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

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, with reference to her Department’s policy paper entitled Emerging Together: the Tackling Loneliness Network Action Plan, published in May 2021, for what reason disabled people and people with a learning disability are omitted; and what steps he is taking to tackle loneliness among people with a learning disability and help ensure they do not experience barriers to friendship and connection.

The Government remains committed to working across government departments and across society to tackle loneliness, including for disabled people and people with a learning disability.

The Tackling Loneliness Network Action Plan set out actions that the government and members of the Tackling Loneliness Network committed to take as part of delivering a connected recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. The focus areas of the report were guided by members of the Tackling Loneliness Network, which includes organisations that work to support disabled people and people with a learning disability.

Many of the actions set out in the report aimed to support a wide range of groups at risk of loneliness, including disabled people and people with a learning disability. For example, the government set up a Tackling Loneliness Hub to enable organisations working to tackle loneliness to connect and share resources, including about the impact of loneliness on disabled people.

The Government has also specifically supported organisations working with disabled people and people with a learning disability to help them overcome loneliness. For example, through the COVID-19 Loneliness Fund, we provided grants to Sense, the Royal National Institute of Blind People, and Alzheimer’s Society. We have also provided grants through the Loneliness Engagement Fund to help organisations to carry out communications and engagement activity about loneliness with some of the groups most impacted by loneliness during COVID-19. We included disabled people as one of our priority groups to support through the Fund, and have provided grants to Mencap, the Royal National Institute of Blind People, and the British Deaf Association.