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

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, whether his Department has a working definition of youth participation in relation to decision-making on youth services; and what steps his Department has taken to promote youth participation in such decisions.

Responsibility for the provision of local youth services lies with local authorities. Many local authorities have youth participation functions, including youth councils, and there are youth service models, such as mutuals, which offer young people a major role in the design and delivery of services.

Nationally, DCMS provides funding to the British Youth Council to run the UK Youth Parliament and other youth voice activities, where young people can have their say about a range of issues. We also actively seek to involve young people in the design and delivery of programmes, such as the Youth Investment Fund and recently involved young people in the consultation of the forthcoming Civil Society Strategy.