Success for Wet Wipe Campaign and Concern Over Prisoner Errors

Report back from Andy Slaughter, MP for Hammersmith and Chiswick

Andy Slaughter MP in the Westminster Garden of Remembrance (left) and campaigning to ban plastic wet wipes (right)

November 7, 2025

Many in Hammersmith and Chiswick will have heard of Wet Wipe Island near Hammersmith Bridge. Over the years I have attended annual wet wipe counts to highlight the scale of the problem and many volunteers have spent countless hours trying to clean up the Thames shores in our local area. A major part of ensuring Wet Wipe Island doesn’t reoccur is by banning plastic in wet wipes. That’s why I was delighted this week to celebrate the government’s change in the law that will finally ban the sale of plastic wet wipes.

The Public Office (Accountability) Bill, otherwise known as the Hillsborough Law, passed second reading in the Commons on this week. I am delighted that the government delivered on its manifesto promise to introduce a Hillsborough Law that ensures accountability for public authorities. In my speech at second reading, I raised the importance of including a National Oversight Mechanism within the Bill to ensure that when inquiries like Grenfell and Hillsborough are finished, their recommendations are implemented. I also think it is important to extend the Bill to cover the role of the press in covering up wrongdoing as at Hillsborough.

In other justice news, reports that two prisoners had been ‘released in error’ from HMP Wandsworth are extremely concerning, especially following the high-profile release from HMP Chelmsford last month. I understand that both those prisoners erroneously released are now back behind bars, but this speaks to a wider issue of a justice system at breaking point. Evidence taken by the Justice Committee has laid bare a crisis-hit prison system, starved of investment over many years which is facing multi-faceted pressures, including overcrowding and understaffing. As Chair of the Justice Committee, you can read my full statement here.

This Sunday I will be attending the Chiswick Remembrance Service, and I am honoured to take part in the parade from Chiswick Memorial Club to Chiswick war memorial, where I will lay a wreath. I am very grateful to my friend and colleague Cllr Wesley Harcourt who will lay a wreath on my behalf at Shepherd's Bush memorial. I also attended the Westminster Garden of Remembrance where I added a tribute on behalf of Hammersmith and Chiswick.

Best wishes,

Andy

andy@andyslaughter.com

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