The Business Secretary Alok Sharma has announced a discretionary fund set up to accommodate certain small businesses previously outside the scope of the business grant funds scheme. This is an additional 5% uplift to the £12.33 billion funding previously announced for the Small Business Grants Fu

I firmly believe that all animals deserve to be respected and cared for throughout their lives As such, I welcome the Government’s clear commitment that future trade agreements will uphold our country’s high animal welfare standards, and also the assurance that these standards will not be watered

Those interested in how Parliament works will have noted that during the Coronavirus crisis we are doing things in different ways.  One aspect of this is that the number of occasions to put forward new Bills has been reduced.  So it is with the Local Electricity Bill of which I am in favour. 

Together with a number of colleagues John had raised concerns about measures to support small business during the COVID-19 crisis.  There are many small businesses in the constituency, and across the country they form a key part of our economy. 

One of the ways Parliament continues to hold the Government to account is through Select Committees. There is a House of Commons Select Committee for each government department, which examines spending, policies and administration.

John has  welcomed the adoption on 14 April of the Criminal Enforcement Law, allowing the early or conditional release of 90 000 prisoners to prevent the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic in overcrowded Turkish prisons, but has expressed regret at the discriminatory approach with regard to certain

The Government has been giving huge suport to business during the COVID-19 crisis but so far dentists and other private and mixed healthcare workers have not been eligible for the Business Rate Relief.

There has been news circulating that MPs have been given and extra £10,000 income to help with additional costs during this current COVID-19 situation. The money is not income to MPs.

We are fortunate in South Oxfordshire to have access to open countryside in which to exercise, and it is good that people make use of it.

Amid the COVID-19 pandemic and an expected sanitary crisis in Turkish detention centres, PACE co-rapporteurs for the monitoring of Turkey, Thomas Hammarberg (Sweden, SOC) and John Howell (United Kingdom, EC/DA), have urged the Turkish authorities to ensure that any early or conditional release of