The free meters will provide an accurate real-time reading of how much electricity a school building is using, allowing pupils to see on large ‘dashboard’ displays how their behaviour, such as switching on lights, computers and electrical equipment, affects the school’s electricity use.

Schools currently account for around 2% of UK green house gas emissions, with 9.4 million tonnes of carbon dioxide emitted annually by schools in England. The energy display meters, which are provided and installed by British Gas, are expected to help reduce consumption by 10-15 per cent, around 1 million tonnes of carbon dioxide, and it is estimated that it will save an average 900-pupil secondary school more than £3,000 a year on fuel bills alone.

Gisela says ‘I fully support any initiative to reduce energy consumption and will be contacting schools in the Edgbaston Constituency to promote this scheme.”

For more information, or to register your school for this programme, visit http://www.energydisplaymeter.co.uk/

Labour Home Secretary Alan Johnson has announced a pioneering scheme that will improve protection for children by giving members of the public a formal mechanism to make enquires about people who are in contact with children.

The Child Sex Offender Disclosure scheme has already had success after more than 60 children were protected from potential abuse during a 12 month pilot.

From August 2010 the scheme will roll out to 18 more police force areas, including the West Midlands, and to all UK forces by the end of March 2011.

As part of the new scheme the Government will be working with Child Exploitation & Online Protection (CEOP) to pilot a new online reporting process by which members of the public can register their concerns.

Gisela Stuart said: “The scheme will give added reassurance to parents worried about those in contact with their children and provide a route for reporting concerns.”

For more information on the Child Sex Offender Disclosure scheme visit:

http://press.homeoffice.gov.uk/press-releases/protecting-children-disclosure.html

Gisela Stuart and Steve McCabe met with Transport Secretary Lord Adonis to lobby for an early decision on the High Speed Rail Link for Birmingham.

Both MPs stressed that this is a vital part of the Midlands strategic transport structure, essential for jobs and economic growth.  

To have Birmingham linked to London and Paris would mean getting from Broad Street in Birmingham to Oxford Road in London in three quarters of an hour.  The decision is vital for jobs in Birmingham and the West Midlands. 10.000 jobs for construction, 2000 permanent jobs and up to 60,000 jobs in the Region..

“We have successfully fought for New Street station to be rebuilt, and now together with Highspeed link we need a rebuilt Curzon Street Highspeed Rail link station, which does justice to Birmingham.” Said Gisela Stuart

“This shouldn’t be a party political football. They council needs to pull its finger out and get the Tory frontbenchers in London to get a move on and fight for Birmingham” says Steve McCabe.

Quinzone will be holding an event on Saturday 27th March 2010, in support of International Women’s Day and to celebrate the role of women in the Edgbaston Constituency.

The event will run from 10am - 3pm and also support the Edgbaston Arts Showcase being held from 2pm - 4.30pm at Four Dwellings Community Leisure Centre

Gisela Stuart said: “I am delighted to support this global celebration that aims to inspire and celebrate women’s achievements.”

For more information or to offer your services for the event, please contact paul.handford@quinzone.bham.org.uk

The event welcomes women of all ages to come and experience a list of planned activities:

Hair and Beauty “Pamper Session”

Head Massages

Nail Art

Knitting/ Crocheting demonstrations

Recognising Women in society during the last 100 years

Quinton History Society

Domestic Abuse awareness

Women’s Enterprise

Halesowen College

Bournville College

UCB

NHS Breast awareness/ women’s health

Citizens Advice Bureau

Financial Advice & Guidance

Fire Service, safety in the home

Police - Safety in the community (Neighbourhood Policing)

At the 2005 General Election, 68% of polling stations had one or more serious access barriers that could prevent a disabled voter from voting independently.  Despite disabled people making up a considerable proportion of the electorate, some still find it more difficult to vote than non-disabled people.  That’s why Scope will be running their Polls Apart campaign in the run-up to the General Election to ensure that disabled people have the same access to Britain’s democracy as everyone else.

Local Authorities now have a duty to review polling station access and Scope has recently contacted every local authority to obtain the results of these reviews. 

Gisela Stuart said:

“Disabled people have the right to take an equal role in the life of their community and be able to lodge their vote independently.  I have written to the Chief Executive of Birmingham City Council to request the results of their action to ensure that every polling station is accessable for all eligible voters.”

Gisela said:

“It is important to ensure that disabled children, their families and the service providers all have the power to voice their concerns.  I have pledged to raise those concerns in Parliament to ensure that the appropriate rights and resources are available to this group. 

I also intend to find out how funding is being used in my constituency to improve services for disabled children, young people and their families.”

For further information about Every Disabled Child Matters and our Constituency Pledge, please go to: http://www.edcm.org.uk/electioncampaign

MPs and e-skills UK have launched the fourth year of the Make IT Happy competition, a UK-wide technology challenge for primary school students aged 9 to 11. The competition is run by the Parliamentary Information Technology Committee (PITCOM) and e-skills UK, the Sector Skills Council for Business and Information Technology. It is backed by more than 80 MPs from across the UK.

