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

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment his Department made of the effectiveness of the (a) National Citizen Service, (b) Scout Association and (c) cadets prior to deciding on funding allocations for those organisations; and if he will make a statement.

NCS has been subject to multiple independent evaluations that have consistently demonstrated the positive impacts that NCS delivers to both its participants and the communities where they live. In the most recent evaluation, conducted by Kantar, analysis showed for every £1 spent on NCS there was a return on investment of £3.49. Including increased leadership skills, volunteering levels and wellbeing.

The last funding provided directly from DCMS to uniformed youth groups (including the Scouts) came in the £5m, 2018/19 Uniformed Youth Fund (UYF), administered by the Youth United Foundation (YUF) and resulted in the creation of 10,892 new places for young people in disadvantaged areas and 1,643 new adult volunteers.

The Ministry of Defence is responsible for any funding allocations made to cadet groups, therefore DCMS has made no such assessment.