent these incidents happening again. Should the law be changed?

My primary role as an MP is to answer that question. The challenge is to make law which is well considered and necessary rather than just a knee jerk reaction or simply a response to a special interest. I have been engaged in this task through scrutiny of the latest Criminal Justice Bill. We went line by line through the Bill in committee for 47 hours and then the whole House had the opportunity to consider the Bill last week. The Bill covered significant issues affecting youth crime, prisons, foreign prisoners, violent offenders, prostitution etc. The problem is that the Government can control how much time is spent considering Bills and in this case only allowed several hours despite introducing a raft of new clauses. The Prime Minister's words about restoring the role of Parliament are not matched by the Government's actions as it steamrollers through legislation.

I had the opportunity on 8th January to present my own Bill which attempts to increase the donation and collection of umbilical cord blood. Routinely cord blood is thrown away after birth but it can have a life saving value treating diseases like leukaemia and Thallassaemia. Despite our 6 children being born locally, I only discovered recently that Barnet General Hospital is one of just four NHS Hospitals collecting cord blood which is then banked in Edgware. There are exciting developments in stem cell therapy and my Bill would help support ethically based research of stem cells in cord blood which have already produced 85 different treatments. At least the Bill through support of groups like the Leukaemia Society Thallassaemia Society
because the Government become law.