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

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment her Department has made of the adequacy of access to youth work provision in (a) West Dorset constituency and (b) other rural areas.

Local Authorities have a statutory duty to secure, so far as is reasonably practicable, sufficient provision of educational and recreational leisure-time activities for young people in their area. Local Authorities fund youth services from their Local Government Finance Settlement in line with local need.

DCMS has also published statutory guidance to support local authorities’ understanding of the existing duty and how to deliver it.