It’s been a really varied week in Westminster.

My commitments ranged from meeting the Chief Secretary to the Treasury about levelling up and the support the Northern MPs will be seeking from Ministers to ensure its effective delivery in constituencies like ours, through to visiting Downing Street to speak to the Prime Minister’s Head of Policy about fraud and financial crime.

I know from my mailbox that many of you have been fleeced by scammers. It is therefore encouraging that a new Fraud Strategy is soon to be launched.

As we know, the ripples from Covid are still being felt.

The impact on the NHS is obvious, but there are wide-ranging repercussions. The inability to release people from hospital care as there is insufficient support in the community is rippling down to affecting hospital admissions, planned surgery, A&E Departments, the ambulance service, and the ability of GPs to refer people for secondary care.

This causes stresses within an already stretched system, on delivery, on staff and on patients.

On Wednesday, Prisons Minister Damien Hinds made a statement in the House on the impact of Covid on prison capacity, another area that is still catching up after the 18-month hiatus caused by the virus. This provided me with an opportunity to stress the importance of ensuring that those who are released from prison stay out, and can live their lives away from crime. This is exactly what my Offenders (Day Release from Detention) Bill is all about.

It is designed to prevent the current situation where vulnerable prisoners released on a Friday afternoon find it impossible before the weekend to make contact with their probation officer or GP, find work, and somewhere safe to sleep. At times, this can act like a revolving door that leads them straight back to crime, and then back into imprisonment.

My Bill will instead give prisons leeway to release vulnerable prisoners up to 48 hours earlier, giving them time to make the arrangements they need. I am therefore delighted to report that the Bill sailed through the House of Commons on Friday. There are further hoops to jump through, but this was the most difficult one. I am most grateful to the Minister of Justice and the House for their support.

At the weekend, celebrating Small Business Saturday, I visited some of our fantastic local stores. It was a reminder, as Christmas approaches, that it’s really important to support local businesses who employ local people. Do keep your money in our local economy whenever you can.