§ 16. Mr. Meadowcroftasked the Secretary of State for Social Services whether he will make a statement on his current policy on grant-aid to voluntary organisations.
§ Mr. NewtonWe seek to encourage voluntary bodies in the health and personal services fields, and to foster working partnerships between such bodies and the statutory services. As part of this policy we make available grants under a wide variety of schemes, which in 1984–85 we expect to total some £34 million, of which about a third is for our basic scheme of general grants. This is a substantial real increase on expenditure in 1983–84.