News Andy Burnham MP for Leigh

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20/10/2008 - Powerful campaign pays tribute to the young faces behind Sudden Cardiac Syndrome

Bereaved families were joined by Andy Burnham and MP's from all parties to launch a nationwide awareness campaign to highlight shocking new statistics that show the number of young people who lose their lives from the tragic condition 'Sudden Cardiac Death' now stands at 12 every week – a staggering 50% rise on previous estimates.

The new figures released by the charity, Cardiac Risk in the Young (CRY) are based on official statistics [ONS 2006] citing the cause of sudden death among people aged 35 and under - and have been analysed by some of the UK’s leading heart experts, including the charity’s consultant cardiologist, Dr Sanjay Sharma (Kings College Hospital, London).

Sudden Death Syndrome strikes down hundreds of young people – many of whom were involved in sport – at the prime of their lives. Sport does not cause this problem - but it can exacerbate an existing undiagnosed condition and the high risk group is the young.

It is now widely accepted that screening saves lives. CRY is committed to encouraging greater access to its cardiac testing for all groups and individuals (but especially those involved in sport at ‘grass-roots level) to detect conditions that might otherwise go undiagnosed

Chief Executive and Founder of the charity, Alison Cox MBE, says; “We feel – as we head towards 2012 – it is time re-launch this powerful campaign to help emphasise the importance of screening and the fact that so many of these tragic cases affecting fit and healthy young people could have been prevented. These 12 faces are just a “snap-shot” of the problem and we need to keep up the pressure and engage support from as many MPs as possible to ensure we can prevent other families from experiencing similar tragedies.”

At a major Parliamentary Reception Andy joined Olympian and CRY Patron, James Cracknell OBE; James unveiled a banner – which will act as a high profile symbol for the charity until 2012. The life sized ‘petition’ has been signed by a number of leading sports personalities, pundits including, Sir Steve Redgrave, Paula Radcliffe, Sir Ian Botham, Tim Henman and Andrew ‘Freddie’ Flintoff.

Alison adds; “Our original postcard campaign was tremendously successful and resulted in hundreds of MPs being targeted with details of our campaigning activity as well as the ‘hard’, shocking facts about sudden cardiac death. In fact, over 100 have since added their support by joining the Cardiac Risk in the Young All Party Parliamentary Group.”

06/10/2008 - Andy backs Identity Fraud Prevention Week

Andy Burnham MP has urged constituents not to hand their identity over on a plate to fraudsters.

The calls come at the beginning of the fourth annual National Identity Fraud Prevention Week which aims to raise awareness of the dangers of identity fraud and inform the public and businesses on the steps they could and should be taking to protect themselves from identity fraud.

This awareness drive has been put in place by an expert group of public and private sector partners, and is being supported by Andy, the BBC’s Adrian Chiles (who is fronting this year’s campaign) the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO), the Metropolitan Police, the Home Office’s Identity and Passport Service, Royal Mail, CIFAS – The UK’s Fraud Prevention Service, Fellowes, CallCredit, Equifax, Experian, the Federation of Small Businesses, the British Retail Consortium, the Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA), and regional police forces.

Government figures show that identity fraud costs the economy more than £1 billion annually – and independent pan-European market research, commissioned by Fellowes for National Identity Fraud Prevention Week, reveals that Britain suffers one of the region’s highest rates of identity fraud. The survey revealed that 4.3million adults have already fallen victim.

Thanks to ongoing public awareness drives, such as National Identity Fraud Prevention Week, the UK boasts the highest awareness rates – 99% of adults surveyed claimed to be aware of identity fraud and 95% realise that we are all at risk.

However, 64% of British adults do not understand how best they can protect themselves against identity fraud, indicating that yet more needs to be done to communicate best practice in the home and work environment and encourage the public to take this advice – protecting themselves and lessening the impact of identity fraud upon the economy.

Andy said, “I firmly support the work of all the partners who have come together to raise awareness of the very real problem of identify fraud both in the Leigh area and across the UK."

