Debate at Westminster Hall, 30 November 2017

Urgent Update

Briefin#g for MPs [pdf]

As many of you will be aware; the Chair of the APPG, Jim Fitzpatrick MP, has secured a three hour debate on deafness and hearing loss which will take place in Westminster Hall between 1:30-4:30 on Thursday 30th November.  This is a general debate and MPs will be free to discuss any issue connected to deafness and hearing loss.

We are currently working with a number of organisations to pull together information for a briefing from UKCoD and UKCoD members have been asked for any materials that they would like to be considered for inclusion in the briefing.   We are aware that many organisations will be sending materials directly to their own supportive MPs.

As Jim Fitzpatrick said at the UKCoD conference last week, it is really important that we all actively encourage our supportive and local MPs to attend and speak in the debate.

Your organisation and members may want to raise many different issues related to deafness and hearing loss at this debate. However I’d like to bring to your attention a campaign being run by Darren Townsend-Handscomb, Chair of the UKCoD Employment mission group, focussing on the cap to ATW.

He is running the campaign through DeafATW, to encourage people to contact their MP, asking MPs to raise the issue of the cap at the debate, and with Sarah Newton, the new Minister for Disabled People.

If you would find it useful to share this campaign with your members, please do.  Darren has provided a draft briefing that you can share or amend if helpful.  You’ll find this below.  The links provided are to DeafATW pages in both English and BSL.

Craig Crowley MBE
Chair, UKCoD

Draft briefing to be shared:

Email your MP now!

This information is in BSL here: http://www.deafatw.com/updates.html

In just 8 days, on 30th November 2017, there will be a debate on deafness at Westminster Hall, Houses of Parliament.

This is a brilliant opportunity to show the new Minister for Disability (Sarah Newton) why the ATW cap is a problem, and how it is affecting you, colleagues or friends.

Please email your MP ASAP, ask them to go to the debate to talk about the impact of the cap on deaf people, and ask questions about the problems the cap is causing.  You can also ask them to write to Sarah Newton asking for the cap to be removed.

DeafATW has created a draft email that you can download and edit, so it is quick and easy for you to contact your MP. There are different draft emails for Deaf people with ATW and interpreters etc. to send.

This is the link to download the draft email: http://www.deafatw.com/download-letter.html