Oral Answers to Questions

Alex Norris Excerpts

Thursday 4th July 2019 Commons Chamber

The Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport was asked—

[Alex Norris (Nottingham North) (Lab/Co-op)]

1. When the Government plan to review their guidance on the statutory duty for local authorities to provide youth services.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (Mims Davies)]

We are pleased to announce that we will be reviewing the guidance as part of the civil society strategy published last year, and we still anticipate launching the review before the summer recess. In fact, I hope to do it next week.

[Alex Norris]

Up and down the country, there is less and less for our young people to do. The Government’s own civil society strategy says that youth work and youth services can be “transformational”, so why has funding for them fallen by 70% since 2010?

[Mims Davies]

This Government are committed to supporting youth activities and our young people. In fact, I have had several meetings just this week on the youth charter and our vision for young people over the next 10 years. The National Lottery is supporting positive activities for our young people through £80 million of funding, and of course we have the National Citizen Service.