Festive Community Events Provide Respite from More Serious Matters
Report back from Andy Slaughter, MP for Hammersmith and Chiswick
Andy Slaughter MP
December 12, 2025
There has been lots going on in Hammersmith in the last couple of weeks, with the festive period in full swing. I was delighted to attend the annual Brackenbury Residents’ Association lighting of the Christmas Tree as well as the Grove Neighbourhood Centre Christmas Fayre, and the wonderful carol concert at St Saviour’s put on by the Upper Room, a brilliant local charity. The Starch Green festival saw the launch of a brilliant new book, Askew Road: Then & Now, which compares photos from the last century. You can read all about the book here.
As well as enjoying the festivities, last week I attended a briefing by the Met on knife crime and I also went to the Hammersmith and Fulham borough-wide briefing on ‘New Met for London 2’ – a well-attended meeting at the Polish Social and Cultural Association. I asked about how the boroughs can work together and how we can avoid officers being taken for ceremonial duties and demonstrations in central London.
Last week I also met with Tim Orchard the Imperial NHS Trust Chief Executive to talk about how our hospitals are coping with the flu crisis.
I also met Mike Brown, former head of TfL now chair of HS2 on the future of Old Oak station, the link to Euston and where it will terminate in the north. Details of revised cost and timetable for the build are due early in the new year and I will keep up to date on this.
As well as locally, it has been busy in Parliament before we break for recess on Thursday this week. There was a major announcement from the government in the last couple of weeks on criminal court reform. The backlog of cases awaiting trial is in the tens of thousands and currently one of the biggest barriers to justice for victims. Unfortunately, over the tenure of the previous government little attention was given to the backlog and now we have reached critical levels.
When the current government came into power they commissioned an independent review of the criminal courts, led by Sir Brian Leveson who makes a compelling case for radical change and the need for more than just extra resources to address the situation across our criminal courts. The Lord Chancellor has listened and announced this week to restrict the role of juries in certain criminal cases.
These reforms constitute profound and unprecedented changes to the criminal justice system. Juries are central to our constitutional right to a fair trial and form a ‘cornerstone’ of a system which has served us well for centuries. In my question to the Justice Secretary, I asked for an evaluation on the effects of these changes - whether they, along with other measures such as increased investment, bring down the backlog and whether they do so fairly, without bias and without increasing conviction rates or sentence length. However, we must always remember that we have a duty to victims, and indeed defendants, to take all necessary steps to stop the delay and dysfunction of our courts.
I asked a further question on this on Monday last week, which you can see here.
Two weeks ago, there was a statement from the security minister on the collapse of the prosecution case of two individuals accused of espionage offences. In the statement I asked the minister if he has identified any points of learning for his department to stop this disappointing outcome from happening again.
I guested on the Joint Committee on Human Rights evidence session with justice minister, Jake Richards MP. I asked about immigration tribunals and stressed that further clarification was needed on the proposed changes to adjudication of these tribunals. I also enquired about prison overcrowding and the impact this has on rehabilitation as well as the forthcoming Hillsborough law. You can watch the session on Parliament Live for those interested.
I have also been notified of significant works to Barons Court station that will be taking place throughout 2026, which will unfortunately mean platform closures at the station. Overnight works have been happening throughout this year, but the outstanding works are more extensive and can only be undertaken when platforms are closed. This means from Monday 19 th January until early-June 2026 the eastbound platform will be closed. Once eastbound platform works are finished, westbound platform works will commence. I am assured that both platforms will be open for Queens Tennis Tournament which starts on 6th June 2026.
Barons Court Station is a Grade II listed building, and I have written to TfL to ensure that all heritage features – like the unique platform benches – will be preserved. I will also be asking for further details on the public communications they will be running to ensure that residents are kept up to date throughout. During the eastbound closures, TfL are advising passengers to use West Kensington for eastbound District line services or change at Earl’s Court or Hammersmith for eastbound Piccadilly services. Likewise, during the westbound platforms closure, passengers will be advised to use West Kensington for District line services or change at Hammersmith or Earl’s Court for westbound Piccadilly services.
On Friday 5 th of December, the government announced its Child Poverty Strategy with the aim of lifting 550,000 children out of poverty by 2030. They plan to do this through a range of measures including extending childcare hours for households receiving Universal Credit, scrapping the two-child benefit limit from April, raising the minimum wage and ending the unlawful use of B&Bs for homeless families past the six-week limit. I am very supportive of these measures, and I know many constituents in Hammersmith and Chiswick will be too.
Best wishes,
Andy
andy@andyslaughter.com
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