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

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, if she will take steps with Cabinet colleagues to provide targeted financial support for voluntary and faith groups in the context of the cost of the living crisis.

With government support, voluntary and faith groups have shown significant resilience over the past few years, and will again be crucial in supporting communities and households through this challenging period.

Government is supporting all organisations, including those across the civil society sector, with their energy bills. This support has now been extended until March 2024 via the Energy Bills Discount Scheme. Wholesale gas prices have now fallen to levels just before Putin’s invasion of Ukraine and have almost halved since the current scheme was announced. This scheme provides long term certainty for organisations and reflects how the scale of the challenge has changed since September last year.

DCMS will keep engaging constructively across the civil society sector and colleagues in government to monitor the impact of rising costs.