Care of rescued child trafficking victims to be reviewed

In a fantastic debate in the House of Lords on Wednesday evening at the Report stage of the Protection of Freedoms Bill, the Government committed to taking action to address the level of care rescued child victims of trafficking currently receive.  The Children’s Commissioner is to undertake a review of the present situation and make recommendations for practical arrangements to improve care which will be revisited by the Government at a later date.

We are very pleased that the Government has changed tack and recognised that more needs to be done for rescued child victims of trafficking – thank you for all the support through prayers and letter writing in recent weeks.

Please do click here to find out more about the encouraging news from Wednesday’s debate.

Prayer: Praise God for a great debate and a very encouraging outcome.  Pray that the Children’s Commissioner would conduct a thorough review and that the Government would listen to and act on the recommendations which will be made.

Assisted suicide debated in House of Lords

In a debate in the House of Lords on Monday evening, the Government reaffirmed the role of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) in prosecuting cases regarding assisted suicide.  They made it clear that it is the role of parliament to legislate, not to dictate prosecution policy to the DPP, and we are pleased to see the Government restate this position concerning assisted suicide.

Peter Saunders, CEO of Christian Medical Fellowship, has written a helpful summary of the issues covered in the debate which can be found here.

To watch a video of the debate, please click here (the debate begins at 19:32:25) and to read a transcript, click here.

Treasury says it won’t recognise marriage in this year’s budget

It was reported last weekend that the Treasury has ruled out recognising marriage in the tax system in next month’s budget.  This, of course, does not change the fact that, in the terms of the Coalition Agreement, the Government is obliged to recognise marriage in the tax system by 2015.  It is, however, very unfortunate to see yet a further delay.

As we have made clear, recognising marriage in the tax system is a far more progressive choice than the policy currently being implemented to raise the personal tax allowance threshold to £10,000 (see here).  CARE calls on the government to reconsider and seize the opportunity presented by the March 2012 budget to introduce the truly progressive tax policy in the Coalition Agreement.

Also in the news this week:

MPs question High Court ruling over prayers being banned before Council meetings

Baroness Warsi ‘fighting for faith’

Bishop of Shrewsbury calls on Christian MPs to rebel over same-sex marriage