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

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, with reference to the Government's press release entitled PM launches Government’s first loneliness strategy, published on 15 October 2018, whether his Department has conducted a loneliness policy test on Budget 2018.

There was no requirement on HM Treasury to consider loneliness in developing Budget 2018. The cross-government loneliness team will work with HM Treasury, as with other departments, to explore how social relationships can be considered across their policy-making in future, as recently set out in the first loneliness strategy for England, ‘A connected society’.