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

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, if she will make an assessment of the potential impact of reductions in youth service funding on young people.

Local authorities have a statutory duty to secure, so far as is reasonably practicable, sufficient youth services for young people in their area. This is funded through the Local Government Funding Settlement.

We acknowledge the challenges facing the sector and the disparities across the country. That is why this Government has launched the co-production of an ambitious new National Youth Strategy, which will be developed together with young people and the youth sector.

We will also launch the Local Youth Transformation pilot in 2025/26, which will support local authorities to build back capability to improve local youth offers. We also have allocated over £85m of capital funding to create fit-for-purpose spaces in places where it is most needed. Further funding allocations for specific youth programmes will be communicated in due course.