Carers Week 2023 & The Swindon Carers Centre 'Walk a Mile' Event
As we marked Carers Week 2023, it was great to be back at The Hub in Swindon Town Centre for the ‘Walk A Mile in Their Shoes’ Swindon Carers Centre annual event. It’s a mile walk around the town to mark the huge amount of work carried out by carers every day, the unpaid contribution that they make to Swindon, and the huge value they add to our town. I am regularly campaigning in Westminster on carers issues, raising them with the Government, and working closely with our carers organisation, so I was very proud to take part in the event again this year.
Visiting The Commonweal School and Badbury Park Primary School
It was great to be back at The Commonweal School in Old Town to see staff and students from the sixth form and discuss law and politics. I particularly enjoyed the discussion and question and answer session and would like to thank all of those students who took part.
Continuing on the theme of education, I was also pleased to visit staff and pupils at Badbury Park Primary School, after working with the Government to ensure that we had the funding for the development of this vital facility for families and children in Badbury Park. This is a lovely new facility and much needed, once again underpinning the fact that here in our town, over 90% of parents who are bidding for a Primary school place will get their top three choices. That is a real commitment to schools and education here in Swindon from our Government, and I am delighted to be supporting that.
Visiting the new Post and Packaging shop in Swindon Town Centre and my ongoing Local Business Support Campaign
I was pleased to be back in Havelock Street in Swindon Town Centre to visit a brand-new local business. The new Post and Packaging Shop offers a wide range of services to both local residents and businesses, giving customers more choice on how to send their parcels and mail. The shop also sells packaging materials in all shapes and sizes, from a single box to a thousand boxes, as well as offering printing and scanning services. What better place to come than here in the heart of Swindon, to a new local business, run by local people in a street that is home to a number of excellent local enterprises. You can find out more about my Local Business Support Campaign on my website here: https://www.robertbuckland.co.uk/campaigns/sir-robert-bucklands-local-business-support-campaign
The Impact Of Artificial Intelligence On The Ethics Of Justice
It was great to be back at The Friends Meeting House in Eastcott Hill to see friends from the Swindon Philosophical Society, which is an active and long-established group. I spoke at the event about the impact of artificial intelligence on the ethics of justice.
There are very good reasons why we should be suspicious of change when it comes to the law, particularly the danger of change for change’s sake. The importance of legal memory, precedent and tradition should not be underestimated. On the contrary, it should be celebrated. With continuity comes certainty, and certainty is good for the rule of law.
But this, however, is not the full picture. Laws and their practice that do not change at all will ossify and either become irrelevant, illogical, or inimical to the society that they should be designed to serve.
Nowhere is this change more marked than in the field of Artificial or Machine Intelligence, which is increasingly grabbing the attention of policymakers and practitioners as the pace of change quickens.
AI is already a fact of life in many fields of activity, and justice is certainly one of them. You can read the full talk on my website here: https://www.robertbuckland.co.uk/news/artificial-intelligence-and-digitalisation-new-hope-justice-or-new-threat-0
My Work Continues As Part of the Autism Employment Review
I have been appointed by the Prime Minister and the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions to lead a new Autism Employment Review. As part of the review, round table discussions have been continuing in Westminster.
Autistic people have a huge amount to offer employers, and more and more businesses are recognising the benefits of having a diverse workforce full of people who offer a variety of skills and different ways of thinking. But still, many autistic people face huge barriers in finding and staying in work.
A better understanding of autism in the workplace could transform thousands of autistic people’s lives and round table discussions with key organisations including The National Autistic Society, and Autistica, who are supporting the review, are crucial to gain a further understanding of what can be done to provide better support for autistic staff already in the workforce, what more could be done to prepare autistic people who would like to begin or return to a career, and working practices and initiatives to reduce stigma and increase understanding.
If you have a national or local issue you would like to raise with me, please get in touch by emailing me on robert.buckland.mp@parliament,uk or by ringing 01793 533393.
