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

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what plans they have to encourage young people to serve in their community through supporting full-time, long-term volunteering.

Government is committed to ensuring young people, from all backgrounds, have the opportunity to engage in meaningful social action, creating a lifelong habit and developing skills for work. We support Step Up to Serve’s #iwill campaign which is backed by a wide coalition of organisations offering a range of opportunities including full-time volunteering. We have also committed to expanding National Citizen Service (NCS) to reach 360,000 places per year by 2020. Since 2011, over 200,000 have participated in NCS and delivered an estimated eight million volunteer hours. The Government’s pledge to the #iwill campaign is to continue to invest in youth social action and share evidence and best practice.