Crawley Liberal Democrats

The first phase of the campaign is a major apprenticeships drive. The party's ambition is to double the number of companies offering apprenticeships from 100,000 to 200,000.

Campaigning 'Action Days' will take place across the country tomorrow [Saturday], with MPs and local parties highlighting the work they and the party nationally are doing to help create jobs and apprenticeships in their local areas.

Commenting, Liberal Democrat Leader and Deputy Prime Minister, Nick Clegg said:

Hundreds of children could be put at risk of trafficking and abuse if the UK Government opts out of EU crime fighting measures, it emerged today (Wednesday, June 12).

Catherine Bearder, an MEP for the South East, has backed Justice Against Borders campaign which is opposed to UK plans to dump 130 EU police and criminal justice measures.

A Tory campaign urging MPs to back an 'in/out' referendum on UK's membership of the EU spreads further uncertainty for everyone in the business community, Catherine Bearder MEP has said.

The Conservative party is keen to rally support for Tory MP James Wharton's Private Members' Bill, which calls for a referendum by the end of 2017.

Measures to enhance consumer rights and make them easier to understand, which will boost the economy by £4 billion over the next decade, have been unveiled today by Consumer Minister Jo Swinson.

The proposals, outlined in the draft Consumer Rights Bill, streamline overlapping and complicated areas from eight pieces of legislation into one consumer Bill. They also introduce new rights for consumers and businesses. Currently consumers spend more than 59 million hours a year dealing with goods and services problems. This deregulatory measure will reduce the effort consumers and businesses have to make to resolve problems.

Under the draft Bill consumers will have the right to:

The Local Growth Committee will bring together the Secretaries of State from all the key economic departments, bringing together the ministerial groups previously chaired by the DPM on the Regional Growth Fund (RGF) and City Deals. It will provide oversight across the local growth agenda to drive jobs and growth across England.

Potential agenda items include the implementation of the 1st wave of City Deals, signing off the 2nd wave of City Deals and allocation of RGF money. It is also likely to discuss the design and implementation of the Single Local Growth Fund and look at cases where infrastructure policy could impact upon particular localities.

The DPM will chair the committee with Chancellor George Osborne as deputy chair. Other members will include Vince Cable, Michael Gove, Eric Pickles, Ed Davey, Patrick McLoughlin and Danny Alexander. The Committee will meet on ad-hoc basis but intends to meet for the first time before the summer recess.

Nick Clegg will make the announcement at a dinner in Sheffield this evening marking the 100th anniversary of the discovery of stainless steel.

Extractive companies (such as mining and logging) will no longer be able to operate in the shadows when the European Parliament votes to ratify tough new rules on corporate transparency.

The vote, to be held in Strasbourg tomorrow (Wednesday 12th June), will conclude nearly a year of EU negotiations between the European Parliament, Council of Ministers, and the European Commission.

Sharon Bowles (ALDE, UK), Chair of the European Parliament's Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee, on Tuesday welcomed the Commission proposal for rules to facilitate compensation for victims of breaches of competition law. At the start of a meeting with Commissioner for competition policy Joaquin Almunia, Ms Bowles said the following:

The economic benefits of offshore oil and gas production, for energy security, jobs, tax revenue and growth are set to be maximised, as Government announced the start of an independently-led review today.

The UK's oil and gas industry is of vital national economic importance, supporting 440,000 jobs, and stimulating business, innovation and skills. Some 41 billion barrels of oil and gas have already been produced from the UK Continental Shelf (UKCS) and we must maintain our momentum and make the most of the huge opportunity that the UKCS still represents.

The review will be led by Sir Ian Wood, who will undertake full analysis, and work with industry leaders and Government to make recommendations for improving the future economic recovery of UKCS oil and gas.

Secretary of State Edward Davey said:

Banking 2020: A Vision for the Future (Edited by Steve Tolley)

Introductory speech at book launch by Sharon Bowles MEP

"Steve tells me he chose the 2020 date because by then various measures that have been legislated or are in the pipeline will have come into force.

"To mention a few:

"The major reform on capital - Basel 3 - which comes in via the epic-proportioned Capital Requirements Regulation and Directive (known collectively as CRD4) has several relevant start dates - 2014 for most things through to 2018, by which time we should have the final rules on liquidity and leverage calibrated and running.

Thousands of jobs in the South East depend on our continued involvement with Europe, as does our ability to keep Britain safe and secure.

Today (07/06), Catherine Bearder MEP joined other Lib Dem candidates at Westminster to stress the importance of the European Union to the South East economy.

Catherine said: "In recent years there has been a rising tide of opinion against the EU, much of it built on falsehoods and misunderstandings.