Speeches by Ballinger.

“Last week, tragically, 12-year-old Leo Ross was stabbed to death in Birmingham as he was returning home from school. His 14-year-old killer had been arrested several times for violent offences in the months running up to the killing. Can the Minister tell me what the Government are doing to reform the youth justice sys…”

“16. What assessment she has made of the effectiveness of the youth justice system in preventing reoffending.”

“I am sure we can facilitate an introduction. I have a similar question for Rula and Alon-Lee about the work of Standing Together; could you say a bit more about what your aims are?”

“Thank you very much, Robi. It is very helpful for us to understand what you have been doing in the United States. You talked about opportunities to work in the UK. Are you doing inter-community work in the UK now? Could you say a bit more about that?”

“With all these terrible developments—the fighting in Gaza and what is happening in the West Bank at the moment—it would be interesting to hear from Robi and Bassam a bit more about what the Parents Circle-Families Forum has been trying to achieve.”

“Thank you, Bassam. I have one final question for Rula and Alon-Lee. It is really interesting to hear about the work you are doing in Israel at the grassroots level. Have you been able to do any work in the West Bank or Gaza? What have you achieved there?”

“Thank you.”

“I want to come back to the funding point and your comparison about the small amount of funding that comes into grassroots organisations compared with Northern Ireland. Where does that money come from? We also heard from Robi earlier that the American pause in US aid funding could have a big impact. What sort of impact …”

“With all these terrible developments—the fighting in Gaza and what is happening in the West Bank at the moment—it would be interesting to hear from Robi and Bassam a bit more about what the Parents Circle-Families Forum has been trying to achieve.”

“Thank you very much, Robi. It is very helpful for us to understand what you have been doing in the United States. You talked about opportunities to work in the UK. Are you doing inter-community work in the UK now? Could you say a bit more about that?”

“I am sure we can facilitate an introduction. I have a similar question for Rula and Alon-Lee about the work of Standing Together; could you say a bit more about what your aims are?”

“Thank you, Bassam. I have one final question for Rula and Alon-Lee. It is really interesting to hear about the work you are doing in Israel at the grassroots level. Have you been able to do any work in the West Bank or Gaza? What have you achieved there?”

“Thank you.”

“I want to come back to the funding point and your comparison about the small amount of funding that comes into grassroots organisations compared with Northern Ireland. Where does that money come from? We also heard from Robi earlier that the American pause in US aid funding could have a big impact. What sort of impact …”

“It is a pleasure to serve under your premier chairmanship, Sir John. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for West Bromwich (Sarah Coombes) for calling this important debate and for her passionate speech. It is fantastic to hear from both the victims and the perpetrators of these crimes. As the MP for Halesowen, I am all …”

“Lots of cost savings have been generated by the transformation and the outsourcing, but your last set of accounts, for the year ending March ’23, said that there was “material uncertainty” over whether the British Council would be able to survive financially. How much of that is about the ambiguity about the repayment …”

“So it is just the loan; it is not the rest of the business causing that uncertainty.”

“It is good to meet you again, Scott. Just sticking to the loans, part of that cost was used for your transformation programme. Could you tell us a bit more about how successful that has been and how the loan contributed to progress there?”

“I completely agree that the lack of funding for local authority playgrounds over the last 14 years has been catastrophic. In my constituency, we have had to rely on central Government funding to renovate playgrounds, in particular Haden Hill Park, next to Old Hill cricket ground. It is fantastic that we have been able …”

“It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Mundell. I thank the hon. Member for Chichester (Jess Brown-Fuller) for organising the debate. I am sure we can all agree that creative arts play a unique and invaluable role in enhancing the wellbeing and education of our young people. The evidence is clear: partic…”