Christians in Nigeria

Crushed but not defeated: Fiona Bruce MP raises awareness for Christians in Nigeria

Fiona Bruce MP hosted a meeting last week to launch a report written by the charity Open Doors, highlighting the violent persecution regularly faced by Christians in northern Nigeria. Over 50 Members of Parliament attended, including Desmond Swayne, the Minister of State for International Development.

Fiona Bruce MP opened the meeting by speaking about her own experiences of visiting Nigeria in February in her role on the International Development Select Committee.

The group then heard from two Nigerian pastors whose communities have suffered extreme attacks by Boko Haram and Fulani Herdsmen. Many churches have been destroyed and burnt and many Christians killed with knives or guns, or burnt alive. “Our constitution guarantees liberty, but we don’t have liberty” one pastor said.

Fiona Bruce MP said: “It was a privilege to visit Nigeria in February as a member of the International Development Select Committee, and to meet with communities who have suffered from horrendous persecution, including the Chibok community where 276 schoolgirls were kidnapped just over two years ago. This report is a tragic but necessary reminder that many Christians around the world are being violently persecuted for their faith.”

Fiona Bruce MP continued: “The freedom to practise your own religion or belief (including unbelief) is a key human right. While the Nigerian constitution officially recognises this right, it is not being upheld in many parts of Nigeria. I urge the Nigerian government to ensure that all citizens are protected, regardless of their ethnicity or religion.”

The full report can be found here: http://www.opendoorsuk.org/persecution/worldwatch/nigeria/documents/nigeria-report-12.pdf

Fiona Bruce MP congratulates local businesswoman Sally Coles-Robertson

Fiona Bruce MP congratulates local businesswoman Sally Coles-Robertson

Meeting in Middlewich recently, Fiona Bruce MP congratulated local businesswoman, Sally Coles-Robertson on her recent Women in Business award.

Sally Coles-Robertson a single mother of three and a managing director of two businesses who has authored a book (The Secret Tips to Success - You can take the girl out of Crewe) about her success in business, overcoming her dyslexia.

Fiona Bruce MP has encouraged Sally with her vision to inspire healthy living to clients of her Sandbach salon and beyond.

Ms Coles-Robertson’s team like to assist in off site events such as STEM, schools, colleges and networking events and support charities such as the organisations chosen charities this year; The Katie Piper Foundation & CHART, the Cancer Healing and Research Trust.

Fiona Bruce MP said “It was a pleasure to meet Sally again after I first talked with her when she was starting up her business and to be able to congratulate her on winning this award. Sally has put in a huge amount of hard work and enthusiasm and her success is well deserved.”

North Korea's Forgotten Women

All-Party Parliamentary Group on Religious Education launch enquiry into Religious Literacy

All-Party Parliamentary Group on Religious Education launch enquiry into Religious Literacy

The All-Party Parliamentary Group on Religious Education, Chaired by Fiona Bruce MP, has launched a call for evidence on the importance of Religious Literacy.

Religious Literacy is an essential part of life in modern Britain, facilitating effective community engagement and enriching public dialogue.

The aim of the enquiry is to assess how Religious Literacy can be improved though a range of means including, but not limited to, schools and other formal and informal education settings such as workplace training schemes, life-long learning, media and literature, sports and other leisure activities and community forums.

Fiona Bruce MP, Chair of the All-Party Group, said:

“It is becoming increasingly clear to the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Religious Education that improved Religious Literacy could make an invaluable contribution to promoting understanding between individuals and groups and cultivating positive community relations in Britain today.

We would particularly welcome constructive and practical comments and ideas as to how Religious Literacy can be improved for the benefit of everyone”

Notes for Editors:

The consultation will open on the 15^th of March 2016 and end on the 12^th of April 2016.

The APPG invites written submissions from individuals and organisations on the following;

1.            What you understand ‘Religious Literacy’ to mean;

2.            The ways in which Religious Literacy enriches the lives of individuals and positively affects their engagement with their local community, society and public life;

3.            How people learn to be religiously literate through school based education, out-of-school activities, the local community, lifelong learning, media and literature, workplace training schemes and other means;

4.            How the development of Religious Literacy in children could be improved within the school context;  

5.            How the development of Religious Literacy in adults could be improved in formalised education settings such as universities, adult education and workplace training schemes;

6.            How the development of Religious Literacy in people of all ages could be improved in settings which are not be considered formal education, such as the local community, out-of-school activities, sports teams, media and literature and other means.

