In general, funding for mental health services, such as counselling, is the responsibility of local clinical commissioning groups (CCGs). Some CCGs may choose to use non-National Health Service providers, including those run by charities. It is up to the local CCG to make commissioning decisions.

The Department does directly provide funding to third sector organisations through the voluntary, community and social enterprise organisation (VCSE) Health and Wellbeing Programme, which launched in 2016, replacing the previous VCSE grant funding and engagement programmes. A key part of the programme is the Health and Wellbeing Fund, and the theme for the Fund in 2019-20 is children and young people’s mental health. More information can be found at the following link:

www.gov.uk/government/publications/vcse-health-and-wellbeing-fund-2019-to-2020-how-to-apply

The Government intends to launch its call for evidence to evaluate the enforcement agent reforms introduced by Tribunals, Court and Enforcement Act 2007 soon after the summer recess.

Minsters have had no recent meetings with representatives from the bailiff industry to discuss bailiff reform. My officials have met with representatives of the bailiff industry on one occasion since the publication of the one-year review of the 2007 Act in April this year, when the issue of reform was raised.

My officials plan meetings both with representatives of the bailiff industry and with debt advice organisations to inform the call for evidence. I recently met with a representative from StepChange at a meeting where I also met the family of Jerome Rogers, where we discussed the bailiff reforms.

Loneliness does not discriminate and can affect any of us, so it is important that we take action to help people establish and maintain connections in their communities.

Of the £20 million investment to tackle loneliness:

• The £11m Building Connections Fund will support a broad range of different activities and will be open to applications from all areas of England, including Coventry. We will share details of successful applicants after the assessment has taken place and aim to fund projects across the whole of England.

• The £5m from People’s Postcode Lottery will add additional funding to existing grants across Great Britain.

• The £4m of new grants from Health Lotteries will fund projects in our most deprived communities, across most regions in England.

As part of the Work, Health and Disability Green Paper published by the Department of Health and the Department for Work and Pensions, we are consulting on ways to reform the Work Capability Assessment, to ensure people receive the individualised employment and health support they need alongside the right financial support. This includes people with mental health conditions. As part of the on-going consultation we are engaging with a range of stakeholders, including mental health charities, to discuss ideas for reform and to establish the best way forward.

Ministers meet with representatives of local authorities, voluntary and charity sector organisations and other partners on a regular basis to discuss a range of issues including ways to improve support to help those who are vulnerable and at risk of becoming homeless.

In particular, I have chaired two roundtables with the chief executives of leading homelessness charities to help shape and inform our future approach to reducing homelessness.

I have also visited or met with representatives from the following homelessness organisations:

Connections St Martin’s in the Field
Arlington Hostel
The Passage
Crisis
Homeless Link
Thames Reach
St Mungo’s Broadway
Depaul
Riverside St George’s Support Centre
St Petroc's Society, Cornwall
St Basil's, Birmingham

The following information shows new grant awards made by the Department in the financial year 2015/16. Recipients of grants include voluntary organisations. The Innovation, Excellence and Strategic Development scheme and the Health and Social Care Volunteering Fund grant awards shown here span a period of up to three years.

The information requested is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.

The Department makes a number of grant payments to non-public sector bodies each financial year to support key policy objectives. This includes grants made to registered charities as well as other voluntary organisations.

In the last year, grants have been made to voluntary organisations, including registered charities as part of:

(a) The Innovation, Excellence and Strategic Development scheme. This is a competed scheme where successful applications are funded for up to three years; this provides funding to support proposals with a clear focus on supporting and driving forward new ideas (Innovation), or consolidating or expanding the benefits from successful projects (Excellence) or undertaking of strategic developments in voluntary sector capacity or capability within the health and care field.

(b) The Health and Social Care Volunteering Fund is a competed scheme which uniquely combines grant funding and support to voluntary organisations to increase their capacity, to get the maximum benefit from volunteers.

(c) The Strategic Partner Programme is a system-wide cohort of voluntary sector partners who use their knowledge, expertise and reach to inform and shape policy.

(d) Specific Policy Grants supporting Departmental policy.

I met with Muscular Dystrophy UK and the parents of sons with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, alongside the hon. Member for Winchester on 8 September 2015.

I met again with the Muscular Dystrophy Campaign (MDC) alongside the hon. Member for Leeds North West (Greg Mulholland) on 26 March 2015.

The former Minister of State (Norman Lamb) met with the hon. Member for Blaydon (David Anderson) and a representative of the MDC group on 2 March 2015 where the issue of funding for Translarna was raised.

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.