The Make IT Happy competition gives students a chance to work together to come up with creative technology projects which will have a positive impact on their local community.

Make IT Happy 2010 has the theme of ‘Get Your Community Online’. A panel of judges will be looking for imaginative, pupil-led initiatives from schools showing their communities how to make use of the exciting possibilities of the internet. 10 million people in the UK have never used the internet, meaning 16% of the population are missing out on all of the social and economic benefits it brings.

£1,200 will be awarded to each of the regional competition finalists with the overall winning school taking home an additional cash prize of £4,000. Winners will also be invited to attend an awards ceremony to be held at the Houses of Parliament in London in October.

Gisela Stuart said:

“I encourage all of the local primary schools to get involved with Make IT Happy this year. The competition offers a unique way for schools to do something good for the community. Most young people have grown up with technology, so they’re well placed to pass on their knowledge to help improve the quality of life for many local residents who lack experience of using the internet. As well as the cash prizes on offer, I’m confident that pupils will enjoy the chance to work together on such an exciting and relevant project. Entries should be as imaginative as possible in order to capture the attention of the judges. The competition is all about giving young people a chance to use their imagination, creativity and technology skills and show how IT can make a difference to the world around them.”

The closing date for entries is 31st July, 2010.

For further information and details of how to enter, visit the website at

http://makeithappy.cc4g.net

The Government this week announced a boost to housebuilding in England, by confirming nearly £500 million funding to build around 8,000 affordable homes across the country.  This takes total Government funding for housebuilding to over £3.3 billion since June.

Every region of the country is benefiting from this extra cash to build much-needed affordable homes for sale and rent. Over 3,000 of these new homes are expected to be available through the government’s HomeBuy schemes, offering first time buyers a helping hand onto the property ladder. And nearly 5,000 homes will be available for affordable rent through housing associations. 

As well as going to housing associations, this cash has been used to help developers to kickstart their stalled projects and get housebuilding back on track, and to fund the largest council house-building programme for two decades.

The Government has made clear the determination to make the most of every taxpayer’s pound invested in housing, by requiring housing associations, developers and councils benefiting from this cash to provide apprenticeship opportunities. 

Gisela Stuart said:

“I welcome the Government’s initiative in allocating funds for affordable housing.  I am aware that Birmingham has been allocated £2,615,497 since December 2009.

The funding will help to secure a strong future for the housebuilding industry and supporting the next generation of construction workers by creating thousands of new apprenticeships.”

Gisela Stuart welcomed the announcement in the House of Commons, to close the End of Custody Licence Scheme.

The ECL scheme was introduced in June 2007 as a temporary measure to manage pressures upon the prison estate and to guarantee that prison places were available for all those sentenced to custody.

ECL enabled prison governors, under existing prison rules, to release on licence up to 18 days before the end of their sentence offenders who had been given a determinate prison sentence of four weeks to four years.

The scheme specifically excluded offenders convicted of serious sexual or violent crimes, those who had broken the terms of temporary release in the past, foreign national prisoners who would be subject to deportation at the end of their sentence and was later amended to exclude anyone convicted of terrorism related offences.

Ministers always made clear it was a temporary scheme.  This scheme will be brought to an end on 12 March this year.

Prisoners who have as of today been formally notified of release dates under the scheme up to and including 9 April will also be released.  No prisoners will be released on ECL from and including 10 April.

Since Labour came to power 13 years ago, the prison population has increased dramatically. It was 60,335 in May 1997.  The most recent published figure was 83,820, on 19 February

We are able to end ECL because of the Government’s record in providing new prison places as part of the largest ever building programme

Unfortunately, there is a key barrier to the installation of domestic automatic fire sprinkler systems.

The Water Industry Act 1991 (as amended) does not allow for water used in domestic automatic fire sprinkler systems to be accommodated within the definition of ‘water taken for the purposes of fighting fires via a service pipe’. Therefore the only categorisation of such supplies is, by default, ‘water for non-domestic purposes’. The problem with this is that water for this category of use carries with it a lesser priority to the use for domestic purposes and, as a result, it is possible that the water supply for such sprinkler systems can be arbitrarily withdrawn.

Gisela Stuart has written in support of the request for an amendment of Section 57 of the Water Industry Act to include fixed fire fighting installations within the definition of fire fighting water.  The Act forms part of the Flood and Water Management Bill.

Gisela said: “It is important that resident’s are allowed to make an informed choice on improving their family’s safety.  The decision in this case needs to be based on the reliability of the water supply to feed the sprinkler system.  I have written to the Minister with responsibility at DEFRA to add my support to the request for an amendment of this Bill.”