Policy Motions carried at the 118th Liberal Party Assembly (4th-5th October 2003)...

Protecting Children

Assembly welcomes the recent transfer of the Children’s Strategy Unit from the Department of Health to the Department of Education and Skills. Assembly further welcomes the appointment of a Minister for Children.

However, Assembly believes that, in order to develop and deliver a cohesive “joined up” service to children and young people:-

(i). Local Authority Education Services and the relevant parts of Social Services Departments should be combined to create Children and Families Divisions with the consequential separation of Social Services for children and adults.

(ii). The development of “extended schools” housing education, health and social service provision on single sites should be encouraged by specific government grant.

Furthermore, Assembly regrets that the Government has failed to rise to the challenge set by the Public Inquiry into the tragic death of Victoria Climbie and has not proposed to bring Private Fostering Arrangements under regulation by Social Services Departments.

Assembly notes that there are believed to be several thousands of young people, of mainly African origin, who have been sent to this country to be looked after in Private Fostering Arrangements with no formal supervision of any kind.

Assembly believes that it is imperative in the interests of these children and young people that all arrangements in which young people aged under 16 are looked after away from their own family home for long periods must be subject to registration with and supervision by the relevant Social Services Department.

Assembly further believes that the refusal of the Data protection Commissioner to allow the use of the NHS number to be used by LEAs for tracking mobile populations is potentially vulnerable young children at risk in Child Protection issues.

Assembly therefore calls for the NHS number, already released for Social Services and all Health Authority tracking purposes to be released for specific authorised uses by LEAs.

NHS Health Contracts

Assembly notes Labour Party proposals that NHS patients be required to sign an agreement for a certain standard of treatment in return for attending appointments and following doctors’ advice in areas such as diet or addiction.

Assembly resolves to oppose any such proposals on the grounds that they are an infringement of personal liberties and run counter to the whole ethos of a national health service.

Education 14-19

Assembly is concerned at the increasing influence of the Learning and Skills Council on the curriculum of 14-19 year olds in Secondary Schools in England.

Assembly believes that schools must reflect the character and aspiration of their communities and that within the principle of equality of opportunity we must celebrate diversity.

As a non-elected and non accountable body the activities of the LSC are impinging on the proper activities of democratically elected Local Education Authorities and are leading to ever greater centralisation of control of Education in this country.

Assembly resolves to campaign for the return of local education to democratic local authorities.

Assembly further condemns the ill considered comments made by Charles Clarke where he suggested testing all children in all subjects at the age of 14.

Assembly is mindful that young people in this country are already the most tested in the Western World and calls on HM Government to reduce the examination burden carried by our young people by:

(i) Abolishing all testing at the end of Key Stage 1.

(ii) Replacing external testing at the end of Key Stage 2 with a system of

assessment led by teachers within the schools.

Replacing the end of Key Stage 3 tests with an aptitude profiling system which would more appropriately guide young people to make appropriate choices for Key Stage 4.

PUBLIC SERVICES AND PFI

Assembly is concerned at the long term cost of “hiring” PFI facilities, which may never become public property, from the contractors in comparison to public funding which results in publicly owned facilities.

Assembly is also concerned at the lack of accountability and democratic control implicit in PFI procedures.

Assembly believes that it is essential to establish a full public audit of all PFI and PPP projects in which public interest would have priority over commercial confidentiality to ensure both value for money and provision of acceptable public services.

Europe & Referenda

Assembly notes that the Party’s policy statement on Government declares that “The Liberal Party is opposed to the use of referenda”.

Assembly believes that the Party’s commitment to a written constitution requires the use of referenda to amend such a constitution and accordingly resolves to amend the statement to read “The Liberal Party is opposed to the use of referenda except for determination of constitutional changes”.

Assembly further believes:

(i) that the British people should be enabled by a Referendum to decide the acceptance of the proposed Constitution for Europe now being negotiated;

(ii) that a summary statement (available in minority languages) of the constitution should be circulated to all households prior to a Referendum.

Welcomes the enlargement of the European Union;

Recognises that a European Union of twenty-five will require the development of the Union’s treaties and its procedures.

Iraq

Assembly believes that the pre-emptive attack on Iraq was both wrong and illegal.

Assembly is horrified by the manner in which, following upon the first invasion phase, Her Majesties Government appears to have deployed UK troops in Iraq for an indefinite period with no clear strategy and no clear “exit strategy”.

Assembly asserts that is imperative that the Iraqi people are assisted to determine their own democratically elected representatives and to establish their own governmental structures.

Assembly urges HMG to take all possible initiatives to ensure that this happens without delay under the guidance of the United Nations with any residual peace keeping forces provided by the United Nations and not by the “occupying powers”.

Assembly considers that the mandate relating to Security Council Resolution 1483 can only be legitimised by a force that is run and controlled by the United Nations.

Assembly calls on the British polity and the media to recognise that for better or worse, we have assumed responsibility for the welfare of 20 million Iraqis which must take priority over the futile search for weapons of mass destruction.

