§ Mr. Tom Benyonasked the Secretary of State for Social Services what progress has been made in establishing the opportunities for the volunteering scheme.
§ Mr. FowlerI am very glad to announce that a number of national voluntary organisations have agreed to act as my Department's agents to help administer the £3.3 million available for expanding the opportunities for unemployed people to participate in voluntary work in the health and personal social service fields. The money will be given as grants to local voluntary sector projects for such purposes as drop-in centres for parents of under-fives or establishing neighbourhood care groups.
The Volunteer Centre and the National Council for Voluntary Organisations have established a consortium to run the opportunities for volunteering general fund to receive applications from councils for voluntary service, rural community councils, volunteer bureaux and other local voluntary projects. Age Concern, the British Council of Churches, the British Association of Settlements and Social Action Centres, NACRO, the Pre-School Playgroups Association and RADAR nationally have agreed to act as agents for specific types of projects established by their affiliated organisations, branches or operations at local level. We are continuing detailed discussions with Barnardo's, Church of England Children's Society, MENCAP, MIND, National Association of Leagues of Hospital Friends, Spastics Society, the Royal National Institute for the Blind, the Royal National Institute for the Deaf and Community Service Volunteers about their similarly acting as agents.
The application forms, which will be available from and should be returned to the organisations which have agreed to act as agents, require projects to demonstrate how they will enable or encourage unemployed people to undertake voluntary work. Grants may be given, for example, towards the cost of training, volunteers' necessary expenses, the salary or office expenses of a voluntary service organiser, or for limited capital purposes such as the provision of tools for gardening schemes.
Drug* Year 1 Year 2 Year 3 Years I and 2 combined Triazolam (Halcion) 1 1 1 1 Flurazepam (Dalmane) 0.02 0.1 0.2 0.09 Lorazepam 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.3 Temazepam 0.3 1 0.5 0.7 Clonazepam 2.9 5.3 6.0 4.7 * Drugs available before 1966 have been omitted because figures are incomplete or unobtainable. I regret that the figure given in my reply on 4 May 1982—[Vol. 23, c. 31–33]—of the number of adverse
390WParticipation by unemployed people in the projects receiving grants under the scheme will be entirely voluntary. Any expenses or allowances paid to volunteers must be such that they do not affect entitlement to social security benefits.
Parliamentary approval for this new scheme has been sought in the 1982–83 Main Estimates for Health and Personal Social Services, England—Class XI, vote 1. Pending this approval the necessary expenditure will be met by a repayable advance of £1,500,000 from the Contingencies Fund.