HC Deb 16 May 1989 vol 153 cc141-2W
Mr. Boswell

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what plans he has for a review of Government funding of the voluntary sector.

Mr. Hurd

Government funding of the voluntary sector has risen steadily over the last decade and now amounts to some £2 billion. It serves a wide variety of valuable purposes in areas ranging from health care to employment and training and to the environment. The Government acknowledge the voluntary sector's important position as a third force alongside the public and private sectors of the economy and the valuable contribution which it makes.

The Government have concluded that it would be timely to examine their funding of the voluntary sector with a view to ensuring that the purposes for which grants are made are properly defined and have a beneficial purpose; and that funds are being effectively and efficiently deployed in a way which is of practical help and achieves the benefits intended.

The Government have decided, therefore, to set in hand an efficiency scrutiny of Government funding of the voluntary sector. Its terms of reference will be to examine:

  1. (i) the full range of programmes for Government funding of the voluntary sector;
  2. (ii) the purposes for which financial provision is made under these programmes;
  3. (iii) the different types of funding employed;
  4. (iv) arrangements for the identification and selection of suitable voluntary organisations for particular tasks, for the setting of objectives and the monitoring and review of performance and results;
  5. (v) arrangements for the administration of the programmes;
and to make recommendations for achieving cost effective improvements where necessary.

The matters to which the scrutiny will have regard include:

  1. (i) the need for improvements in the procedures for agreeing payment of grants and in the conditions under which grants are awarded, to ensure that Government funds are applied properly and without waste;
  2. (ii) the need for standard conditions in respect of political activities, campaigning, equal opportunities and so on;
  3. (iii) whether there is scope for standard criteria to be followed in agreeing grant applications and setting priorities;
  4. (iv) ways of improving the setting of objectives both for particular projects and for continuing funding;
  5. (v) the scope for improving the arrangements for evaluation and monitoring of the work carried out with Government funds by (a) periodic review and (b) regular monitoring;
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  6. (vi) the levels at which financial authority is exercised under various programmes;
  7. (vii) methods of devising measures of performance both for continuing and short-term grants;
  8. (viii) the information about the purposes of a particular programme made available (prior to application) to those seeking funding;
  9. (ix) the benefits or otherwise of standard grant application procedures, taking account of the different circumstances where there is open application and where a single organisation is supported.

Such a wide-ranging scrutiny is unprecedented. It has therefore been agreed that it will be carried out by a team of officials from a number of Government Departments led by Mrs. Juliet Reisz (Home Office) under the ministerial supervision of a group of Ministers chaired by my hon. Friend the Member for Oxford, West and Abingdon (Mr. Patten). I expect to receive the scrutiny report in September.

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