Asked by: Vicky Foxcroft (Labour - Lewisham, Deptford)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Minister of State, Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, with reference to the Answer of 23 October 2019 to Question 672, on Third Sector, when his Department plans to publish its response to the public consultation on the future definition of public service mutuals, which closed on 18 October 2019.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The response to the public consultation on the future definition of public service mutuals will be published in due course.
Asked by: Vicky Foxcroft (Labour - Lewisham, Deptford)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Minister of State, Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, with reference to the Answer of 23 October 2019 to Question 670, on Third Sector, what recent progress his Department has made on establishing the responsible business leadership group.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department, together with BEIS, has continued with the work outlined in the response provided to Question 670. We are consulting with stakeholders from business and civil society, and are conducting research and engaging with academic institutions to gather information on specifically what questions the Group should seek to answer. The Department is also giving further consideration to the relationship of the Group to other business councils, particularly in light of the Government’s new priorities, to ensure that the Group is complementary to these. The Secretary of State will make an announcement about the formation of the Group in due course.
Asked by: Vicky Foxcroft (Labour - Lewisham, Deptford)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Minister of State, Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, with reference to the Answer of 23 October 2019 to Question 665, on Third Sector, what further progress his Department has made on establishing a cross-government group.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Government recognises the need to work with the civil society sector to establish principles of effective civil society involvement in the policy-making process. My officials have started to scope a programme of work and the details of this will be set out in due course.
Asked by: Vicky Foxcroft (Labour - Lewisham, Deptford)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Minister of State, Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, with reference to the Answer of 23 October 2019 to Question 663, on Third Sector, what recent progress his Department has made on renewing the Government's commitment to the principles of the Compact.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Government recognises the importance of working together with the civil society organisations to support them, maintain their independence and involve them in policy making. My officials have started to scope a programme of work and the details of this will be set out in due course.
Asked by: Vicky Foxcroft (Labour - Lewisham, Deptford)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Minister of State, Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, with reference to the Answer of 23 October 2019 to Question 662 on Third Sector, whether the first round of Local Access programme funding has been released; and what five places will receive that funding.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Big Society Capital and The Access Foundation announced the six places will receive funding: Bradford; Bristol; Gainsborough; Greater Manchester (Bolton, Oldham, Stockport and Wigan); Hartlepool, Redcar & Cleveland; and Southwark in London. The six partnerships will now begin a co-design process with Access and Big Society Capital to refine the detail of their enterprise development and investment plans with an expectation that the first place based programmes will launch in the second part of 2020. A small amount of grant funding will be released to assist with the co-design phase.
Asked by: Vicky Foxcroft (Labour - Lewisham, Deptford)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment she has made of the (a) adequacy and (b) reasons for the underspend of the funding allocated to the National Citizen Service.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The NCS’ budget is set based on the participation numbers. Stretching participation targets are set by DCMS year on year to help drive the NCS Trust to reach as many young people as possible.The underspend is as a result of the programme participation numbers falling below the target. DCMS works closely with NCS throughout the year providing a strong challenge against NCS’s full year financial forecasts.
Asked by: Vicky Foxcroft (Labour - Lewisham, Deptford)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment she has made of recent trends in the level of young people participating in the National Citizen Service.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
NCS has been the fastest growing youth organisation since its inception 10 years ago. In recent years, participation in the NCS programme has increased to around 100,000 per year. This equates to approximately 1 in 6 eligible young people participating in the programme. In 2014, 58,283 young people participated in comparison to 99,179 in 2017 (according to the latest published figures). The newly commissioned network, brand refresh and targeted recruitment marketing campaign are all expected to ensure that more young people benefit from the programme, following a year of change and transition.
Asked by: Vicky Foxcroft (Labour - Lewisham, Deptford)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what progress her Department has made on including loneliness in the guidance her Department issues on the family test.
Answered by Baroness Morgan of Cotes
My Department does not issue guidance on the Family Test. However, the Department for Work and Pensions is currently refreshing the government guidance on the Family Test which is due to be published shortly. I can confirm that loneliness will be included in the updated guidance.
Asked by: Vicky Foxcroft (Labour - Lewisham, Deptford)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, with reference to page 13 of the Government’s Civil Society Strategy, what progress her Department has made towards designing a programme to look at more sustainable spaces in conjunction with the Department for Housing, Communities and Local Government.
Answered by Baroness Morgan of Cotes
The Space to Connect Fund was launched in June 2019 and is a new £1.6 million fund to help improve community spaces where people can connect and co-operate. This is a partnership between Government and Co-op’s charity, the Co-op Foundation.
Space to Connect has awarded an initial round of funding of almost £900,000 to 57 community organisations across England. This fund will support organisations to explore ways to use spaces in their community to address local challenges or expand activities in spaces so they become more financially sustainable in the long-term.
Asked by: Vicky Foxcroft (Labour - Lewisham, Deptford)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what the underspend of the National Citizen Service was in each of the last five years.
Answered by Baroness Morgan of Cotes
The underspend of the National Citizen Service against its Government Grant for the last five years is presented in the table below:
FY | 2014/15 | 2015/16 | 2016/17 | 2017/18 | 2018/19 |
Underspend | * | * | £25.4m | £7.80m | £10.10m |
* NCS programme was sponsored by the Cabinet Office in these years. DCMS will confirm the NCS underspends with the Cabinet Office and write to the Hon member on this matter. A copy of the letter will be placed in the House library.