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

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what progress has been made by the Inclusive Economy Unit in working with other Government Departments to expand public service mutuals and the use of social impact bonds.

The Centre for Social Impact Bonds and the Mutuals Team work closely with other government departments to support the development of SIBs and to increase the number, sustainability and commissioning of public service mutuals. For SIBs, this includes working with DWP to support disengaged young people through the Youth Engagement Fund SIB and cooperation with their Work and Health Unit, the DCLG Rough Sleeping Fund and DfE's work to support care leavers. For mutuals, this includes working closely with the DfE on their Innovation Programme to include public service mutuals as a new model of delivering children's services, and with the libraries team in DCMS for potential mutuals in libraries and cultural services. The number of public service mutuals has grown from 6 in 2009 to over 100 today.