Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how much funding his Department provides to support the charity Homestart in (a) Germany, (b) Cyprus, (c) elsewhere abroad and (d) the UK.

Home-Start has received payments totalling £40,335 from the Armed Forces Community Covenant Grant Scheme for two projects in the UK. No funding has been awarded to the charity for any projects in Germany, Cyprus or elsewhere abroad.

The Community Covenant Grant Scheme (CCGS) is a fund of £30 million designed to support projects at the local level that strengthen ties between members of the Armed Forces community and the wider community.

An application for funding can be submitted by any part of the community (e.g. volunteer groups, charities and public bodies such as schools) firstly through the Community Covenant partnership and if endorsed at that level, to the regional panels up and down the country. Although this is the last year of the CCGS, from 2015 the Armed Forces Covenant fund will launch with £10 million per year made available to fund projects supporting the Armed Forces.