Charities (Hansard, 13 May 2003)

§ Mr. Prisk
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what guidelines are in place to determine which charities and charitable organisations will receive direct funding from central and local government. [111546]

§ Beverley Hughes
There are no central Government guidelines to determine which charities and charitable organisations will receive direct funding from central and local government. Nor are there plans to develop212W any as it would be inappropriate to do so. Each individual central Government Department and local authority, develops their own funding programmes to pay for service provision and/or support charitable activities in line with their objectives and such regulations as are set out to guide all public spending.
Government Accounting provides advice to Departments on accounting and procurement practice. This is complemented by guidance from the Office of Government Commerce (OGC). Home Office officials are working with officials from both the Treasury and the OGC to review existing guidance to ensure there are no unnecessary barriers to voluntary and community sector involvement in delivering public services.
Government have published a Funding Code under the Compact on relations between Government and the Voluntary and Community Sector to encourage good practice. This code is due to be reviewed shortly.

§ Mr. Prisk
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department pursuant to his answer of 2 April 2003,Official Report, column 750W, if his Department will publish an updated version of Central Government Funding of Voluntary and Community Organisations 1982–83 to 1999–2000: ISBN 1 84082 636–3. [111584]

§ Beverley Hughes
Yes. We plan to announce publication of the latest research into central Government funding of voluntary and community organisations at the beginning of the next parliamentary Session.

§ Mr. Prisk
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department which charities and charitable organisations provide public services(a) alongside and (b) additional to those provided by (i) central and (ii) local government. [111547]

§ Beverley Hughes
There is no centrally held data on the charities and charitable organisations, which provide public services either alongside or in addition to services provided by central and local government. However, the Treasury Cross Cutting Review on 'The Role of the Voluntary and Community Sector in Service Delivery' published in September 2001, considered Government flows of funding—as grants and/or contracts—to the voluntary and community sector. On the basis of research conducted by the Home Office, it is estimated that, in 2000–01, central Government Departments and their associated agencies/non-departmental public bodies provided funding spent in excess of £1.8 billion through voluntary and community organisations in England. In the same year, local authorities are estimated to have spent in excess of £1.1 billion through voluntary and community organisations in England.
The Treasury report recommends that a unified system of data collection is put in place by April 2006.

§ Jim Knight
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what plans the review of the Charity Commission has to give additional assistance to trustees of charities in fulfilling their obligations. [111544]

§ Beverley Hughes
The Strategy Unit Report, Private Action, Public Benefit set out a package of recommendations to modernise charity law, to improve 213W the range of legal forms available to charities and social enterprises, to develop greater accountability and transparency in the voluntary and community sector and to ensure independent, open and proportionate regulation of the sector.
The Charity Commission, as the regulator of charities, has responsibility at present for providing a wide range of advice to charity trustees. The Strategy Unit report recommends that the Charity Commission's advisory role should be defined in statute to give a clearer focus on regulatory issues. Implementation of the recommendation would empower the Charity Commission to concentrate its resources more on providing advice to trustees to enable them to comply with their responsibilities under charity and trust law.