Policy Brief | Poverty, Inequality, the Environment
background

Policy Watch

An eye on policy changes in Ireland, the UK and beyond

Poverty, Inequality, the Environment

General  |  Wed Nov 11 2020

Poverty, inequality and Covid-19

England commits to free school meals during the holidays: In a massive U-turn away from its earlier refusal to fund free school meals outside of term time, the government allocated £170m to local councils for this and other supports to at-risk families.

Here, the NI Education Minister told the NI Assembly this week that his department was “scoping out what needs to be done in terms of the cost for the Christmas period and beyond. I think that, given what has happened in the past, the Executive will step up to the mark and provide that level of support. One of the things that needs to be scoped out is an additional level of weekly cost as it is likely, as time moves on, that the numbers of those on, for instance, universal credit will, sadly, increase. Therefore, there will probably be a higher cost per week, but I think that there is a strong commitment from the Executive to tackle the issue, and, again, I suspect that we will be ahead of the curve in comparison with Westminster”.

Meanwhile, press reporting here indicated rising demand for Northern Ireland’s food banks.

Inequality and race in the UK

The UK’s parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights highlighted clear evidence of racial inequalities in the UK – for instance that Black women are five times more likely to die in childbirth than white women – and called on the government’s Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities to focus on producing a “comprehensive cross Government race equality strategy” before year’s end. It also called for changes to the Equality and Human Rights Commission so that it can effectively protect and enforce the rights of Black people. At the same time, the Department for Education stakeholder group for Gypsy, Roma and Traveller people wrote to the Education Secretary to raise concerns that Gypsy, Roma and Traveller pupils are being further disadvantaged as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, in part due to digital exclusion and lack of home learning support. They queried the government’s decision to scale back provision of digital tech to students and called for targeted measures to reach these children.

Climate and environment

The Save Our Sperrins campaign group encouraged people to object to mining company Dalradian’s efforts to develop in the countryside. The company submitted new documents to the Department for Infrastructure in support of its development proposals, which include a new application for consent to discharge goldmine and sewage effluent into local waters.

Meanwhile, Belfast City Council minutes revealed that Council was writing to NI’s Minister for Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs with its concerns about carbon emission levels here, while the latter was considering proposals on progressing towards a Climate Change Bill in Northern Ireland.

In other news, Belfast City Council’s Growth and Regeneration Committee released minutes of its October meeting, where it discussed matters including a joint Department for Infrastructure / Department for Communities ‘Bolder Vision Connectivity Study’ with a possible ‘Belfast Urban Greenway’ Initiative for the city centre.

Follow our policy officer