Asked by: Lord Ouseley (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact (1) of the closure of youth service provision across the country, and (2) of the closure of youth services on the rise of knife and violent crimes.
Answered by Lord Ashton of Hyde
Government recognises that the causes of youth crime are complex and are often tied to local factors. Local authorities allocate funding and deliver youth services in line with local need. The Government has made over £200bn available to local authorities to spend on local services over this Spending Review.
The Government is committed to making sure young people have opportunities to develop their skills and benefit from youth services, which are an important partner in the strategy to tackle the root causes of serious violence.
My department will continue to work closely with the Home Office on the implementation of the Serious Violence Strategy.
Asked by: Lord Ouseley (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact of the creation of the National Citizen Service on the funding available for youth services.
Answered by Lord Ashton of Hyde
The decision to fund local youth services lies with Local Authorities, not with central government. NCS is a universal offer funded by central government, that is accessible to all young people and is designed to support, and not cut across other services. It is delivered via a network of over 100 local delivery partners, many of which are local youth organisations. As such, we have made no specific assessment of the impact of the creation of NCS on the funding available for youth services.
Asked by: Lord Ouseley (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the relevance and effectiveness of the National Citizen Service in meeting the particular needs of vulnerable young people in disadvantaged communities.
Answered by Lord Ashton of Hyde
NCS is a programme that successfully reaches young people from all backgrounds. We have made no specific assessment of the relevance and effectiveness of NCS in meeting the needs of vulnerable young people in disadvantaged communities, but we do know that participants from vulnerable and minority groups are overrepresented on the programme. In 2018, 16% of participants were eligible for Free School Meals, 31% were from Black and Minority Ethnic backgrounds and 5% had Special Educational Needs* compared to 12%, 25% and 2% of the comparative population respectively.
Work is ongoing to reach the most marginalised young people. The NCS Trust has established strong links with Local Authorities to support the hardest to reach young people in accessing the programme; provide specialist support during the programme; and help young people access opportunities after NCS. The NCS Trust has also introduced a central inclusion fund, so that its network partners can apply for funding to support young people with additional needs to access the NCS programme.
* The final 2018 participation figures are still subject to ongoing compliance checks.
Asked by: Lord Ouseley (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what consideration they are giving to introducing penalties to prevent social media operators from publishing, or failing to remove, content which is harmful to children's health and well-being.
Answered by Lord Ashton of Hyde
The Government's forthcoming Online Harms White Paper will set out plans for legislative measures to ensure platforms take adequate steps to protect their users, particularly children, from online harms.
Asked by: Lord Ouseley (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the Local Government Association’s conclusion that only a small number of eligible teenagers take part in the National Citizen Service; whether they plan to reallocate their youth service funding in the light of this; and if not, why not.
Answered by Lord Ashton of Hyde
To date, around 485,000 young people have taken part in NCS, and during the time period in which they were eligible to participate in NCS, 16% of the cohort who enter Year 13 this September will have done NCS, or 1 in 6 of the eligible population.
Consecutive, independent evaluations have demonstrated the positive impacts that NCS delivers both to its participants and their communities. Government money spent on NCS supports not only the programme but also the organisations it partners with which include over 100 local councils, schools and sports clubs, of which 50 are charities and social enterprises primarily from the youth sector.
Local authorities are primarily responsible for allocating public funding to youth services in their area. We believe they are best placed to know what their communities require.
However, Government recognises the transformational impact open access youth work can have especially for young people facing multiple barriers of disadvantage, that is why we have invested £40m in The Youth Investment Fund to boost open access youth services in 6 disadvantaged areas and expect over 300,000 young people to benefit. This is one of a number of Government programmes designed to enable young people to develop skills and participate in their communities.
Asked by: Lord Ouseley (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what alternative provision would be made for the beneficiaries of public funding awarded to the Football Association should it be withdrawn.
Answered by Lord Ashton of Hyde
Sport England has awarded the Football Association £14.6 million over the next 4 years up to 2021. This funding will support a number of FA grassroots programmes, including its disability programme and women and girls talent projects. The funding will also improve the experiences of the 1.6 million people that play football regularly, as well as help encourage new players, coaches and officials, from all backgrounds and abilities.
In addition, Sport England is investing £2 million per year into the FA to support their work to enhance the quality and diversity of the coaching workforce in football, including providing bursaries to support women and Black and Minority Ethnic coaches develop their coaching abilities from the grassroots to the elite levels of the game.
The FA, like all sports bodies in receipt of public funding, is required to comply with the highest standards of sports governance as set out in Sport England and UK Sport's A Code for Sports Governance. This includes having at least 30 per cent gender diversity on boards, acting in an open and transparent way and making progress on BAME representation in sports administration.
All funded bodies, including the FA, have been working closely with Sport England and/or UK Sport over the past few months to agree what they need to do to meet the Governance Code. They had until 31 October to provide evidence of progress towards meeting the requirements in the Code. Sport England and UK Sport will be reviewing this evidence, and will continue to be rigorous in their monitoring of on-going compliance.
Any organisation found to be non-compliant would be at risk of having their public funding removed. In this scenario, Sport England would divert money to other sport projects, so that grassroots sport overall would not suffer.
