Jon Cruddas MP for Dagenham and Rainham is supporting Bowel Cancer UK’s End the Capacity Crisis campaign and is calling on the Government to recruit more NHS staff to tackle long waiting times for tests that could diagnose bowel cancer – the UK’s second biggest cancer killer.

Under NHS rules patients should wait no more than six weeks for these life-saving tests, but every month on average this year a quarter of NHS hospitals in England (28%) were in breach of this target – a clear red flag to the Government that NHS staff are struggling to cope.

This week, The National Autistic Society launched ‘autism hour week’ across the UK. Ninety-nine per cent of people have heard of autism, but only 16% of autistic people feel the public understand them.

So, as part of The National Autistic Society’s Too Much Information campaign, they are asking shops and businesses to organize an Autism Hour and take simple steps for 60 minutes that lead to a more autism-friendly world. 

This week the Mayor of London has announced his plans to introduce a Violence Reduction Unit in London, a scheme piloted in Glasgow to reduce the number of violent crimes.

The scheme addresses violent crime as a public health issue and in doing so seeks to create a multi-agency approach that specialises in early intervention. The project has been launched with £500,000 worth of funding and will be working with schools, healthcare professionals, local councils and the police to try and divert young people from a life of crime, in particular violent crime.

This month MP for Dagenham and Rainham Jon Cruddas is launching a petition and campaign calling on the government for more investment in policing, and a new strategy/approach that takes account of and prioritises high crime areas in London.

This campaign comes as a response to rising violent crime across the Member of Parliaments’ constituency, with a focus on knife and moped related incidents over the past 12 months.