“I join with the National Identity Fraud Prevention Week in encouraging individuals and business to stop taking chances with their identity, and to start getting identity fraud wise. You wouldn’t leave your car or house unlocked - in the same way we all have a responsibility to protect our personal details.”

01/09/2008 - Burnham sets Olympic ambition for local school sport

Coaching and competition for all in main sports by 2012

Culture Secretary and Leigh MP Andy Burnham set out his ambition to offer coaching and competition for all by 2012 as part of plans to offer young people five hours of sport a week.

Andy said by 2012 high quality coaching and competition will be on offer to all school children in all the main sports like cricket, tennis and athletics.

He also said that the £1.5 billion investment into school sport since 2002 - roughly five times the amount invested in developing medal winners in the same period - was beginning to reap the same rewards as those seen in elite sport.

His comments came as Sport England announced the first phase of government plans to offer young people more sport outside of school. The £36 million 'Sport Unlimited' scheme is designed to attract into sport those young people who do not take part in sport regularly.

It will set up 4000 taster sessions across England in non-traditional sports, including cycling, sailing, kayaking, American football and dodgeball. The nationwide scheme will be available from the beginning of this new school term.

The fund is part of the £100 million extra funding for young people's sport announced by Prime Minister Gordon Brown last year, bringing total investment into school sport over the next three years to £780 million. The extra investment was put in to offer all 5-16 year olds five hours of government funded sport a week, two in school and three out. All 16-19 year olds will be offered three hours of out of school sport a week.

Andy Burnham said, "The UK School Games are the pinnacle of the school sport system and shows how a culture of competition and excellence has been reintroduced to our schools. Since Beijing it is has become widely acknowledged both here and abroad that we now have a world class system for developing medal winners. But rivals like Australia are not just looking at our elite sport system anymore. Outside Britain they are now also acknowledging the giant leaps we have made in school sport."

"Despite these improvements, it still feels like some people are stuck in a time warp when it comes to their perceptions of school sport in this country. It's not the eighties any more. School playing fields aren't being sold off left, right and centre. PE is not being abandoned from the timetable and competition is no longer a dirty word. In fact there has been a dramatic and unparalleled transformation of school sport that emulates the transformation of elite sport in Britain."

"Today's announcement by Sport England is further proof of that and builds on our Olympic medal success. School sport has undergone a radical overhaul since 2002. There are now more coaches, more facilities, more varied sports and more competition. By 2011 we will have achieved the ultimate ambition that every child will be offered five hours of quality sport a week. That will include coaching and competition for all. By the time the Olympics start in 2012 I'm confident our school sport system will lead the world. "

There have been a number of developments in school sport since 1997.

* In 1998 Government moved to protect school playing fields by requiring all local authorities and schools in England to have the consent of the Secretary of State of the Department for Children, Schools and Families before selling.
* A sale won't be sanctioned unless it is an absolute last resort, with local authorities having to demonstrate that they have exhausted all other sources of funding and all proceeds must be used to improve school sports or education facilities.
* Since 1997, just 192 playing fields have been sold (out of total of over 20,000 schools) and all of these were surplus to requirements. 91 belonged to schools that were closing, 83 of those that remained open used the sale to improve their sports facilities and the remaining 18 improved their educational facilities.
* The number of children doing at least two hours of school sport has increased from two million (25%) in 2002 to over five million (86%) in 2007.
* Over 450 specialist school sport colleges have been set up since 2002.
* Over 3,000 Community Sports Coaches, whose core focus is working with young people in schools, have been employed.
* The Youth Sport Trust organised UK School Games - which benefits from Lottery and Government funding - launch in 2006
* 225 local competition managers will be in place from September the 1st 2008 to ensure more competitive sport takes place between schools.
* Inter-school sport competition is on the rise. Latest figures from 06 / 07 show that 40 per cent of children in years 4 - 11 (aged 8 - 16) are taking part in sports competition against other schools up from 33 per cent in 2003 / 04