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

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what further steps he is taking to provide additional financial support for the Voluntary and Community Sector in addition to the £750 million announced on the 8th April 2020.

The Government has announced a broad package of support for businesses and charities to ensure that organisations that need support are able to access it. This includes the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme, the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme, and the option to defer VAT payments due between 20 March and 30 June 2020.

In addition to the broad package of support and the £750m to specifically support the Voluntary and Community Sector, the government has also unlocked a further £150 million from dormant bank and building society accounts. These will be distributed to organisations to support urgent work for groups in need to tackle youth unemployment, expand access to emergency loans for civil society organisations and help improve the availability of fair, affordable credit to people in vulnerable circumstances.