Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, how much of the £750 million allocated to charities on 8 April 2020 has been spent on tackling loneliness; and whether the funding strand can be identified from which that funding was spent.

The £750 million sector funding package offered unprecedented support to allow charities and social enterprises to continue their vital work and adapt their service delivery to support our national response to the pandemic. £35m of the £750m funding package has been spent on tackling loneliness. This includes:

• Big Night In - £1,174,257

• Coronavirus Community Support Fund - £17,228,490

• Community Match Challenge - £3,344,170

• VCSE Winter Loneliness Fund - £7,512,143

• Comprising: a £2m uplift to the Loneliness Covid-19 Fund; £5.03m to Arts Council England (including £3.5m to The Reading Agency); £300k to the Audio Content Fund; and £200k to the Community Radio Fund.

• Other Government Departments - £5,725,743

• Includes the £5m Loneliness Covid-19 Fund, launched May 2020, to enable national organisations working to tackle loneliness and build social connections to continue and adapt their critical wor

All of the above funding had been spent by 31st March 2021.

In addition to this, we have launched the £4m Local Connections Fund, in partnership with The National Lottery Community Fund, to provide targeted funding to small grassroots organisations, to build relationships in communities to help reduce loneliness. £2m of government funding was spent by 31st March 2021, and the second round comprising £2m of Lottery Funding will be launched on 28th June 2021. This funding was from DCMS core budgets.