Asked by: Joe Robertson (Conservative - Isle of Wight East)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, how the schools identified to receive support through the National Youth Strategy will be selected; and whether schools on the Isle of Wight will receive support.
Answered by Stephanie Peacock - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The Government's National Youth Strategy is a 10-year plan designed to ensure that every young person nationwide has somewhere to go, someone who cares for them, and a community they feel a part of. Schools are key to implementing the strategy including through enrichment activities, especially for disadvantaged youth.
DCMS, in partnership with DfE, will invest £22.5 million over 3 years to enable up to 400 schools across England to deliver a youth-voice led, tailored enrichment offer. This funding will help schools meet the Enrichment Framework benchmarks and ensure disadvantaged pupils have access to good enrichment activities, supporting their wellbeing, personal development, and life skills.
The programme is currently in the design phase, and we will share the selection criteria in due course.
Asked by: Joe Robertson (Conservative - Isle of Wight East)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, whether the Isle of Wight will be eligible for funding under the National Youth Strategy; and what steps are being taken to ensure that the Island is supported thought the national funding criteria.
Answered by Stephanie Peacock - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
‘Youth Matters: Your National Youth Strategy’ is a 10 year plan to ensure every young person across the country has somewhere to go, someone who cares for them and a community they feel part of.
This is backed by over £500 million of new youth funding over the next 3 years from DCMS, which complements a range of funding committed by other departments. The majority of the funding underpinning the first steps of the Strategy will be available from next the financial year 2026/27. We will share more information as our plans develop, including details on the eligible areas for funding.
Asked by: Wera Hobhouse (Liberal Democrat - Bath)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment has been made of the effectiveness of the contribution of uniformed and non-uniformed youth volunteering organisations to the aims of the National Youth Strategy.
Answered by Stephanie Peacock - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
On the 10th December 2025, the Government published ‘Youth Matters: Your National Youth Strategy’. It is a 10 year plan to ensure every young person across the country has somewhere to go, someone who cares for them and a community they feel part of. It includes 2 clear ambitions - by 2035:
To have halved the participation gap in enriching activities between disadvantaged young people and their peers.
For half a million more young people to have access to a trusted adult outside of their home.
The Department for Culture, Media and Sport commissioned an independent provider (Ipsos) to conduct an evaluation covering the Uniformed Youth Fund from 2022 to 2025, which was published on 11th September 2025. The research found uniformed youth organisations (UYOs):
contribute to the social and emotional development of young people by providing them with structured activities and supportive environments, enhancing young people’s cooperation skills, communication, and confidence;
enhance education and career opportunities for young people by providing them with valuable skills for life and work and supporting their academic attainment through diverse activities;
provide supportive and inclusive environments where young people feel safe, a sense of belonging for young people through their uniforms, and fostering trusted relationships with peers and adult leaders.
The Department has a rich evidence base supporting the positive outcomes of youth organisations and young people's attendance of these. There’s a wide range of positive outcomes from youth interventions, such as on employability, skill development, and that it can be preventative in terms of crime.
Asked by: Wera Hobhouse (Liberal Democrat - Bath)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what her proposed timetable is for announcing current and future funding streams for the National Youth Strategy including Richer Young Lives, Youth Facilities and the Youth Workforce.
Answered by Stephanie Peacock - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
‘Youth Matters: Your National Youth Strategy’ is a 10 year plan to ensure every young person across the country has somewhere to go, someone who cares for them and a community they feel part of.
This is backed by over £500 million of new youth funding over the next 3 years. The funding underpinning the first steps of the Strategy will be available from the next financial year 2026/2027.
Asked by: Helen Whately (Conservative - Faversham and Mid Kent)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many Youth Hubs there were in January (a) 2025 and (b) 2026.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Government is committed to increasing opportunities for young people. That is why the Department for Work & Pensions is expanding Youth Hubs for 16–24 year olds to increase coverage to more than 360 locations across Great Britain, ensuring that every young person - including those not receiving benefits - can access opportunities and comprehensive support in their local area.
In January 2026, there were 114 fully opened Youth Hubs. For new and existing Youth Hubs, we have introduced a core blueprint for minimum service standards, marking a major step forward in making employment support more accessible and seamlessly integrated with other essential services—such as health, housing, and wellbeing—tailored to local needs and partnerships. In January 2025 there were 97 fully opened Youth Hubs.
The number of open Youth Hubs is unpublished management information, collected and intended for internal department use and has not been quality assured to National Statistics or Official Statistics standard.
Asked by: Baroness Deech (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the long-term physical, mental and legal consequences of the Puberty Suppression and Transitional Healthcare with Adaptive Youth Services study of children with gender dysphoria.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is following expert, independent advice from the Cass Review to implement a programme of research to support high quality National Health Service care for children and young people with gender incongruence. Responding to the specific recommendations of the review, the programme includes the PATHWAYS trial, a carefully designed clinical trial to assess the relative benefits and harms of puberty-suppressing hormones as a treatment option for children and young people with gender incongruence when provided alongside an updated model of NHS care incorporating holistic assessment and a tailored package of psychosocial support.
The trial is now in the set-up phase following comprehensive independent scientific, ethical, and regulatory review and approvals. It was designed by an independent research team, in conjunction with patient and public involvement as well as independent ethics, clinical, and legal experts. The team responsible for the protocol design have given considerable thought to the most appropriate eligibility criteria for entry into the trial, and to the physical and mental outcome measures to be monitored, to properly assess and protect young people's wellbeing.
