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

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps his Department has taken to set a quantitative target for reducing loneliness.

The government’s loneliness strategy, ‘A connected society - A strategy for tackling loneliness’, recognises that, while increasingly we understand the impact of loneliness, there is less certainty about its drivers and what works to tackle it. As a result, the strategy did not set a quantitative target for change. Rather it sets out the government's commitment to establishing a clearer picture of the prevalence of loneliness, through a new national measure and by developing the evidence base on what works. It commits government to publishing annual progress reports that provide an update on the implementation of the policies set out in the strategy, as well as the development of additional policies. As government reviews its approach, and further learning is generated, government will explore the possibility – and suitability – of setting a quantitative target for change. This is not likely to be possible for some years, as it will take time for sufficient data and learning to be available. The government’s first annual report on tackling loneliness, expected to be published later this year, will provide an update on this.