Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what plans he has to assessment the effectiveness of the allocation of funds from the Early Intervention Fund.

Our Early Intervention Youth Fund of £22 million is already supporting 29 projects in England and Wales. Over £17 million has already been allocated to projects delivering interventions to young people at risk of criminal involvement, gang exploitation and county lines.

We will shortly be appointing an independent evaluation partner who will support projects with their monitoring arrangements and will gather qualitative and quantitative data. This work will contribute to a programme wide evaluation, including an overview of what we have learnt about good practice. The projects will also be required to provide regular updates on their progress as part of their grant agreements.