Asylum Seekers

Assembly condemns the current political climate which has poisoned attitudes towards those seeking refugee status in the U.K..

Assembly notes:

That the U.K. government has singularly failed to develop and maintain a coherent asylum policy after six years in power.

That there have been offensive campaigns linked with lurid media headlines that continue to fuel ignorance and misrepresentation of the asylum issue.

Assembly believes that the nature of recent comments by senior political figures has undermined long term U.K. commitments to international humanitarian law.

Assembly supports:

All of the U.K.’s statutory obligations as laid down in international law.

Amnesty Internationals call for a credible determination system in the UK. This could be partially achieved by the establishment of an Independent Documentation Centre. The IDC would act as a central point to gather information on the human rights situation in a country, which is vital if proper assessments of asylum claims are to be made.

Objective and comprehensive country of origin information is also very important if the general public is to have confidence in the process.

An emphasis on the quality of initial decisions to ensure that every claim is considered fully on its merits.

Good quality legal advice from the start of a claim.

The right of asylum seekers to work and live in the community as citizens of the UK pending their claims.

The repeal of clause 48 of the Nationalities Immigration and Asylum Act together with amendments to the Dublin Convention that would allow duel asylum claims within the EU.

Royal Mail

Assembly is concerned

(i) at Royal Mail’s recent announcement that it intends to discontinue its rail services from April 2004,

(ii) that this development runs contrary to Government’s integrated transport policy of increasing the amount of freight carried by rail and reducing the number of heavy goods vehicles on our roads.

Assembly condemns Government for its failure to implement its own policy and calls on government to take urgent action to ensure that road traffic such as Royal Mail is transferred back to rail.

Airport Expansion

Assembly believes that the existing leavel of air transport causes excessive noise and air pollution and that the Labout Government is negligent in encouraging an increase.

Assembly calls on Government to have a strategy of significant and measurable reduction in air and noise pollution.

Assembly is opposed to the expansion or creation of airports where this involves demolition of homes and loss of quality of life for adjacent residents. Assembly believes that views of local communities should predominantly determine the fate of such plans,

Assembly believes that where the extension of Airport facilities is essential this should usually be achieved by the extension of existing airports rather than by the creation of new Airports.

Assembly believes that the best resolution of encouraging use of public transport to and from air flights in the West Midlands lies in the extension of Birmingham Airport and a reduction in the overall level of other airport facilities in the West Midlands.

Road Charging and Road Speed Limiting

Assembly notes the introduction of congestion charging in Central London, the building of the first toll motorway alongside the M6 and various proposals for road pricing in the future.

Assembly notes existing Party policy which sates that “if widespread gridlock on our roads is to be avoided in the future, some sort of rationing of vehicle use and even vehicle ownership is inevitable. Accordingly, we would draw up proposals for road transport rationing, with a view to implementation of such a scheme, once a properly funded and integrated public transport system has been introduced”.

Taxation Thresholds

Assembly deplores the action of the Prime Minister in “closing down” the attempt of the Leader of the House of Commons, the Rt. Hon. Peter Hain MP, to open up a debate on the inequity of the current Inland Revenue Income Tax rates which currently place an unfair taxation burden on middle income families to the benefit of the highest earners in this country.

Assembly believes that a thorough overhaul of the taxation system is required in order to ensure that the burden of taxation is more evenly spread across the population whilst not penalising talent and enterprise.

In the meantime Assembly believes that an urgent re-appraisal of personal tax allowances should be undertaken so that the thresholds at which the different tax bands “kick in” are raised in order to lower the tax burden on low and middle income families.

Local Taxation

Assembly reaffirms the Liberal Party’s commitment to Land Value Taxation, which will ensure that the community enjoys and benefits of publicly created land values.

Assembly believes that for local government to be effective and democratic it is essential that it has adequate powers to raise finance with the minimum of central government interference.

Assembly calls for the abolition of the Uniform Business Rate and it’s replacement with a system of Land Value Taxation.

Assembly also calls for the abolition of the Council Tax at the earliest opportunity and its replacement primarily with Land Value Taxation.

Calls on Government, as a minimum, to allow Local Authorities to opt for Land Value Taxation as an alternative local taxation.

Protection of the coast from cargo pollution

Assembly welcomes the Department of Transport proposals to protect our coastlines from damaging oil spills but regrets that the International Maritime Organisation has not taken the opportunity to address wider issues, in particular:

1. Redirecting the passage of old or poorly maintained vessels away from sensitive coastal areas.

2. The immediate withdrawal of single hull tankers,

3. Discouraging the practice of using the void space between double hulls for the storage of bunker fuel,

4. Control and regulation of ship to ship transfers of potentially polluting or dangerous cargoes,

5. Designation of appropriate anchorages and minimum mooring requirements for specific sea conditions.

Cod Fishing

Assembly notes the current crisis in our fishing industry