Tag: Joan Ryan

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Joan Ryan on 2015-11-10.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent representations she has received from heads of special educational needs schools on the increase in costs from national insurance and pension scheme contributions.

Mr Sam Gyimah

The Department has received a large number of letters from headteachers about the increase in national insurance and pension scheme contributions, some of which have been from special schools.

We are committed to protecting schools funding, as we pledged in our manifesto. Throughout this Parliament, as pupil numbers increase so too will the amount of money for our schools.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Joan Ryan on 2016-02-01.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what recent assessment he has made of the potential merits of extending the mandatory retirement age for magistrates from 70 to 75; and if he will make a statement.

Mr Shailesh Vara

The Government position remains that a retirement age of 70 for all judicial office holders is appropriate.

A mandatory retirement age of 70 means both judges and magistrates can continue to make a contribution to society whilst allowing for regular recruitment of the judiciary.

It also enables the judiciary to have the correct number of judges and magistrates, while preventing them from retiring on an ad hoc basis, and ensuring judicial independence is protected.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Joan Ryan on 2016-02-05.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, which organisations, projects, ministries of the Palestinian Authority and public services have received funding from his Department in the Occupied Palestinian Territories in the last three years.

Mr Tobias Ellwood

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office provided funding in 2013 to the Al Aqaba Village Council; Qalandia Local Council; the Palestinian Authority’s (PA) Prime Minister’s Office; the PA Ministry of Justice through the Slynn Foundation; in 2014 to the Al-Yanoun Village Council; The Slynn Foundation (with Bingham Centre for the Rule of Law); and in 2015 to the Al Aqaba Village Council; The Palestinian Commission Against the Wall and Settlements and the Sinjel Municipality.

We also provided funding to the PA Ministry of Justice from 2012-2014 for a sustainable transformation of the Ministry to become a high performing institution for rule of law within the OPTs and a beacon for other PA Ministries.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Joan Ryan on 2016-03-03.

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what representations he has received from charities on the Government’s proposal to prevent charities using government grants to lobby Parliament.

Matthew Hancock

Taxpayers money should not be diverted away from its intended purpose and wasted on political campaigning and political lobbying. The clause does not stop grant recipients, including charities, from using other sources of funding for this or from making their views known.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Joan Ryan on 2016-06-15.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what discussions he has had with his Turkish counterpart on the treatment of minority religious groups in Turkey.

Mr David Lidington

We have noted the European Court of Human Rights’ ruling and regularly discuss issues concerning freedom of religion and belief, including those of the Alevi community, with our Turkish interlocutors. We will continue to do so. The Turkish government continues to improve protections for all religious minorities in Turkey. We welcome the continuing implementation of the Law on Foundations which has seen a number of properties returned to minority community foundations or the payment of compensation. As we highlighted to Turkey through the 2015 UN Universal Periodic Review of human rights, we would like to see Turkey implement legislation that increases protection of the rights of persons belonging to all minority religious groups, including the status of their places of worship.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Joan Ryan on 2016-10-17.

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the Answer of 15 September 2016 to Question 46636, on Concentrix, if he will provide that same information for (a) Enfield North constituency and (b) Enfield.

Jane Ellison

HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) does not hold data on the number of tax credit cases awaiting consideration by Concentrix broken down specifically by constituency areas. HMRC is currently focused on resolving the outstanding cases but will be preparing analysis, which will be made available in due course.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Joan Ryan on 2015-11-10.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will provide more funding to special educational needs schools in (a) Greater London and (b) Enfield.

Mr Sam Gyimah

We recognise that the distribution of high needs funding needs reform. There are currently wide variations in the funding provided for children with similar needs in different areas. Our aim is to make that distribution fairer. To help achieve this, we commissioned the Isos Partnership to undertake some research so that we could see where changes to the future funding of special educational needs might be needed.

The research report, which we published in July 2015, contains a large number of proposals which we are considering and is available online at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/funding-for-young-people-with-special-educational-needs

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Joan Ryan on 2016-01-28.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what recent consideration he has given to the findings of the UK Commission for Employment and Skills on the issue of skills shortage vacancies; and if he will make a statement.

Nick Boles

We are investing in apprenticeships to meet identified skill needs across all sectors. We are committed to reaching 3 million apprenticeship starts in England by 2020 and will ensure they deliver the skills employers and the economy need for growth. We have also announced plans for ground-breaking reforms to technical and professional education, working in direct partnership with employers to ensure the new system provides the skills most needed for the 21st century. Together with creating 5 National Colleges, supporting a new network of Institutes of Technology and rolling out more degree and higher level apprenticeships, we are helping to equip people with the higher and technical level skills that are in demand.

Our aim is for all local areas to take a leading role in skills provision to ensure it is responsive to local economic priorities and devolution deals with areas around the country are a big step towards this ambition so that they can secure the training and skills that local employers need.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Joan Ryan on 2016-02-05.

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what support her Department has provided to projects fostering co-existence between Israelis and Palestinians in each of the last five years.

Mr Desmond Swayne

DFID does not directly fund joint Israeli-Palestinian programmes. However, through the Conflict Stability and Security Fund (CSSF), the UK provides support for the ‘Youth Creating Peace On/Line’ project which encourages educational cooperation between Palestinians and Israelis. The project, run by NGO ‘Kids Creating Peace’, uses dialogue and leadership workshops to train participants to become peace advocates in their communities and beyond. The UK is providing £40,000 to ‘Youth Creating Peace On/Line’ for 2016/17.

DFID provided £349 million in support of Palestinian development from 2011-15 and will provide a further £72 million in 2015-16. For a breakdown on how financial assistance in the Palestinian Territories is spent, information is published on DFID’s Development Tracker website (https://devtracker.dfid.gov.uk).

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Joan Ryan on 2016-03-07.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 9 February 2016 to Question 25979, what financial assistance was provided to each of the (a) 10 Israeli non-governmental organisations (NGOs) receiving funding from the Conflict, Stability and Security Fund and (b) two NGOs receiving funds through the Bilateral Programme Budgets.

Mr Tobias Ellwood

The current funding for the ten NGO projects provided through the Conflict, Stability and Security Fund is: The Peres Centre for Peace – £0.046m; Injaz – Centre for Professional Arab Local Governance – £0.062m; Kids Creating Peace – £0.040m; Yesh Din – £0.2m; Gisha – £0.054m; Peace Now – £0.128m; Terrestrial Jerusalem – £0.052m; The International Peace and Cooperation Centre – £0.235m; Rabbis for Human Rights – £0.105m; and the Jerusalem Community Advocacy Network – £0.222m

The current funding for the two NGO projects provided through the Bilateral Programme Budget is: Burj Al Luqluq Youth Centre – £0.019m; and Silwan Youth Centre – £0.005m