Gareth Johnson MP: Equal access to IVF treatment on the NHS should be ensured across the country

Gareth Johnson is MP for Dartford and Chairman of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Infertility.

IVF is one of Britain’s greatest inventions.  Professor Robert Edwards received the Nobel prize for Medicine for his pioneering work with infertile couples.  The result of this work was Louise Brown, the first so-called ‘test tube’ baby in the world. Britain, more than any other country should be championing the use of IVF treatment.

This is why, as Chairman of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Infertility, I have produced a report - which is being publshed today - to provide a snapshot of IVF provision across the UK today.  This report seeks to compare the practices of Primary Care Trusts against the guidelines for IVF provision laid down by the National Institute for Clinical Excellence.

Gareth Johnson MP: The Chancellor’s policy of rewarding those who leave money to charities will benefit communities up and down the country

Gareth Johnson has been MP for Dartford since the 2010 General Election.

The media coverage of George Osborne’s second budget as Chancellor has largely, and understandably, been focused on the 1p cut in fuel duty to help motorists, the raising of the personal allowance for Income Tax, and the creation of 21 new Enterprise Zones to boost jobs.  These are all measures that should be warmly welcomed, and are deserving of the publicity they have received.

There is one area of the budget, however, that has not enjoyed the coverage I believe it deserves – and it is an area that I believe will have a real and tangible benefit to communities right across the country.

The “10 for 10” policy announced in the Budget will see those people who leave 10% of their estates to good causes rewarded with a 10% reduction in the rate of Inheritance Tax they pay.  This is a neat and elegant change that will reward those individuals who already plan to give generously in their wills – and will encourage many more to do the same.

Small-scale charity fundraising is an established part of British life; it is one of the most attractive aspects of our society that up and down the country we regularly and enthusiastically come together in aid of good causes. 

Gareth Johnson: Labour's scandalous early release of prisoners demonstrates the need for honesty in sentencing

Gareth Johnson is Conservative candidate for Dartford and a solicitor.

For over twenty years I have worked within the Criminal Justice System and the most incredible change I have seen in that time has been the reduction of the actual amount of time a prisoner serves of their sentence. The difference between the sentence a prisoner is given and the actual time he spends behind bars has never been greater.

Parole has existed in the UK in one form or another since the middle ages, yet in the last ten years the ability for prisoners to be released early from their sentences has been extended to an unprecedented degree. We now have a sentencing regime that can only be described as dishonest. It undermines the expectations of the victims of crime; it confuses the public and belittles the Judges and Magistrates who imposed the sentence.

The current sentencing system allows for early release automatically half way through a sentence - a provision that was only brought in for longer sentences by this Government.  Perhaps most controversially, this Government has also allowed for prisoners to be released with an electronic tag up to three months early; a provision we have consistently opposed and committed ourselves to abolish.

The early release provisions don’t stop there! Since 2007 prisoners can be released 18 days early from their sentences just to help ease prison overcrowding. This so called ‘End of Custody Licence’ applies not just to long term prisoners but to those who have been sentenced to as little as a month. It seems that the alternative solution of building more prisons didn’t appeal to Gordon Brown’s budgeting when he was Chancellor.

If all of this were not enough, a fairly new provision allows for offenders who have been released on bail subject to a curfew to have half a day taken off their sentence for each day they have been subject to that curfew. Honestly, I am not making this up!