In his keynote speech to the Liberal Democrat Conference, Party Leader and Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg has outlined his goals for the Government and the country over the coming years. He reiterated his commitment to liberal values on the environment and human rights and his determination to ensure a fair chance for every child, saying "every child can do good things, great things, if only we give them the opportunities they deserve."

Bradford East MP David Ward has criticised the Boundary Commission's proposed changes to Parliamentary Constituencies in Bradford

I have now looked at the proposals in detail and it's becoming clear that the new boundaries could leave whole communities in the wilderness without proper Parliamentary representation. I agree with the principle of reducing the number of MPs and equalising the size of constituencies, but that shouldn't be done at the expense of communities.

Bradford East MP David Ward has welcomed today's announcement that referral fees on personal injury claims are to be banned as the beginning of the fight back against high car insurance premiums.

The announcement by the Justice Minister, Jonathan Djanogly, will mean that personal injury lawyers are no longer able to pay fees for the details of people involved in road traffic accidents.

Research on high insurance premiums in Bradford carried out by David Ward MP found that referral fees had been a key factor in pushing up premiums, leading to motorists being pressurised into making spurious or exaggerated personal injury claims.

Commenting, David Ward said:

"This is excellent news. I asked the prime minister to take this step back July, and I am delighted that the Government have responded to pressure from Bradford residents, and others, who were calling on referral fees to be banned.

"These fees clearly added nothing positive to the system and were driving up the number of spurious and opportunistic claims, the cost of which has been passed on to ordinary, law-abiding motorists through higher premiums.

"This is a good first step toward lower car insurance premiums, but more still needs to be done. Lawyers wouldn't have been willing to pay £800 referral fees unless they were making big profits out of personal injury claims. We need to look at getting these legal costs down, and also making it harder to make fraudulent claims."

David Ward MP's question to the Prime Minister on referral fees can be read here: http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201011/cmhansrd/cm110713/debtext/110713-0001.htm#11071354001672

David Ward MP's report into high premiums in Bradford which recommends that referral fees be banned can be downloaded here:
http://www.davidward.org.uk/en/document/interim-car-insurance-report.pdf

Bradford East MP, David Ward, will launch his campaign for 100 Apprenticeships in 100 days at the Inspired Neighbourhoods Business Forum.

Across the country the coalition government has created more than 100,000 apprenticeships and David Ward working alongside Bradford Council is aiming to encourage businesses to provide more in Bradford.

Bradford MP David Ward backed further amendments to the Government's Health Bill today.

David supported amendments tabled by Liberal Democrat MPs, which address remaining concerns about the Bill, including the power of the Secretary of State to provide - as well as secure - healthcare. The Government have committed to make these changes before MPs have a final chance to vote on the Bill later this year.

David Ward MP has welcomed today's report by Parliament's influential Treasury Select Committee, which gives strong backing to his calls for greater safeguards on the future of cheques.

David has led a vigorous campaign to save cheques, since last year's announcement by the Payment's Council that they planned to close cheque clearing by 2018.

Massive campaigning helped force a U-turn earlier this year and David has introduced a Bill in Parliament to limit the banks' power to abolish cheques in the future.

The Committee today backed this approach, and joined David in calling for an independent body to take all future decisions on cheques.

Commenting, David Ward said:

"It is great news that the Committee have decided to back my call for an independent body to make sure that all future decisions on cheques are taken in the interests of consumers, not the banks. The Payments Council listened to reason and abandoned its target to abolish cheques by 2018, but we must not allow this to happen again.

"If the Payment's Council's plans had been allowed to go ahead, millions of vulnerable people, charities and small businesses would have been left without this essential service. This decision is too important to be left in the hands of an organisation which has a massive vested interest in getting rid of cheques.

"We have already seen the service substantially eroded with the loss of the cheque guarantee card. We need to put a stop to this, and I am calling on other MPs to back my Bill which will put these decisions in the hands of an independent regulator."

There are still a few tickets available for the car insurance summit that is taking place tomorrow.

David Ward MP has organised the summit as part of a wider campaign to get to the bottom of the huge car insurance premiums in Bradford.

Ordinary people and industry experts will be brought together to help shed light on the problem.

David Ward MP's Campaign for Affordable Car Insurance today gained further momentum following a meeting with local taxi drivers.

Mr Shabir Munir, a representative of the Bradford Hackney Carriage Owners and Drivers Association reported that, "This is a very important issue, not just for taxi drivers... We've got to show the real strength of feeling there is about this".

Bradford East MP, David Ward, has visited students at Bowling College to discuss concerns about changes to funding for English language courses.

As part of his Autumn Spending Review, the chancellor proposed to cut funding for English for Speakers of Foreign Language (ESOL) courses, except for those actively looking for work.