WIREDGOV

100,000+ web pages showing the sexual abuse & sexual torture of children have been removed from the internet thanks to the work of the UK’s Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) in 2018 – up by 33% on 2017.

The government has published the first cross-government suicide prevention plan, which will help reduce deaths in England by focusing on how social media & the latest technology can identify those most at risk.

The intention is to use predictive analytics & artificial intelligence to identify those at risk of suicide and the plan commits the government to improving data held on causes of death among veterans to better understand the triggers that can lead someone to take their own life, such as debt and gambling addiction. 

It also includes greater focus on addressing the increase in suicide & self-harm among young people, while social media companies will be asked to take more responsibility for online content that promotes methods of suicide and self-harm.

There are 4,500 suicides each year in England, and around 13 people end their life every day.  Men are 3 times more likely to die by suicide than women, and suicide is the leading cause of death in men under 50. Suicide is also a leading cause of death in young people.

Pregnant women & new parents returning to work after having children are to be further protected from unfairly losing their jobs under new proposals.

A new consultation proposes that the legal protection against redundancy for pregnant women and new mothers on maternity leave is extended so that it continues for up to 6 months after they return to work.  It will also seek views on affording the same protection to parents returning from adoption leave or shared parental leave.

Research commissioned by BEIS found 1 in 9 women said they had been fired or made redundant when they returned to work after having a child, or were treated so badly they felt forced out of their job.  The same research estimates 54,000 women a year may lose their jobs due to pregnancy or maternity.

The Defence Secretary has commissioned a new report to step up support for service families. 

The new study will examine the support available to the different members of military families, including spouses and partners, and children.  The MOD supports service families in many aspects of their lives, including housing, education, and spousal employment.

The report will be authored by Andrew Selous MP, who has previously served in the Honourable Artillery Company and the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers. It will analyse the different experiences of service family members, focussing on;

• Spouses and civil partners
• Long term partners
• Children and dependents

The report’s findings, which will be completed by summer 2019, will consider the diverse needs of service families and assess whether the current support on offer is meeting these needs.  The study will also allow the MOD to further enhance the delivery of vital support for military families.

Last week provided an example of the sort of free trade deal the UK might be offered by the EU if we are ‘trapped in a Backstop’ treaty with no unilateral way of exiting it.

The EC has adopted a contingency proposal to help mitigate impact of a “no-deal” Brexit on EU fisheries, which amends the Regulation on the Sustainable Management of the External Fleets. The aim of this proposal is to ensure that the EU is in a position to grant UK vessels access to EU waters until the end of 2019, on the condition that EU vessels are also granted reciprocal access to UK waters.

This proposal is limited to 2019 and (importantly) there is no mention of ‘fish landing rights’ for UK fishermen to land their catch in the EU.

According to an article published by British Sea Fishing (Brexit and Britain’s Fisheries);

The way quotas are set centrally by the EU is also seen as hugely unfair on British fishermen, as they can often end up getting only a tiny proportion of the catch within their own waters, as the following statistics show:

• 40% of Denmark’s entire fishing take comes from Britain’s territorial waters.
• In the Celtic Sea, France gets nearly three times the British allocation of Dover sole, roughly four times more cod and five times more haddock. France has 84% of the quota for cod in the English Channel, while Britain has only 9%.
• A single Dutch trawler the Cornelis Vrolijk, had the right to catch 23% of England’s entire fishing quota. In comparison the entire small inshore fishing fleet for the whole England is given 4% of the quota.
• European fishermen take 173 times more herring, 45 times more whiting, 16 times more mackerel and 14 times more haddock and cod out of UK waters than British fishermen do.

Not that one has much faith left in the negotiating skills of the UK government, but one would hope that we could get a bit more ’Quid’ for our ‘Pro Quo’ than just letting EU fishermen continue to catch the majority of UK fish, often using unsustainable fishing methods.

EC adopts 2 contingency proposals to help mitigate impact of “no-deal” Brexit on EU fisheries

Fishing might be one area where the Opposition won’t want to oppose Brexit  

Editorial commentary: Its 1973 all over again with EEC/EU (allegedly) demanding access to UK fishing waters

Editorial commentary; When will the EU ‘play’ its Joker?

Less ‘crashing out'; & more ‘planned' departure

A highly relevant ‘Brexit debate’ link - Sir Stephen Laws, former First Parliamentary Counsel wrote last week on the Policy Exchange website that the attempts by Grieve etc. to wrest control of Brexit from the Government will fail.