Dods Monitoring: National Citizens Service Bill November 2016 Background The National Citizen Service (NCS) was first announced in 2010 by the prime minister as part of the coali- tion’s Big Society initiative with the aim of encouraging 16 and 17-year-olds to take part in community pro- jects. Running in England since 2011 and piloted in Wales in 2014, the NCS was highlighted in the Con- servatives’ 2015 manifesto, which committed to expanding the scheme. Speaking on the scheme in the summer, David Cameron, former Prime Minister said “NCS is a fantastic op- portunity for young people from different backgrounds to come together to gain life skills and give some- thing back to their local community” and urged the Welsh Government to consider offering the scheme across Wales. In the 2015 Autumn Statement, former Chancellor George Osborne confirmed the NCS would be expanded with funding provided for 300,000 places “to help all our children make the transition to adulthood—and learn about not just their rights, but their responsibilities”. Minister for Civil Society, Rob Wilson echoed these remarks more recently when the Bill was introduced to Parliament in October. He said “We want to make NCS a rite of passage for the young people of this coun- try, uniting communities.” dodsmonitoring.com Bill Explained The aim of the Bill is to: Support the manifesto commitment to expand National Citizen Service by encouraging thousands more young people to take advantage of the skills building programmes offered . Put the National Citizen Service (NCS) on a statutory footing. Strengthen links between young people and schools, local governments and central governments to promote participation in the programme. Part One: National Citizen Service Trust Clause one - Describes the National Citizen Service (NCS) Trust and its functions. Clause two - confers power on the Secretary of State to make a scheme providing for the transfer of the staff, property, rights and liabilities of the Company to the NCS Trust. Clause three - gives the Secretary of State the power to fund the NCS Trust through grants out of money provided by Parliament. Clause 5 - places a requirement on the NCS Trust to publish an annual business plan setting out its main priorities and activities for the year ahead Clause 6 - requires the NCS Trust to give the Secretary of State an annual report, detailing the ex- tent to which it has met its strategic priorities for the year. Clause 7 - requires the NCS Trust to notify the Secretary of State promptly of any serious financial difficulty. This is intended to ensure the government is kept informed of anything that poses a seri- ous risk to delivery of the programme or the performance of the Trust. Clause 8 - enables the NCS Trust to continue the practice of charging a small fee for attendance on its programmes if appropriate. Clause 9 - allows HMRC to assist the NCS Trust in performing its function of promoting its pro- grammes by sending out communications to young people and their parents and carers. Part Two: General Clauses 10 to 15 and Schedule 2 - miscellaneous and technical clauses. @dodsmonitoring Second Reading Debate and Reaction Following its publication, the Second Reading of the National Citizens Service Bill took place on 25 October in the House of Lords. You can read the full transcript here. Given that the National Citizens Service began in England in 2011, peers had a considerable amount of evi- dence to draw upon during the Second Reading where the general principles of the legislation were dis- cussed. The debate saw cross party consensus on the benefits of the Bill with peers commending the National Citi- zens Service as a means to foster social cohesion, social mobility and social engagement. Despite this, there were some points of contention. Most notably, a number of peers including Lord Stevenson of Balmacara (Lab) and Lord Blunkett (Lab) felt the Bill presented a missed opportunity to address the omission of citizenship education from the curriculum. Balmacara said the "NCS should not and cannot exist in isolation from wider considerations of citizenship." Elsewhere, peers from across the House implored the NCS to operate independently from government. Lord Maude of Horsham (Con) noted that he had assisted with the establishment of the NCS and advised “the Government should not even be appointing the chair of this body". Independence would be some- thing to explore further during Committee stage, he added. Liberal Democrat peers voiced some concern about the funding allocated specifically to the NCS, especially in light of cuts to local government spending on youth services more broadly. Lord Shipley, for example, said spending on the NCS must not be at the expense of other youth organisations. A final question mark hung over the relationship be- tween local authorities and businesses and the NCS. Responding to peers’ concerns, Lord Ashton of Hyde, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Culture, Media and Sport provided reassurance by stating that the Government wanted NCS to be "woven into the social fabric of communities". He explained officials from DCMS had been engaging with local authority representatives in a series of regional workshops and hoped there would be discus- sion in Committee regarding whether there should be a duty on the NCS Trust to collaborate with the wider sector. dodsmonitoring.com Key People Ministers Robert Wilson, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Civil Society - http://bit.ly/2eOT48i Lord Ashton of Hyde, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Culture, Media and Sport - http://bit.ly/2eOUJL7 Shadow Ministers Steve Reed, Shadow Minister for Civil Society - http://bit.ly/2dOSnMM Lord Stevenson of Balmacara, Opposition Spokesperson for Culture, Media and Sport - http://bit.ly/21qc1MX Backbenchers with a particular interest Will Quince (Con, Colchester) - http://bit.ly/2eDr2fo Justin Tomlinson (Con, Swindon) - http://bit.ly/2eiMkw7 Tim Laughton (Con, East Worthing and Shoreham) - http://bit.ly/2eDsUFa Tom Watson (Lab, Bromwich East) - http://bit.ly/2dTwwyG Jo Churchill (Con, Bury St Edmunds) - http://bit.ly/2eUPRlP Lord Ouseley (CB) - http://bit.ly/2eDqfLI Baroness Newlove (Con) - http://bit.ly/2dTx5IO Baroness Scott of Needham Market (Lib Dem) - http://bit.ly/2dOSR5o Baroness Byford (Con) - http://bit.ly/2e4BsUW Baroness Barker (Lib Dem) - http://bit.ly/2eDsmiK Next Steps At Committee Stage, the Bill is scrutinised by Parliament line by line. For Bills starting their legislative jour- ney in the Lords this usually takes place in a Committee of the Whole House. Debate takes place over sev- eral days on the floor of the main chamber and any member is able to table amendments and speak in de- bates. Rules on tabling amendments in the Lords are less formal than the Commons, they can be tabled right up until the start of debate and will still be considered. However it is considered best practice for amend- ments to be table by 5pm two days before they are due for consideration. Sometimes committee stage may take place in Grand Committee in a separate room off the main cham- ber. The only procedural difference is that no voting can take place in Grand Committee so all decisions on clauses and amendments must be approved unanimously in order to pass. Dates for committee stage are yet to be announced. @monitoringUK The Dods Monitoring team will be producing briefings on key Government legislation in this session. Expected Bills can be viewed in our summary of the Queen’s Speech here. For more information on the legislative process, please contact your Political Consultant. .