§ Baroness Byfordasked Her Majesty's Government:
How many applications to the large grants programme of the Community Fund or the "Grants for All" lottery scheme have been rejected on similar Grounds to those of the Bowland and Pennine Mountain Rescue Team and the Severn Area Rescue Association. [HL996]
§ The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Culture, Media and Sport (Lord McIntosh of Haringey)The demand for lottery funding greatly exceeds supply and overall around 64 per cent of applications to the Big Lottery Fund are unsuccessful.
By way of comparison 61 per cent of applications from mountain rescue bodies and rescue associations have been unsuccessful. There are various reasons why applications are not successful. In the case of the Community Fund's large grants programme around 5 per cent of applications fall outside the programme aims. In the case of Awards for All around 23 per cent of unsuccessful applications fail because other applications are given a higher priority for the limited funds available. Reasons for having a lower priority include a higher than average annual income or the applicant having already received one or more Awards for All grants.