Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment he has of the comparative effectiveness of volunteering opportunities organised through (a) local and (b) national schemes.

Volunteering opportunities organised both nationally and locally have been an integral part of the community response to COVID-19.

Out of the various ways that people stepped up to respond to the pandemic, the Talk Together report Our Chance to Reconnect (March 2020) estimates that 12.4 million people across the UK volunteered to support their communities (Talk/Together: Our Chance to Reconnect, February 2021), with up to 4.6 million volunteering for the first time. Of these first time volunteers, 75% say they wish to continue volunteering. With reference to volunteering opportunities organised nationally, it is worth noting that NHS Volunteer Responders have now completed more than 1.9 million tasks to support over 171,000 people at risk from Covid-19. (NHS Volunteer Responder Success Measures (12 June 2020 - 16 May 2021)

In addition to volunteer responses organised through formal channels locally and nationally, the pandemic saw huge growth in informal volunteering. The DCMS Community Life Recontact Survey (December 2020) found that the proportion of the population offering informal help on a regular basis (at least once a month) increased from 28% to 47% (DCMS, Community Life COVID-19 Recontact Survey, December 2020). We saw communities rapidly mobilising to help local people, who were particularly at risk or hardest hit by the effects of isolation. Pro Bono Economics’ Civil Action report (December 2020) estimated that over 2.5 million people volunteered with over 4,000 mutual aid groups (Pro Bono Economics, ‘Civil Action: Exploring Civil Societies Potential in the 2020s’, December 2020), a unique grassroots movement which has seen communities demonstrate their strength, resourcefulness and adaptability.