In 2013 we supported the set up of the independent organisation, Step Up To Serve, which aims to enable 50% of young people to be involved in charitable causes by 2020. In parallel, government is running the £5 million Youth Social Action Fund.

We continue to support 16 to 17-year-olds to volunteer and contribute to their communities through National Citizen Service, Since it began, over 70,000 young people have taken part and have contributed over a million volunteering hours.

Government is also running a £6 million Youth Social Action Journey fund which will focus on the transition between programmes, to enable young people to move from one volunteering experience to the next.

Our recently published report, “Encouraging Social Action”, highlights the steps we are undertaking to encourage young people to give their time through National Citizen Service and Step Up To Serve.

Under successive governments, young people have been under-represented on the boards of charities. The Charity Commission, in partnership with charity sector organisations, co-ordinates an annual Trustees' Week to celebrate and promote charity trusteeship. A particular focus of Trustees' Week has been to encourage more young people to take up charity trustee positions. The Charity Commission also produces best practice guidance for charities on trustee recruitment, and detailed guidance on how to involve young people in running a charity.

Our recent report encouraging social action set out what we have done to make it easier for people to give time and money, and I hope that the hon. Gentleman will join me in welcoming the news that volunteering has risen sharply since 2012 after years of decline.

The hon. Gentleman makes an important point and he is right to say that we rely on an extremely generous minority who do most of the giving. Britain has risen in the league table and is now the sixth most generous country in the world. Millions of our fellow

citizens and constituents give time on a regular basis, and volunteering has risen since 2012 after years of decline. We think we have made a contribution to that.

The Government recognises the significant contribution made by charitable funders of research. The charity support element of quality related research funding, provided by the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE), recognises the public benefit arising from research funded by charities, including the medical charities. HEFCE has been asked, as part of the science and research allocation for the spending review period 2011-15, to protect support for institutions leveraging funding from external sources, such as the charitable and business sectors. HEFCE has announced that support for universities undertaking research funded by charities, including the medical charities, will be maintained at £198 million for 2013-14.

[holding answer 25 June 2012]: The Chancellor is aware of the support currently provided to research charities but it would not be proper to pre-empt the outcomes of the spending review, which will be presented to the House on the 26 June, by commenting on the content of particular discussions.

The coalition Government has been very clear about the importance of widening participation and improving fair access in higher education—all those with the ability should have access to higher education irrespective of family income.

To help make progress in the numbers of young people entering higher education from disadvantaged backgrounds, and in particular to the most selective universities, the Government is establishing a new framework, with increased responsibility placed on universities to widen participation. This includes arrangements for new annual access agreements under which universities plan to spend over £670 million in 2016/17 on measures to widen participation.

Voluntary mentoring and tutoring are two of a number of widening participation activities. It is for institutions to choose, from those which they know work and have agreed with the independent Director of Fair Access, which activities aimed at widening access they wish to undertake. Universities focus their outreach and other activities where they will have the most impact for their institution.

To make sure that we are doing everything possible to widen participation and promote fair access BIS Ministers asked the Higher Education Funding Council (HEFCE) and the Office for Fair Access (OFFA) to develop a shared strategy for promoting access which maximises the impact of all the spending by Government, HEFCE and institutions. HEFCE and OFFA are due to deliver the strategy in autumn 2013.