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These initiatives were driven by Baroness Jay of Paddington, and are more likely to reflect personal policy preferences.
Baroness Jay of Paddington has not introduced any legislation before Parliament
Baroness Jay of Paddington has not co-sponsored any Bills in the current parliamentary sitting
As part of the Tessa Jowell Brain Cancer Mission, the National Institute for Healthcare Research has received 69 applications, 10 of which have been funded and a further seven are under consideration. One of the funded applications is focused solely on children and others include young people.
The UK Government understands the unique contribution volunteers can make to sustainable development, including the FCDO's seven priority areas. During the Covid-19 response, our Volunteering for Development (V4D) programme has demonstrated the utility of local community and national volunteers, who can mobilise as first responders even where national and international travel is restricted.
The UK Government was pleased to fund the Global Standard for Volunteering, launched in 2019, which sets a useful benchmark for how volunteers can be deployed in a responsible, effective and safe way.
The impact of the global pandemic on the UK economy has forced us to take the tough but necessary decision to temporarily reduce our aid budget. We are now working through the implications of these changes for individual programmes, including for the Volunteering for Development grant. No decisions have yet been made.
The safety of volunteers is the FCDO's first priority. In response to the emerging pandemic, in March 2020 we suspended all International Citizen Service (ICS) placements and successfully returned all volunteers home.
We will continue to monitor the risks of overseas placements and place the wellbeing of volunteers at the heart of any future decisions on ICS or equivalent youth volunteering schemes.