To ask Her Majesty's Government why the funding of the Family Days and Support Project run by the Blackburn Diocese Board of Social Responsibility has been cut. [HL4208]

The Grassroots, Family Days and Support Project was allocated £1.4 million for a fixed three-year period through Her Majesty's Treasury Invest to Save programme. The scheme provides the opportunity to pilot innovations to evaluate outcomes, to disseminate learning and to determine whether such practice can be encompassed within the delivery of mainstream services. In the event of such funding being awarded, no assurance can be given that funding can be sustained from any source.

Some valuable learning from the project has been adopted by the four participating prisons which are now themselves running family-specific events within their establishments. The project overall presents learning and practice development which will be used to good effect in developing national service specifications relating to both mentoring and children and families of offenders. It also informs work in developing and implementing the recommendations of Baroness Neuberger's report into volunteering in the criminal justice system.