Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what criteria her Department uses for making decisions on awarding money to charities through the Forces Covenant Fund.

The Armed Forces Covenant Fund has £10 million per year to support Armed Forces communities and has four broad funding themes: removing barriers to family life; extra support after service for those that need help; measures to integrate military and civilian communities and allow the Armed Forces community to participate as citizens; non-core healthcare services for veterans.

The Fund is delivered by the Armed Forces Covenant Fund Trust, and Trustees decide on programme recommendations which are submitted to the cross-government Covenant Reference Group (CRG). Following approval by the CRG, these are delivered as priorities. Open and transparent criteria is published in the programme guidance documents and interested organisations apply in line with the published criteria. Applications are assessed, and expert advice may be sought where appropriate. Decisions on grants are made by the Trustees, and when funding is limited, grants are awarded to those applications which are based on a national portfolio perspective.