Note from the Chair
I am pleased to present our Annual Report and Financial Statements for the year ending 31 March 2024.
Over the last year migration-related issues have continued to have a high profile in UK politics, with particular focus on Channel crossings, the Rwanda plan and an overall increase in net migration. This has highlighted the ongoing importance of improving the quality and quantity of debate on migration, and of bringing together coalitions of cross-party parliamentarians to interrogate and collaborate on legislation and policy.
We have continued to provide direct support to a wide range of Parliamentarians: Sir Stephen Timms MP, Caroline Nokes MP, Simon Fell, MP, Olivia Blake MP, Tim Farron MP, David Simmonds MP, Baroness Stroud, Baroness Lister, Lord German and Baroness Mobarik. The Bishop of Durham, Paul Butler, retired from the House of Lords and stood down from the RAMP Project at the end of 2023, and I am delighted that the Bishops of Chelmsford, Guli Francis-Dehqani, has joined RAMP as a Principal in his place.
I’m thankful for the continued support from our existing funders and very pleased that this year saw renewed partnerships with the Open Society Foundations, This Day Foundation and the Paul Hamlyn Foundation. We’re also grateful to Vialto for the strategic advice and support they’ve provided this year.
At the end of this year we said a huge thank you to Rosie Evans as she stepped back from the role of Chair, though remains as a Director. She has played a pivotal role for our organisation in our early years and we are very grateful for the time and expertise she has provided. It has been my pleasure to join the board and to step into the Chair role during this, an election year. We are also delighted to welcome Sarah Mulley and Awale Olad to the board.
Finally, I’d like to thank our Executive Director Laura Taylor, the RAMP core team and our advisors, our Principals and Associates and the Board for all that they have contributed over a very busy and challenging year. We are grateful also to the partner organisations who have so generously shared their expertise and experience with us. I can scarcely imagine a more critical time for bringing people with divergent political perspectives together to explore, exchange and locate the space for thoughtful collaboration.
Sue Rubenstein
Chair
The RAMP Project’s vision is to have a world-class migration system which helps to create a successful and integrated UK and is fair to all.
Our mission is to help political leaders to think more deeply and to collaborate more widely on migration, asylum and integration issues and to improve the quality and quantity of political debate and subsequent policy outcomes. We do this primarily by seconding high-quality advisers into the teams of a cross-party group of politicians and by acting as the secretariat for the All Party Parliamentary Group for Migration.
We value trusted, open and relational dialogue; evidence-based debate; diversity of opinion and experience; and broad coalitions that bring together unusual allies. We believe that all of these can help to establish genuine common ground and enable better policy-making which in turn can further the common good and help our vision to become a reality.
Our primary objectives are to:
Enable politicians to make regular, constructive and, where possible, collaborative/cross-party contributions to political and public debates on migration, asylum and refugee resettlement which help improve the tone of the debate and the eventual policy outcomes.
Support politicians and others to hold the Government to account on critical issues including scrutiny of primary and secondary legislation and the operation of the Home Office.
Establish relationships and improve communication between politicians of different parties and with and between experts from business, academia and civil society - including those with lived experience of migration - in order to identify policy proposals and wider narratives which can command broad support, thus neutralising the culture war and improve policy outcomes for refugees, asylum seekers and migrants.
In line with the annual governance cycle, and supported by the Executive Director, the RAMP board reviewed organisational policies over the course of the year. Updates were made to our reserves policy and our cyber security and data protection policy, and to our staff handbook. A review was conducted of our risk register and we undertook a remuneration review for staff which took into account the rate of inflation and cost of living. We also approved a new approach to registering board member interests to ensure that all potential conflicts are noted and managed appropriately, and conducted a full review of the content of our risk register.
As RAMP moved towards the end of its 3 year strategy period, the Board reviewed a light-touch analysis of the political environment in October 2023 and agreed that the best time for a full strategy review would be following the next general election. An interim operational plan and budget were approved in February 2024 for the period leading up the expected election.
At each of our meetings we continue to review the management accounts presented by the Executive Director and Treasurer; and a summary of recent activity and the current status of items on the risk register, prepared by the Executive Director.
Details of related parties:
David Barclay is a Partner of the Good Faith Partnership
Ian Robinson is a partner at Vialto
Awale Olad is a Councillor on Camden Council and, as such, a Politically Exposed Person
As a small organisation, in its early years of operations, there was no legal or regulatory requirement for The RAMP Project to undertake a statutory audit or an independent review. RAMP falls below the requirement thresholds prescribed under the Companies Act 2006. It is also important to note that The RAMP Project is not mandated to undertake a statutory audit by its Articles of Association or through other requirements.
The Board agreed that this year, with the relatively low level of income and risk, that we would not invest in a voluntary independent audit or review at this early stage of organisational development. We will continue to keep this under review for future years.
The risks identified on our risk register are being managed robustly. We have also managed costs well to resource mission-critical activity this year and also to allow us to remain a fair and attractive employer throughout a period of high inflation and increases in the cost of living.
We have been able to use our unrestricted funds to secure our financial and operational sustainability through building up levels of reserves more quickly than we had imagined. The results for the year are shown in the attached financial statements.
The grants that we have received during the year have been used for the purposes defined in the specific grant agreements. If a specific purpose has been defined in the agreement, the grants have been used for the agreed purpose. Where no specific purpose has been defined, the grant has been used for the primary purpose as defined in the Company’s Memorandum of Association and Articles of Association.