Asked by: Jim McMahon (Labour (Co-op) - Oldham West, Chadderton and Royton)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of the provision of youth autism advocacy programmes in local authorities in England.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
As part of our Plan for Change, the department is determined to fix the special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) system and restore the trust in it. To help us deliver this, we are having a further period of co-creation with families, teachers, children and young people and experts from across the sector to test our proposals further. We will bring forward a full Schools White Paper soon.
Through our Participation programme, we fund support and training to local authorities to strengthen and grow children and young people’s participation at a local level.
The department continues to strengthen co-production with children and young people via monthly meetings with our national SEND young people’s group and regional SEND young people’s groups across England, who share their views and experiences with us.
Local authorities should use existing organisations and young people forums to enable engagement with children, young people and their parents. The Special Educational Needs and Disabilities Information and Support Services offer information, advice and support for parents, carers children and young people with SEND.
Asked by: Ian Roome (Liberal Democrat - North Devon)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment his Department has made of the adequacy of the number of duty solicitors available in rural areas.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
It is vital that those who need legal aid can access it wherever they live in the UK.
The Legal Aid Agency (LAA) is responsible for commissioning duty solicitor services and the day-to-day administration of the court and police station duty schemes. This includes keeping membership records, allocating slots and producing and maintaining duty solicitor rotas. The LAA monitors membership across individual duty schemes. Information about duty solicitor volumes broken down by individual scheme is published as part of the LAA’s Official Statistics.
The LAA considers that all police station and court slots are adequately covered for each duty scheme in England and Wales, including those in rural areas. Provision under the duty schemes is demand led and so there may be variations in numbers across each local rota.
The Government has made significant investments in criminal legal aid, to reflect the valuable work done by defence lawyers. We are investing around £92 million per year in steady state in criminal legal aid solicitors’ fees. The majority of the funding (around £82 million) came into effect from 22 December 2025, with the remaining funding (around £10 million) to be implemented as soon as possible this year.
Recruitment and retention of duty solicitors remains crucial. A significant proportion of the around £92 million investment in solicitors’ fees is directed towards supporting duty solicitors in police stations and in the magistrates' courts, including in rural areas. This investment is in addition to the £24 million per year increase we implemented in November 2024 for work done in the police station and Youth Court.
Asked by: Shivani Raja (Conservative - Leicester East)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to tackle youth knife crime and serious violence in (a) Leicester and (b) the East Midlands.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
We are already making clear progress against our ambition to halve knife crime. In our first year in Government, police-recorded knife crime offences fell by 5%.
We have banned zombie knives and ninja swords and are holding online sellers criminally responsible removing almost 60,000 knives from streets in England and Wales. We are taking a range of action in the Crime and Policing Bill to strengthen legislation on knives.
New crime mapping tools are already allowing us to identify highly specific knife crime concentrations and focus police and community safety resources where they are needed most. Further investment in cutting-edge capabilities, such as knife detection technology, improved data platforms, and live facial recognition will further enhance our ability to target knife crime.
Preventing young people from getting involved in crime is crucial to achieving our ambition. As part of the Young Futures programme, we are piloting new Young Futures Panels. These pilots proactively identify and refer children who may be falling through the gaps, to a range of different support services much earlier. More than 50 panels went operational in October and November, including in Leicestershire, Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire.
This financial year (2025/26), we have also allocated £47m to the network of 20 Violence Reduction Units (VRUs) across England and Wales to support their valuable work. VRUs bring together partners to understand and tackle the drivers of serious violence in their area. This includes over £1m in VRU grant funding to Leicestershire specifically. We have also allocated £194k to Leicestershire and £1.9m across the East Midlands in grant funding to continue the implementation of the Serious Violence Duty.
Asked by: Wendy Morton (Conservative - Aldridge-Brownhills)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment he has made of local labour market participation rates in the West Midlands.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The information requested is published and available at:
https://www.nomisweb.co.uk/default.asp
Guidance for users can be found at:
https://www.nomisweb.co.uk/home/newuser.asp
The estimated participation rates can be found by selecting “Query data” on the NOMIS home page and selecting “Annual Population Survey/Labour Force Survey” and then “annual population survey (Dec 2004 to Jun 2025)” in the lists of data sources. The Geography will need to be set for the relevant ‘local authorities: district / unitary’ within the West Midlands. The Variable will need to be set to “Economic activity rate - aged 16-64”. West Midlands can also be selected in the ‘regions’ category to give participation rates for the whole region.
Through our Get Britain Working Strategy, we are reforming employment, health, and skills support to tackle economic inactivity, support people into good work, and create an inclusive, thriving labour market.
Specifically in the West Midlands, we are working with the West Midlands Combined Authority to deliver a Youth Trailblazer, which is testing how best to deliver and integrate work, health and skills support locally for young people. The West Midlands Combined Authority has also received their Connect to Work funding through their 2025/26 Integrated Settlement to deliver Supported Employment to disabled people, individuals with health conditions and people with complex barriers to employment. They will receive further Connect to Work funding in the 2026/27 – 2028/29 Integrated Settlement from April.
Furthermore, all areas in England have been asked to develop a Local Get Britain Working plan. Led by local government and co-developed with local NHS, Jobcentre Plus and wider stakeholders, these plans will identify local labour market challenges and priorities, and support the integration of locally-delivered services. West Midlands Combined Authority have published their local Get Britain Working Plan, which can be found here: West Midlands Works