HC Deb 08 May 2000 vol 349 cc298-9W
Mr. Gerald Howarth

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will list, for each of the last three years, recipients of funds provided by his Department for research into the family, indicating the amount paid to each recipient. [120657]

Mr. Straw

In the two years prior to 1999, the Home Office provided no funding for research into the family. Since April 1999, my Department has provided funds for voluntary organisations under the Family Support Grant. In 1999–2000, over 30 voluntary organisations shared £1 million to develop support for parents and families.

The purpose of these grants is to develop and disseminate good practice in family support. They are not, in the majority of cases, made to directly fund research. However, several of the projects which were funded last year contained an information gathering and analysis component:

The National Family and Parenting Institute was awarded a total Government grant of £636,000 in 1999–2000. The Home Office provided £200,000 of the total funding, of which £38,800 was spent on research.

The Family Policy Studies Centre received £43,213 to improve the delivery of their information products and services to existing users in the family support field, and to extend access to new users. It received a further £3,000 in March 2000 to contribute to the costs of an analysis of data from the Fourth National Study of Ethnic Minorities. The Race Equality Unit is a national organisation which helps to develop better social care services for black and minority ethnic communities. It received funding of £46,483 to develop a parenting programme and materials for ethnic minority parents, which included research.

Gingerbread, a national organisation offering support to lone parents, received £10,000 to conduct research into the needs of lone fathers for practical, emotional and social support.

The National Youth Agency (NYA) and Youthnet were both awarded funds to facilitate the 'Listen Up' dialogue between Government and young people, in order that young people's views inform future policy and service delivery for young people. The organisations spent £26,305 on the research element of this project.

The marriage charity One Plus One received joint funding from the Home Office and the Lord Chancellor's Department to develop a marriage information booklet for couples planning to marry. This included £8,658.50 of Home Office funding spent on research.