We have been grateful for the continued core support from our existing funding partner Unbound Philanthropy and the Family Office and for additional core support from the Open Society Foundation, The Sam and Bella Sebba Charitable Foundation and This Day Foundation. We have also been grateful for ongoing restricted project support as follows:
Barrow Cadbury Trust - for £25K for our charitable activities in Parliament
AB Charitable Trust - £33K for our charitable activities in pursuit of a fair immigration system
Paul Hamlyn Foundation - £44K for our charitable work in Parliament
The Migration Foundation - £22K for our work on the links between destitution and migration
People
We added one new role to our core team, recruiting Sabrina Huck as our Strategic Engagement Adviser to help build stronger bridges between our parliamentarians and advisers and experts from right across the migration field. Sabrina had previously been an adviser to Olivia Blake MP, and Evie Lingwood replaced her in this role.
Activity
Scrutiny of legislation
RAMP parliamentarians spent a considerable amount of time scrutinising the Illegal Migration Bill and Safety of Rwanda Bill during their passage through Parliament, with advisers pulling together briefings on key aspects of the legislation and organising meetings with experts from a range of organisations. RAMP peers tabled a number of amendments to these Bills, with one from Baroness Lister, on retaining the limit on the detention of pregnant women, resulting in a concession from the Government. Another, tabled by Baroness Stroud resulted in a Government commitment to publish an annual report on the safe routes available to the UK.
Other parliamentary activity
Parliamentarians have asked oral questions to Ministers or tabled or spoken in debates on a wide range of issues - a good way of getting a verbal response from a Minister on the record and of raising the profile of a topic. The issues covered have included risks to asylum-seeking children living in hotels; undocumented pregnant women; waiting times for refugee family reunion; the number of children subject to the duty to remove under the Illegal Migration Act; student and youth mobility visas; No Recourse to Public Funds visa conditions; the asylum applications backlog, health care availability at MoD owned immigration detention centres; the impact of immigration accommodation on mental health; spousal visa costs and policies; the Brook House inquiry; the level of ongoing support provided to Afghan refugees; the use of asylum hotels and the importance of giving asylum seekers the right to work; the move on period and other factors influencing refugee integration; and the level of asylum support payments.
Media support
RAMP advisers supported parliamentarians to raise crucial issues in the media - helping them with preparation for interviews or articles published or broadcast in The Spectator, Pink News, The Independent; Sky News; Politics Home, i news, The Times,The Guardian and Newsnight.
APPG learning visits and meetings
In our function as secretariat for the All Party Parliamentary Group on Migration we organised a visit to Paris for APPG members to meet the UK Ambassador and a group of French Parliamentarians, for discussions on migration policy in May 2023. We also organised roundtable discussions for parliamentarians to hear from those with deep expertise on migration between Albania and the UK; and on the inquiry into conditions at Brook House immigration detention centre. We organised a visit for parliamentarians to Harmondsworth detention centre and we aso supporting the APPG on Migration to work with the APPG on Poverty on a joint inquiry into the links between immigration policy and poverty in the UK,based on input from a wide range of people with lived and professional experience of immigration systems.
On behalf of the board
In order to assist you to fulfil your duties under the Companies Act 2006, we have prepared for your approval the financial statements of The Ramp Project for the year ended 31 March 2024 which comprise, the balance sheet and the related notes from the company’s accounting records and from information and explanations you have given us.
It is your duty to ensure that The Ramp Project has kept adequate accounting records and to prepare statutory financial statements that give a true and fair view of the assets, liabilities, financial position and surplus of The Ramp Project. You consider that The Ramp Project is exempt from the statutory audit requirement for the year.
We have not been instructed to carry out an audit or a review of the financial statements of The Ramp Project. For this reason, we have not verified the accuracy or completeness of the accounting records or information and explanations you have given to us and we do not, therefore, express any opinion on the statutory financial statements.
The Ramp Project is a private company limited by guarantee incorporated in England and Wales. The registered office is The Courtyard, High Street, Ascot, Berkshire, SL5 7HP.
The financial statements are prepared in sterling, which is the functional currency of the company. Monetary amounts in these financial statements are rounded to the nearest £.
Income and expenses are included in the financial statements as they become receivable or due. Income is recognised in line with contracts and deferred as necessary for the proportion of work to be completed after the year end.
Expenses include VAT where applicable as the company are not VAT registered.
Debtors do not carry interest and are stated at their nominal value. Appropriate allowances for estimated irrecoverable amounts are recognised in the Profit and Loss account when there is objective evidence that the asset is impaired.
Creditors are not interest bearing and are included at their nominal value.
The tax expense represents the sum of the tax currently payable.
The tax currently payable is based on taxable profit for the year. Taxable profit differs from net profit as reported in the profit and loss account because it excludes items of income or expense that are taxable or deductible in other years and it further excludes items that are never taxable or deductible. The company’s liability for current tax is calculated using tax rates that have been enacted or substantively enacted by the reporting end date.
The average monthly number of persons (including directors) employed by the company during the year was:
The company is limited by guarantee without share capital and consequently the liability of members is limited, subject to an undertaking by each member to contribute to the net assets or liabilities of the company on winding up such amounts as may be required not exceeding £1.