§ Mr. Meacherasked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will list all those voluntary organisations which have received a cut in real terms in their funding under section 64 of the Health Services and Public Health Act 1968 since 1979.
§ Mr. John PattenThe general scheme of grants under section 64 of the Health Services and Public Health Act 1968 is used for two main purposes. One is to support specific projects for a specific period, perhaps on a pump-priming basis; this includes experimental or innovative local schemes of potential wider significance. The other is to help with a national organisation's general costs, taking account of developing policy interests and the organisation's ability to fund its activities in other ways; grants of this kind sometimes reflect an understanding that the amount or proportion of grant will reduce over time as the organisation's ability to find other sources of funding grows. Thus there can be no simple presumption that the sizes of grants to an organisation in different years are directly comparable. Since 1978–79, total expenditure on these section 64 grants has risen by £5,777,000 (35 per cent. in real terms.)
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§ Mr. Meacherasked the Secretary of State for Social Services what has been the total funding to the voluntary sector under section 64 of the Health Services and Public Health Act 1968 for each quarter since 1979.
§ Mr. John PattenThe table shows payments to voluntary organisations each quarter under the general scheme of grants under section 64 of the Health Services and Public Health Act 1968. The proportion of the annual total paid in the last quarter of the financial year reflects among other things the fact that grants are approved continuously throughout the year but revenue grants are generally paid in up to four instalments depending on the date of approval. Since 1978–79, the total expenditure on these grants has risen by 35 per cent. in real terms.
June (£000) September (£000) December (£000) March (£000) Total (£000) 1978–79 690 1,049 1,025 1,681 4,445 1979–80 970 1,173 1,334 2,467 5,944 1980–81 1,166 1,599 1,693 2,796 7,254 1981–82 1,514 1,880 1,809 3,691 8,894 1982–83 1,258 1,955 2,128 3,622 8,963 1983–84 1,309 2,246 2,772 3,895 10,222