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

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, whether her Department has taken recent steps to work with (a) the Duke of Edinburgh Award, (b) other youth award schemes and (c) volunteer programmes to help promote (i) social cohesion and (ii) community safety.

The government recognises the vital role that youth services and activities like the Duke of Edinburgh Award play in enhancing young people’s wellbeing, as well as significant benefits to social cohesion and community safety.

Recognising this, the government has committed to a National Youth Guarantee: that by 2025, every young person will have access to regular clubs and activities, adventures away from home and opportunities to volunteer. This is supported by a three-year investment of over £500 million in youth services, reflecting young people's priorities and addressing imbalances in national youth spending with a firm focus on levelling up.

Young people will also benefit from other elements of the National Youth Guarantee, and a broader package of award schemes and volunteer programmes, including offering the Duke of Edinburgh Award to every state secondary school, expanding uniformed youth groups and the #iwill youth volunteering fund, as well as providing further funding for the National Citizen Service (NCS), to bring young people from different backgrounds together. Additionally, through the Million Hours Fund, the Department for Culture, Media and Sport will provide over a million hours of youth opportunities in areas with high levels of anti-social behaviour.