The APPG welcomes submissions to be made in a word document of no more than 1,500 words. It would be helpful if topics are addressed individually, but it is not necessary to consider every topic in your submission. The enquiry will close on the 14th of April 2016 and we request that submissions are sent to penelope.hanton@parliament.uk

Fairer Funding for Schools Annoucement

Fiona Bruce MP said:

‘Whilst we have yet to see the exact detail this is in principle very good news for schools, families and pupils across my constituency. As the local MP, I have fought continuously over several years for a change to the current system, which is so unfair to our local schools. Most recently, I arranged a high-level meeting between the Government Minister, Sam Gyimah MP and head teachers of local schools, in January of this year, to discuss the specific issues facing our pupils and families in this area. It is extraordinary that a school in one part of the country can receive over 50% more than an identical school in another part of the country. Congleton constituency schools, as part of Cheshire East, are located in the sixth most poorly funded authority in the country. It is wholly unacceptable that Cheshire East schools receive £200 less per pupil per year than Cheshire West schools; a total shortfall of over £1,000,000 over five years. This is unacceptable, I am delighted that the Government has put an end to this. As the Education Secretary said, ‘Current allocations are based on circumstances and decisions made over a decade ago…We must now address these historic inequalities.’

‘Under the new formula, which will be consulted on with schools and the public, budgets will be based on need. In addition, the single national funding formula will work on a school-by-school basis, rather than a local authority-led basis, simplifying and stabilising the funding system, giving headteachers more certainly over future budgets. The formula will take into account funding for additional needs and school costs, including those related to school serving rural communities. I am also pleased that, as part of the changes, there will be funding for local authorities towards young people with high-level special educational needs on a fair basis, based on need not location.’

‘This is a significant day for schools across the country – but especially to schools in the Congleton constituency, which have borne the brunt of this unfair and out-of-date system. I am very pleased that our determined campaigning has been successful.’

FIONA BRUCE MP REPORTS BACK FROM AID WORK IN NIGERIA

FIONA BRUCE MP REPORTS BACK FROM AID WORK IN NIGERIA

Fiona Bruce MP spent last week in Nigeria, inspecting UK Aid programmes, in her role as a Member of Parliament’s International Development Select Committee. The Committee’s function is to check on the use of aid money by the UK Government Department for International Development (DfID).

During the week, Fiona and seven cross-party MP colleagues from the Committee met aid workers, teachers, clinicians, and Government officials, including the Vice President of Nigeria and the Speaker of the Nigerian House of Representatives.

Fiona Bruce MP said “Checking UK Aid is well-spent is a critical job, as 0.7% of UK taxpayers’ money is now used to support poverty-stricken people in developing countries, as well as to promote global peace and security which directly benefits us here in the UK. In this role, over the past four years, I have worked in many countries, but none so disturbed as Nigeria – we spent several days in the north of the country, where Boko Haram have caused havoc – this is the first country I have inspected aid in where I have had to learn to wear body armour!”

“During our visit we met friends and supporters of the Chibok schoolgirls who were kidnapped by Boko Haram almost two years ago – the majority of whom are still missing – and discussed what more can be done by the international community to help trace them.”

“We met UK-funded aid workers, including those combatting malaria. Nigeria is the global epicentre of malaria, of which 300,000 children die each year, half of the children who die of malaria globally. The UK has helped tackle this in Nigeria since 2008 and as a result millions of people have been protected from the disease by treatment and distribution of net-beds. The UK-spearheaded scheme reaches even the remotest communities using trained local volunteers, and as a result of this programme the Nigerian Government now has a strategy to try to eliminate malaria from the whole of Nigeria. It was hugely encouraging to hear that hundreds of thousands of lives have been transformed through this malaria-prevention programme.”

“Another incredibly inspiring project which we checked on was for the treatment and prevention of blindness. Incredibly, thirty million people have been protected from blindness through a scheme implemented by the charities Sightsavers and Helen Keller International, funded with UK Aid money. No less than seven diseases are treated simultaneously, much of the work being carried out by locally-trained volunteers at an amazing cost of about 10p per treatment. We were told that in some areas where there had been 80% blindness, tests after treatment of a sample of five thousand people showed that the treatment was 100% effective – not one person had gone blind. This treatment, like the malaria treatment, helps whole communities – if a parent goes blind, they can’t work, their children have to support them, and often lose their education and a chance to earn their own livelihood in the future. Sightsavers reported to us that the UK-funded scheme has resulted in much-improved school attendance. This is a scheme I would like to see implemented more widely.”

“Our Committee also inspected a DfID-funded midwifery training course. Child mortality at birth is very high in Nigeria. Young women, often from remote communities, are being taught midwifery skills through a UK-funded scheme. Whilst the course itself is good, our Committee discovered a grave cause of concern, which is the poor state of hygiene in the hospital in which the students were learning, something we ascertained was not a problem exclusive to this hospital, and which I therefore immediately raised with the State Governor to feedback on our visit later in the week, and to which I will also require reference for improvement in our Select Committee Report to the UK Government which we will produce during the next few weeks, following our visit.”

“A further way in which UK Aid is helping in Nigeria is in the schools. We visited a number of schools and saw that the English-teaching syllabus which has been written by the UK DfID, and is available for every Government school in the country, was being effectively used. DfID is also helping to train teachers in this, as there is a national shortage – many children do not therefore go to school, and the numbers of children to be taught are huge; in one primary school we visited there were over 13,000 being taught in two shifts a day! People in the UK may ask how such work helps – and apart from providing the students with an international language which can improve their job opportunities later in life, ensuring that young people are in education is critical, since if they have nothing to do, they are easily enticed into terrorist groups such as Boko Haram, which has a publically-declared link with international Islamist terrorist group ISIS, so there is real benefit to our peace and security to help young people in this way.”

