Asked by: Richard Foord (Liberal Democrat - Tiverton and Honiton)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what the real-terms change to funding for youth services has been in each year since 2015.
Answered by Stuart Andrew - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The Government recognises the vital role that youth services and activities play in improving the life chances and wellbeing of young people. In England, between 2015 - 2021, the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), including the National Citizen Service (NCS), provided over £1.1 billion to the youth sector. Over this Spending Review Period, DCMS is investing over £500 million in youth services to deliver the National Youth Guarantee, a government commitment that by 2025, every young person will have access to regular clubs and activities, adventures away from home and opportunities to volunteer.
As set out in section 507B of the Education Act 1996, Local Authorities have a statutory duty to ‘secure, so far as is reasonably practicable, sufficient provision of educational and recreational leisure-time activities for young people’. This is funded from the Local Government settlement, the majority of which is un-ringfenced, allowing local authorities to spend on services according to local priorities, including on youth services. The settlement is anticipated to be almost £60 billion this year (FY 23/24) for councils in England - a 9% increase on the previous year. Details of all Local Authorities’ annual spending on youth services in England can be found in Section 251 data published on gov.uk.
DCMS is committed to working with Youth Sector organisations and Local Authorities to review and improve the Local Authority Statutory Duty Guidance for Youth Services. We will publish the outcomes of the review in due course.
The devolved administrations of Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland are responsible for their own youth services.
Asked by: Richard Foord (Liberal Democrat - Tiverton and Honiton)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, whether the Government plans to make additional funding available for youth services in the UK.
Answered by Stuart Andrew - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The Government recognises the vital role that youth services and activities play in improving the life chances and wellbeing of young people. In England, between 2015 - 2021, the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), including the National Citizen Service (NCS), provided over £1.1 billion to the youth sector. Over this Spending Review Period, DCMS is investing over £500 million in youth services to deliver the National Youth Guarantee, a government commitment that by 2025, every young person will have access to regular clubs and activities, adventures away from home and opportunities to volunteer.
As set out in section 507B of the Education Act 1996, Local Authorities have a statutory duty to ‘secure, so far as is reasonably practicable, sufficient provision of educational and recreational leisure-time activities for young people’. This is funded from the Local Government settlement, the majority of which is un-ringfenced, allowing local authorities to spend on services according to local priorities, including on youth services. The settlement is anticipated to be almost £60 billion this year (FY 23/24) for councils in England - a 9% increase on the previous year. Details of all Local Authorities’ annual spending on youth services in England can be found in Section 251 data published on gov.uk.
DCMS is committed to working with Youth Sector organisations and Local Authorities to review and improve the Local Authority Statutory Duty Guidance for Youth Services. We will publish the outcomes of the review in due course.
The devolved administrations of Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland are responsible for their own youth services.
Asked by: Richard Foord (Liberal Democrat - Tiverton and Honiton)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, how many Project Gigabit vouchers have been issued since June 2022.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
Building Digital UK publishes quarterly updates on the progress of Project Gigabit. Between April and November 2022, 31,900 vouchers were issued under the Gigabit Broadband Voucher Scheme. These figures are provisional and will be confirmed in Building Digital UK’s 2022-23 Performance Report.
Asked by: Richard Foord (Liberal Democrat - Tiverton and Honiton)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, how long the current average wait is for Project Gigabit vouchers to be issued is following a successful application.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
Vouchers for the Gigabit Broadband Voucher Scheme are usually issued within 48 hours of Building Digital UK receiving confirmation that the beneficiary has validated their details, confirming the application. In certain instances, this timeframe can be extended while BDUK awaits the mandatory evidence that is required for a project to proceed.
Asked by: Richard Foord (Liberal Democrat - Tiverton and Honiton)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, if she will publish figures on the amount of time taken for her Department to review and approve applications for Project Gigabit vouchers.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
BDUK does not publish figures on the average amount of time taken to review applications for the Gigabit Broadband Voucher Scheme.
BDUK is committed to working with all suppliers registered to the Gigabit Broadband Voucher Scheme to ensure that projects are sequenced appropriately and align with the suppliers’ capacity to deliver the projects.
Projects that have been deemed as a high priority by the supplier can be submitted, reviewed and approved within 48 hours of a supplier highlighting a project to BDUK. Similarly, projects can be deprioritised by a supplier if the build date is further in the future, meaning that the review and approval process can take longer.
Asked by: Richard Foord (Liberal Democrat - Tiverton and Honiton)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, how much Project Gigabit funding has been spent to date; and what proportion of that funding has been spent in Devon.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
Project Gigabit was launched in March 2021 and its spend for the financial year 2021-22 will be reported through DCMS’s Annual Report and Accounts, which will be published in due course.
In April 2022, Building Digital UK (BDUK) became an Executive Agency of DCMS, and will publish its own Annual Report and Accounts, including details of Project Gigabit spend, from next year.
BDUK also publishes quarterly updates on the Project Gigabit Delivery plan and procurement pipeline, with the most recent Summer Update published in August 2022.
We are making good progress with the Project Gigabit procurement covering Devon and Somerset, which is currently estimated to cover around 150,000 premises. The procurement is expected to launch next year, and we have recently launched a Public Review to help identify the premises that are in scope for the procurement.
Residents and businesses in Devon have made excellent use of the Gigabit Broadband Voucher Scheme, which provides microgrants towards the cost of installing gigabit-capable broadband. To date, more than 1,600 premises in Devon have claimed and received payment for a voucher through the scheme, with almost 250 further premises awaiting completion, for a combined total of almost £3.5 million.
Alongside Project Gigabit, we are still supporting delivery of gigabit-capable connections to more than over 50,000 premises through our earlier superfast contracts in Devon and Somerset. We have also provided top up funding through Project Gigabit for one of the contracts.
Asked by: Richard Foord (Liberal Democrat - Tiverton and Honiton)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, if he will publish a list of (a) the projects funded and (b) the amount of funding each project has received through Project Gigabit.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
Project Gigabit was launched in March 2021 and its spend for the financial year 2021-22 will be reported through DCMS’s Annual Report and Accounts, which will be published in due course.
In April 2022, Building Digital UK (BDUK) became an Executive Agency of DCMS, and will publish its own Annual Report and Accounts, including details of Project Gigabit spend, from next year.
BDUK also publishes quarterly updates on the Project Gigabit Delivery plan and procurement pipeline for the £5 billion gigabit broadband roll out, with the most recent Summer Update published in August 2022.
We have already launched procurements with a value of over £700 million to deliver gigabit connections to hard-to-reach homes and businesses across the UK, and we recently signed our first contracts in North Dorset and Teesdale in Durham.
In addition to our Project Gigabit procurements, through the Gigabit Broadband Voucher Scheme and its previous iterations, we have issued over 100,000 vouchers worth more than £214 million. Over 73,000 of these vouchers have been used to connect premises to gigabit-capable broadband.
In July 2022 we announced a joint £82 million investment with the Department for Education (DfE) to connect up to 3,000 primary schools with gigabit broadband over the next three years.