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

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment she has made of the (a) adequacy and (b) reasons for the underspend of the funding allocated to the National Citizen Service.

The NCS’ budget is set based on the participation numbers. Stretching participation targets are set by DCMS year on year to help drive the NCS Trust to reach as many young people as possible.The underspend is as a result of the programme participation numbers falling below the target. DCMS works closely with NCS throughout the year providing a strong challenge against NCS’s full year financial forecasts.