Asked by: Steve Reed (Labour (Co-op) - Croydon North)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what recent assessment he has made of the adequacy of the funding allocated to the Charity Commission.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Charity Commission is the regulator of charities in England and Wales. For charities to thrive, the sector needs a strong and effective regulator. Last year additional government funding of £5m per year was agreed in recognition of the growing pressures on the Commission’s core regulatory functions, particularly registration and compliance. The Civil Society Strategy has committed to further work with the Commission, in order to ensure it is adequately resourced to meet any future challenges.
Asked by: Steve Reed (Labour (Co-op) - Croydon North)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what meetings (a) the chair of the Charity Commission and (b) other staff of the Charity Commission held with the Garden Bridge Trust after its registration as a charity.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The information requested falls within the responsibility of the Charity Commission. Helen Stephenson CBE, Chief Executive Officer, Charity Commission for England and Wales has responded with the attached letter.
Asked by: Steve Reed (Labour (Co-op) - Croydon North)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, with reference to page 41 of the Government's August 2018 Civil Society Strategy, what steps his Department has taken to further embed and scale people taking action as a core part of how public services are delivered and explore how the government can best continue to back and scale high impact social value initiatives.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The government is investing £7.5m in innovative social action projects, including early years interventions, support for savers, and initiatives that help people to volunteer throughout the lifecourse.
We are also supporting local authorities to embed social action in the way they deliver their services. We have reached over 900 commissioners, civil society organisations and councillors across the country through our Enabling Social Action Programme. In February, we announced the ten places who will receive a share of £2.3 million to devise programmes that enable people to take action on the issues they care about.
Asked by: Steve Reed (Labour (Co-op) - Croydon North)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, with reference to page 37 of the Government's August 2018 Civil Society Strategy, what progress has been made on his Department's target of training a further 3,500 people in community organising through a national network of Social Action Hubs and partnerships with public and social sector organisations by 2020.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Government is fully committed to the Civil Society Strategy: it is the beginning of an ambitious, evolving work programme to help build a strong society. Following the success of the Community Organisers Programme (2011-2015), we launched the Community Organisers Expansion Programme in early 2017 to train 3,500 more individuals, across England, by March 2020.
By March 2019, 2,000 people have been trained in community organising through a variety of routes; via 20 Social Action Hubs (grass roots organisations developing local practice of community organising and social action), public sector training courses, and partnerships with organisations including Local Trust, NALC, Neighbourhood Watch, and the National Citizen Service.
Asked by: Steve Reed (Labour (Co-op) - Croydon North)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, with reference to page 16 of the Government's August 2018 Civil Society Strategy, what steps his Department has taken to work with Big Lottery Fund to use £55 million from dormant accounts to fund a new, independent organisation which will work with partners across the private and social sectors to tackle financial exclusion.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Last year, the Government committed £55 million from dormant assets to tackle financial exclusion and problem debt. In the Civil Society Strategy, the government announced that this funding would be directed to a new, independent organisation, with a remit to address this social issue. This organisation was launched on 28th February 2019, with Richard Collier-Keywood appointed as its Founding Chair. The organisation has taken the name Fair4All Finance Limited.
Asked by: Steve Reed (Labour (Co-op) - Croydon North)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, with reference to page 113 of the Government's August 2018 Civil Society Strategy, what steps his Department has taken to explore the potential to use flexibilities in the law governing contracts (such as the Mutuals Reservation) to reserve some competitions to other social purpose vehicles.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Civil Society Strategy is the beginning of an ambitious, evolving work programme to help build a stronger society. The Strategy sets out a vision for government’s work with and for civil society over the next 10 years and beyond.
We remain committed to exploring how potential flexibilities in the law governing contracts has the potential as an important tool in creating a more diverse supply of public services.
Asked by: Steve Reed (Labour (Co-op) - Croydon North)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, how many officials from (a) his Department and (b) the Office for Civil Society have been moved from their normal duties to work on preparations for the UK leaving the EU without a deal.
Answered by Jeremy Wright
I refer the Hon member to the answer given to PQ 218152 from 20th February.
Asked by: Steve Reed (Labour (Co-op) - Croydon North)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, with reference to page 74 of the Government's August 2018 Civil Society Strategy, what steps his Department has taken to work with the Charity Commission and UK Community Foundations to release at least £20 million over the next two years from inactive charitable trusts to grassroots community organisations.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Working in conjunction, DCMS, the Charity Commission, and UK Community Foundations have so far released £9.5 million through the Revitalising Trusts programme. This funding will support local good causes across the country.
The programme is on track and we expect to release £10 million by the end of March 2019.
Asked by: Steve Reed (Labour (Co-op) - Croydon North)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, with reference to page 112 of the Government's August 2018 Civil Society Strategy, what steps he has taken to (a) develop new guidance for all commissioners on grantmaking to small and local charities and (b) update his guidance entitled Commissioning for social action.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Since the Strategy was published, we have started to scope a programme of work around improving the use of grants. This has involved engagement with the Cabinet Office and with stakeholders. We will confirm more detailed plans in due course.
Asked by: Steve Reed (Labour (Co-op) - Croydon North)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, with reference to page 107 of the Government's Civil Society Strategy, published in August 2018, what steps his Department has taken to extend the support currently offered to public sector teams aspiring to form mutuals to other community-led and social organisations which are already outside the public sector and wish to deliver public services.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
As promised in the Civil Society Strategy, DCMS will launch a public consultation into the definition of public service mutuals (mutuals) and the implications of extending support to create mutuals that do not originate from within the public sector. Government is engaging with the stakeholders over the next few months to help develop its proposals, and intends to launch the public consultation later in 2019.