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

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment his Department has made of the effectiveness of (a) the Government's loneliness strategy in reducing loneliness and (b) cross-departmental working to implement that strategy.

Government is committed to understanding the impact of its activity on loneliness and will use this insight to inform future decision-making. The 60 commitments made in the loneliness strategy vary widely and so learning is captured in different ways. Many of these commitments are still in progress and evaluation will emerge over time. For example, an independent evaluation of the £11.5m Building Connections Fund is underway, and the findings will be published from mid-2020 onwards.

The first annual report on government’s work on tackling loneliness will be published shortly, and will set out progress to date.

Cross-departmental working has continued to be effective, with close working between the nine departments involved to ensure successful implementation of the strategy.