“One of the schools we visited was in a refugee camp where children receive no Government assistance for their schooling – the open-air school is run by volunteers from the local community and volunteer teachers. Our Committee ascertained that there is a need for more structured support from the Nigeria Government for children in such camps – particularly the smaller ones like this, with approximately 900 people in it. There are 2.2 million refugees – known as internally displaced persons (IDPs) – in Nigeria following Boko Haram attacks, and whilst in larger camps the UN coordinates education provision, there is a need for more support for smaller camps such as the one we visited near Aruja.”

“The good news was that, following a change of government in Nigeria several months ago and increased determination on the part of the new President to improve security, attacks by Boko Haram have been much reduced and Boko Haram itself is being pushed back by Government forces into increasingly reduced territory. Hopefully, at some point in the not-to-distant future, the IDPs who have been forced out of their homelands will be able to go home, and support for this is one of the issues we discussed with Nigerian Government representatives when we met with them at the end of our visit.”

“It is a real privilege to serve on the International Development Select Committee, and to inspect effective aid schemes such as these. Wherever I travel in the world, the effective use of UK Aid is respected, and often copied, and seeing this on the ground benefiting millions of lives of mothers, fathers, and children with hopes and aspirations just like us makes me very proud to be British.”

Fiona Bruce MP raises the problem of fuel poverty in Parliament

Fiona Bruce MP raises the problem of fuel poverty in Parliament

Fiona Bruce MP spoke in Parliament recently about the problems faced by many of the poorer and more vulnerable in society who end up on higher tariffs through use of pre-payment meters for their utilities.

Speaking in Parliament, Fiona Bruce said:

I recently had the privilege of launching in this House a report entitled “The poor pay more”, by the debt counselling charity Christians Against Poverty. It outlines concerns that I want to express today about a specific issue, which is the prepayment metres that 10.8 million people across this country use.

It is a sad fact that the poorest in our country pay more for their fuel. As the CAP report highlights, the reason is that people on prepayment meters face higher tariffs and charges than those who pay in other ways. They simply cannot get on to the best tariffs, so they are forced to pay more, and they often have to turn to payday lenders to do so. Their difficulties are compounded by the fact that prepayment meters are predominantly used by vulnerable consumers: lower-income households, the unemployed, those with long-term disability and often those with mental health challenges, terminal illness or learning disabilities.

I do not have time to cite CAP’s statistics, but they reveal how extensive the problem is. Prepayment meter consumers are more susceptible than others to consumer detriment, because they find it more difficult to engage

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with suppliers, or to switch to or obtain the best tariff. Higher tariffs are not just a penalty for those in arrears; they affect thousands of people who are unable to engage effectively and switch. Those people need more support to engage effectively, and I hope that the Minister will consider how that support can be provided.

Ofgem estimates that PPM users pay an extra £300 a year compared with those on the cheapest tariff. Moreover, even if those people can engage effectively, they face other significant barriers that prevent them from switching to more competitively priced deals, such as charges for the installation or removal of a PPM, credit card checks and security deposits. Put simply, this is a matter of social justice; the poor should not pay more for such a basic and important commodity.

The unfairness of the situation is starkly illustrated by the statistics in CAP’s report, and behind every statistic is a human story: 8% of PPM users never use their heating in the winter, and a quarter use it for less than two hours a day. People miss hot meals, or do not wash themselves or their clothes. Many people fall behind in making payments, or have no energy supply at all.

Official disconnection figures hide the true statistics. In 2015, there were only 192 instances of official disconnection. However, in most cases where a customer falls into difficulties, energy suppliers install a PPM instead of disconnecting a supply. Then when customers cannot afford to put money into their meter, they are classed as a “self-disconnection”, so they do not fall within the official figures. The number of such self-disconnections is high. In 2014, approximately 300,000 new electricity PPMs and 320,000 new gas PPMs were installed. Customer Focus estimates that one in six PPM users are self-disconnecting. Current methods of measurement simply do not detect the level of disconnection that exists or the human stories behind each disconnection.

I could go on, Sir Roger—there are other points I would have liked to make, for example the need for clarity about standing charges over the summer months. Currently, when PPM users put money in as winter approaches, they often find that all their money has gone, simply to pay for the standing charges. That situation needs to be looked at, and people need help to understand it.

We also need to ensure that more innovative social and smart tariffs are introduced. Steps should be taken to ensure the introduction of smart meters, which promise infrastructure savings for suppliers and cost reductions for PPM users. They should be given as a priority to those who currently have PPM meters. However, with full smart meter roll-out not expected for another five years, action is needed today to ensure that the price differentials that 10.8 million PPM users currently experience are eradicated.