Asked by: Lord Ouseley (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what criteria they will use to decide whether to withdraw public funds from the Football Association if it fails to meet equality and diversity obligations and standards of governance.
Answered by Lord Ashton of Hyde
Sport England has awarded the Football Association £14.6 million over the next 4 years up to 2021. This funding will support a number of FA grassroots programmes, including its disability programme and women and girls talent projects. The funding will also improve the experiences of the 1.6 million people that play football regularly, as well as help encourage new players, coaches and officials, from all backgrounds and abilities.
In addition, Sport England is investing £2 million per year into the FA to support their work to enhance the quality and diversity of the coaching workforce in football, including providing bursaries to support women and Black and Minority Ethnic coaches develop their coaching abilities from the grassroots to the elite levels of the game.
The FA, like all sports bodies in receipt of public funding, is required to comply with the highest standards of sports governance as set out in Sport England and UK Sport's A Code for Sports Governance. This includes having at least 30 per cent gender diversity on boards, acting in an open and transparent way and making progress on BAME representation in sports administration.
All funded bodies, including the FA, have been working closely with Sport England and/or UK Sport over the past few months to agree what they need to do to meet the Governance Code. They had until 31 October to provide evidence of progress towards meeting the requirements in the Code. Sport England and UK Sport will be reviewing this evidence, and will continue to be rigorous in their monitoring of on-going compliance.
Any organisation found to be non-compliant would be at risk of having their public funding removed. In this scenario, Sport England would divert money to other sport projects, so that grassroots sport overall would not suffer.
Asked by: Lord Ouseley (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how much public funding is provided to the Football Association annually; for what purpose; and who benefits.
Answered by Lord Ashton of Hyde
Sport England has awarded the Football Association £14.6 million over the next 4 years up to 2021. This funding will support a number of FA grassroots programmes, including its disability programme and women and girls talent projects. The funding will also improve the experiences of the 1.6 million people that play football regularly, as well as help encourage new players, coaches and officials, from all backgrounds and abilities.
In addition, Sport England is investing £2 million per year into the FA to support their work to enhance the quality and diversity of the coaching workforce in football, including providing bursaries to support women and Black and Minority Ethnic coaches develop their coaching abilities from the grassroots to the elite levels of the game.
The FA, like all sports bodies in receipt of public funding, is required to comply with the highest standards of sports governance as set out in Sport England and UK Sport's A Code for Sports Governance. This includes having at least 30 per cent gender diversity on boards, acting in an open and transparent way and making progress on BAME representation in sports administration.
All funded bodies, including the FA, have been working closely with Sport England and/or UK Sport over the past few months to agree what they need to do to meet the Governance Code. They had until 31 October to provide evidence of progress towards meeting the requirements in the Code. Sport England and UK Sport will be reviewing this evidence, and will continue to be rigorous in their monitoring of on-going compliance.
Any organisation found to be non-compliant would be at risk of having their public funding removed. In this scenario, Sport England would divert money to other sport projects, so that grassroots sport overall would not suffer.
Asked by: Lord Ouseley (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the Football Association’s purpose and performance in relation to the provision of public funding.
Answered by Lord Ashton of Hyde
Sport England has awarded the Football Association £14.6 million over the next 4 years up to 2021. This funding will support a number of FA grassroots programmes, including its disability programme and women and girls talent projects. The funding will also improve the experiences of the 1.6 million people that play football regularly, as well as help encourage new players, coaches and officials, from all backgrounds and abilities.
In addition, Sport England is investing £2 million per year into the FA to support their work to enhance the quality and diversity of the coaching workforce in football, including providing bursaries to support women and Black and Minority Ethnic coaches develop their coaching abilities from the grassroots to the elite levels of the game.
The FA, like all sports bodies in receipt of public funding, is required to comply with the highest standards of sports governance as set out in Sport England and UK Sport's A Code for Sports Governance. This includes having at least 30 per cent gender diversity on boards, acting in an open and transparent way and making progress on BAME representation in sports administration.
All funded bodies, including the FA, have been working closely with Sport England and/or UK Sport over the past few months to agree what they need to do to meet the Governance Code. They had until 31 October to provide evidence of progress towards meeting the requirements in the Code. Sport England and UK Sport will be reviewing this evidence, and will continue to be rigorous in their monitoring of on-going compliance.
Any organisation found to be non-compliant would be at risk of having their public funding removed. In this scenario, Sport England would divert money to other sport projects, so that grassroots sport overall would not suffer.
Asked by: Lord Ouseley (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answers by Lord Ashton of Hyde on 4 April (HL6217 and HL6218), whether the female candidate who was not approved for appointment by the Secretary of State failed to meet the skills and experience set out in the advertised job descriptions.
Answered by Lord Ashton of Hyde
Non-executive members of the Channel 4 Corporation board are appointed by Ofcom with the approval of the Secretary of State. The selection panel are responsible for interviewing candidates and identifying those who are appointable. Ofcom advertised for four vacancies for candidates with specific sector skills and experience and the Secretary of State approved the four candidates on the basis that they best met the skills and experience set out in the advertised job descriptions.