Ministerial Visit to Plume Academy
John Whittingdale had Robin Walker MP, Minister for School Standards in the Department for Education, join him on a visit to the Plume Academy in Maldon. Mr Whittingdale and Mr Walker were shown around the Mill Road Campus, which is attended by 600 students from Years 7 and 8, by Executive Prinicipal, Carl Wakefield, and […]
Constituency Garden of Remembrance.
Yesterday, on Armistice Day, John Whittingdale laid a cross in the Speakers Constituency Garden of Remembrance in Parliament, to pay tribute to Ben Cobey – and all those from the Maldon constituency who gave their lives defending our freedom. Each Member of Parliament has been invited by the Speaker to place a tribute in the […]
Visit to Friends of Heybridge Cemetery
Last Saturday John paid a visit to the Friends of Heybridge Cemetery Meeting, to learn more about the work they do to help maintain their local chapel and cemetery. Established in October 2018, Friends of Heybridge Cemetery has acquired over 45 members who have planted hundreds of bulbs, cleaned and repainted the Chapel and helped many people […]
Ivory Trade
The Government intends the ban on dealing in ivory to come into force as soon as practicable and they therefore plan to lay the implementing secondary legislation before Parliament, and to issue guidance as soon as possible after appropriate consideration of responses to the recent consultation. When the ban comes into force all forms of […]
Live Animal Exports
Live animals commonly endure excessively long journeys during exports, causing distress and injury. Previously, EU rules prevented any changes to these journeys, but leaving the EU has enabled the Government to pursue plans which would prevent unnecessary suffering of animals during transport and see the UK become the first country in Europe to end this […]
Animal Testing
The Government is committed to supporting, funding, and accelerating cutting edge technologies that allow animal use to be replaced or avoided. UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) provides core funding to the National Centre of the 3Rs (NC3Rs) which works nationally and internationally to drive the uptake of 3Rs technologies and ensure that advances in the […]
Booking your Covid-19 Booster Appointment
The National Booking Service was updated today, which will allow all those eligible for a booster vaccine – people over 50 and those most at risk of COVID-19 – to pre-book their jab five months after their second dose. Originally, the service only allowed you to book your booster jab once 6 months had passed since […]
Autumn Budget
I welcome the contents of this year’s Autumn Budget, announced by the Chancellor on 27 October. Just one year ago, this country was in the grip of the biggest recession it had experienced in 300 years and was dealing with the huge, far reaching effects of a global pandemic. With that incredibly challenging set of circumstances in mind, it […]
October Update
This month’s update is written after the recent tragic death of my friend and fellow Essex MP, Sir David Amess. I pay tribute below to Sir David as well as to James Brokenshire, who also had strong links to Essex and who sadly lost his long battle with cancer this month. I would like to […]
Sewage Vote
Many of my constituents have written to me this week, to tell me their views on last weeks sewage discharge vote, particularly with regards to the environmental impact of poor storm overflow systems. I too, completely agree that the amount of sewage being released into our rivers and seas is unacceptable and must be addressed […]