It is with a deep sense of regret that for the second year in a row, my letter at the turn of a New Year cannot but focus on the coronavirus pandemic.

Like all of us one year ago, when the first doses of the vaccine were being rolled out, I hoped that these jabs and the unfortunate restrictions put in place to curb the spread of the Delta variant would be the final push towards defeating covid from our lives.

Sadly, the virus has mutated, putting an end to any such hopes this winter. I write ahead of the Christmas break, and I am mindful that we are still unsure of the impact of the Omicron variant on cases, hospitalisations and deaths. But it is a clear reminder that covid is still with us for the foreseeable future. I urge everyone to get their booster jab as soon as they are eligible, to help protect our community this year.

Looking back over the past year, it is remarkable that we have gone from administering the first approved dose of the vaccine anywhere in the world last December, to over 120 million doses administered now, one million of which have been in Shropshire. This has been in no small part thanks to the remarkable efforts of NHS staff, and the hard work of our local GPs and Primary Care Network staff and volunteers here in South Shropshire, to whom we should be very grateful.

Despite all the havoc wreaked on the Parliamentary timetable in 2020, the past 12 months have been a busy time in Westminster, with several landmark pieces of legislation passing into law. The first serious effort in decades to reform funding of social care was a landmark moment.

For me, perhaps the most significant was the Environment Act. There are many reasons for this, given it is such a wide-ranging piece of legislation, covering plastic waste, pollinators, ancient woodlands, a new Office for Environmental Protection, and air and water quality targets - all helping us to leave the environment in a better state than we found it.

But it also represented the culmination of my long running campaign to introduce legislation to reduce sewage pollution into our rivers. After pressing the government hard to take action on this issue, supported by many campaigning organisations, including the Rivers Trust, Angling Trust and Surfers Against Sewage, I am delighted that we secured a legal duty on water companies progressively to reduce the impact of sewage discharges from storm overflows, which contains the essence of what I have been campaigning for since the 2019 General Election. 

This is not the end of sewage pollution, and I will continue to do all I can to keep up the fight. But the progress we made this year was the most meaningful step forward on this issue in decades.

Over the next year, I expect the government to progress further in delivering on its manifesto commitments, though the immediate need to combat the pandemic will continue to be the primary focus.

The Environmental Audit Committee will continue our work holding government to account for its environmental commitments, including those made at COP26 in November last year. We have a number of inquiries underway, including examining how HM Treasury could incorporate environmental sustainability into its leading measures of the UK’s economic success.

I remain happy to engage with constituents on these and any other issues of concern, and the best way to contact me is via email at philip.dunne.mp@parliament.uk. I wish everyone in South Shropshire a Happy New Year, with best wishes for 2022.

Philip

Rt Hon Philip Dunne

MP for Ludlow