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 16 of the Government’s Civil Society Strategy, what steps the Inclusive Economy Unit has taken to follow up the recommendations from the Advisory Group on growing a culture of social impact investment in the UK.
Answered by Matt Warman
In early 2018, the government published its response to the Advisory Group’s report, supporting the range of the recommendations made and focus areas identified. The Prime Minister then commissioned an industry-led Implementation Taskforce to work alongside government to take forward these recommendations.
Later in 2018, the Civil Society Strategy set out a series of further commitments to unlock and boost social impact investment.
Building on this, DCMS, alongside DfID and City of London Corporation, provided cornerstone funding for the Impact Investing Institute, which will launch in November 2019 and be a focal point for public-private cooperation on accelerating the growth, and improve the effectiveness, of the UK impact investing market.
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 15 of the Government’s Civil Society Strategy, what steps her Department has taken towards establishing a Responsible Business Leadership Group.
Answered by Matt Warman
The Department, together with BEIS, has consulted with key stakeholders from business and civil society as a first phase of establishing the Responsible Business Leadership Group. We have also held early conversations with potential candidates for chairs, and are considering membership composition. We are also carefully considering the relationship of the group to other business councils, to ensure that the group is complementary to these. We are also conducting research as input to the group on what specific questions it should seek to answer; and have initiated research into potential engagement with academic institutions. The Secretary of State will be making an announcement on the chairs once they are confirmed.
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 15 of the Government’s Civil Society Strategy, what steps her Department has taken towards convening a cross-government group to work with civil society to establish the principles of effective involvement in the policy-making process.
Answered by Matt Warman
The Civil Society Strategy sets out our vision for government’s work with and for civil society over the next 10 years and beyond. The Strategy recognised the need to work with civil society and across government to establish principles of effective involvement in the policy-making process. The details of this cross-government group 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 Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, with reference to page 16 of the Government’s Civil Society Strategy, what steps her Department has taken to support the spread of Citizen Commissioners.
Answered by Matt Warman
The Civil Society Strategy is a forward-looking long-term strategy. We continue to promote community engagement in commissioning to stakeholders at relevant meetings and events including the Commissioning Academy for public sector decision makers across the country. We have held discussions with organisations involved in Citizen Commissioners schemes to understand success factors and options for the future.
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 16 of the Government’s Civil Society Strategy, what progress her Department has made on extending the support offered to public sector teams aspiring to form mutuals to other social sector organisations that wish to deliver public services.
Answered by Matt Warman
The Government currently runs a support programme for public service mutuals. Following a series of engagement events, the then Minister for Civil Society launched a public consultation on the future definition of public service mutuals on 19th July 2019. The consultation, which closed on 18th October 2019, included proposals to widen the current definition to include organisations that don’t originate in the public sector and to strengthen and clarify requirements around employee influence, independence, and the distribution of profits. We will be considering responses over the coming months.
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 16 of the Government’s Civil Society Strategy, what steps her Department has taken towards broadening the range of funding options for community initiatives.
Answered by Matt Warman
As outlined in the Civil Society Strategy, this government is committed to enabling the generation of social value through a range of measures.
The Strategy is forward-looking and long-term. Our immediate priority is to expand use of the Social Value Act in central government. Through a joint DCMS and Cabinet Office programme, all major procurements by government departments will explicitly evaluate social value as appropriate, rather than just ‘consider’ it as currently, providing it does not add complexity or cost to the procurement process, restrict markets or exclude small businesses from government contracts.
Use of the Act will be extended to goods and works contracts, in addition to those for services and 4000 commercial buyers will be trained on how to take account of social value and procure successfully from a diverse range of organisations.
While the programme focuses on central government, the changes will have more of an impact due to the number of supplier markets we have in common with the wider public sector as well as the private sector.
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 15 of the Government’s Civil Society Strategy, when her Department plans to provide an update on its approach to support for responsible business.
Answered by Matt Warman
We will publish a short public update on government’s approach to Responsible Business in the coming months, including an update on the Inclusive Economy Partnership.
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 working with the Department for Education to develop proposals to help young people play their part in shaping the future of our society.
Answered by Baroness Morgan of Cotes
Government is committed to providing meaningful opportunities for young people to play their part in society. This includes creating social action opportunities to build their skills and networks outside of school regardless of their background or circumstances.
As announced in the Civil Society Strategy, Government is committed to ensuring that young people have a say in the future of our society. Already, we have set up three youth voice pilot projects to enable young people to shape national policy, including a Youth Steering Group, Young Inspectors Group and a digital youth engagement project. The Youth Steering Group has been working across government to inform policy, including work with the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy to conduct a review on environment and climate policy.
In April 2019, government announced that it will be developing a youth offer to set out its vision for young people. Officials have been working closely with Step Up To Serve (SUTS), young people and #iwill campaign and youth sector partners to develop the first stages of this work. DCMS continues to work with all relevant Government Departments across this agenda, in particular the Department for Education.
On 30th September, the Chancellor announced a £500million Youth Investment Fund to support the creation of new youth centres and opportunities for young people. We will be incorporating lessons learnt from the #iwill campaign and Fund into the development of this new programme and will continue to work closely with SUTS and the wider youth sector. It is a priority that the Youth Investment Fund is designed to enable young people to have as much of a say and a choice in what activities are available to them as possible.
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 building on the cross-sector partnership created by the #iwill campaign to identify how the existing offer for young people can be improved.
Answered by Baroness Morgan of Cotes
Government is committed to providing meaningful opportunities for young people to play their part in society. This includes creating social action opportunities to build their skills and networks outside of school regardless of their background or circumstances.
As announced in the Civil Society Strategy, Government is committed to ensuring that young people have a say in the future of our society. Already, we have set up three youth voice pilot projects to enable young people to shape national policy, including a Youth Steering Group, Young Inspectors Group and a digital youth engagement project. The Youth Steering Group has been working across government to inform policy, including work with the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy to conduct a review on environment and climate policy.
In April 2019, government announced that it will be developing a youth offer to set out its vision for young people. Officials have been working closely with Step Up To Serve (SUTS), young people and #iwill campaign and youth sector partners to develop the first stages of this work. DCMS continues to work with all relevant Government Departments across this agenda, in particular the Department for Education.
On 30th September, the Chancellor announced a £500million Youth Investment Fund to support the creation of new youth centres and opportunities for young people. We will be incorporating lessons learnt from the #iwill campaign and Fund into the development of this new programme and will continue to work closely with SUTS and the wider youth sector. It is a priority that the Youth Investment Fund is designed to enable young people to have as much of a say and a choice in what activities are available to them as possible.
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 recent progress her Department has made on the implementation of the Innovation in Democracy Programme.
Answered by Baroness Morgan of Cotes
The Innovation in Democracy Programme is supporting three local authorities to trial innovative models of deliberative democracy to involve citizens in local decision-making. The Greater Cambridge Partnership have completed their participatory sessions with local people, with the recommendations being delivered to the council shortly. Test Valley and Dudley authorities will be starting their area democracy forums this autumn.