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

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, with reference to the news story, Chancellor sets out extra £750 million coronavirus funding for frontline charities, published on 8 April 2020, how much of the £370 million allocated to the National Lottery Community Fund and held back for emergencies has been allocated to date; what criteria was used to allocate that funding; and which organisations have received an allocation of that funding.

The Government has made available an unprecedented £750 million package of support, specifically for charities, social enterprises and the voluntary sector. This will ensure charities and other civil society organisations, including those at risk of financial hardship, can continue their vital work during the Covid-19 outbreak.

Of the £750m, £200 million of this money is being distributed by the National Lottery Community Fund (NLCF) through the Coronavirus Community Support Fund (CCSF). As of 13th September 2020, £116,162,678 million has been awarded to organisations through this Fund, which is being disbursed to them in accordance with the payment profiles set out in the onward grant agreements. Of this amount, £58,332,938 has been allocated to medium sized organisations and £25,795,260 to small organisations.

The eligibility criteria used by NLCF to assess CCSF funding applications can be found on the NLCF’s website: https://www.tnlcommunityfund.org.uk/funding/programmes/covid-19-funding-over-10k#section-2. A list of all organisations that have been awarded funding from the CCSF will be published once the allocation process is complete.

£85 million has been allocated to the ‘Community Match Challenge’ which is matching funds raised by philanthropists, foundations and grant making organisations to further support small to medium sized organisations from across the country working with those who are most vulnerable and have been hardest hit by the coronavirus outbreak. This Fund closed for bids on 2nd August and the outcome will be announced shortly.

A further £4.8 million will be distributed to the Voluntary and Community Sector Emergencies Partnership - a group that comes together to improve national and local coordination before, during and after emergencies - to help strengthen the voluntary sector’s response to coronavirus and future emergencies.

To support the BBC’s 'Big Night In' (BNI), the Government matched the generous donations of the public across the country with a grant for £20 million to the National Emergencies Trust (NET) which is working in Partnership with the UK Community Foundations and a further £17 million which was shared between Comic Relief (CR) and Children in Need (CiN). As of 11 September, £16,641,702.24 has been allocated by all three funds with awards disbursed to charities through the usual process. The eligibility criteria used to assess applications for BNI funding can be found here for the NET element of the funding: https://www.ukcommunityfoundations.org/our-programmes and here for CR and CiN funding: https://www.comicrelief.com/funding

£360 million has been allocated by central government departments with £200 million of this directly supporting hospices across the country. The remaining funding has been allocated and awarded, as follows, with distribution to charities undertaken by the relevant department in accordance with the relevant grant agreements: