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

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what his priorities are for delivering the loneliness strategy.

In the Tackling Loneliness Strategy, published October 2018, government set out three overarching goals which guide its work on loneliness: reducing stigma by building a national conversation on loneliness; driving a lasting shift so that loneliness is considered in the work of government and other organisations across society; and improving the evidence base on loneliness. Delivering progress against these three goals remains a priority, particularly as we emerge from the Covid-19 pandemic.

Over the coming year, we will make progress against our three goals by: delivering communications activity to amplify loneliness messaging; supporting organisations to tackle loneliness through our Tackling Loneliness Network; and convening organisations interested in coordinating research activity so that we can fill priority gaps in our understanding of the issues surrounding loneliness.