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

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, whether he has made an assessment of the implications for his policies of the May 2019 report by Barnardo’s on youth services and knife crime.

We value Barnardo’s work with the All Party Parliamentary Group on Knife Crime and Violence Reduction, and welcomed their report published in March 2020 on the role of youth services.

We recognise the importance of investing in our young people, and so in September last year the Chancellor announced a five year, £500 million Youth Investment Fund. This will help build up to 60 new youth centres and refurbish hundreds of existing youth facilities across the country, as well as providing over 100 mobile facilities for harder to reach areas. The fund will also support the provision and coordination of high-quality services for young people, as well as an investment in the youth workforce.

DCMS will continue to work together closely with the Home Office, the Cabinet Office’s Serious Violence Team and across government on effective strategies to keep our young people safe.