UK Inquiry Tracker

Covid-19: Government support for charities

Public Accounts Committee Closed Inquiry

Opened: 1 Feb 2021 Closed: 5 Aug 2021 Parliament page

On 8 April 2020, HM Treasury announced £750 million of funding support to help frontline charities continue to operate during the coronavirus outbreak . On 20 May, the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport (DCMS) and the Office for Civil Society announced that they were working across government to … Read more

19 Conclusions

1 Report

1 Oral session

4 Letters

1 Event

Activity timeline 8 events

21 Oct
2021

Correspondence

Correspondence from Sarah Healey, Permanent Secretary, Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, re Update on Recommendation 1, 3, …

2 Sep
2021

Report published

Treasury minutes: Government response to the Committee of Public Accounts on the Fifth report from Session 2021-22

9 Jun
2021

Report published

Fifth Report - COVID-19: Government Support for Charities

25 May
2021

Correspondence

Correspondence from Sarah Healey, Permanent Secretary, Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, re Evidence session on Covid-19 Ch…

16 Apr
2021

Correspondence

Correspondence from Sarah Healey, Permanent Secretary, Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, re Government support for charitie…

15 Apr
2021

Oral evidence

COVID-19: Government support for charities

15 Apr
2021

Correspondence

Correspondence from Public Accounts Committee Chair Meg Hillier, re Government support for charities during the Covid-19 pandemic, dated 26…

15 Apr
2021

Formal meeting (oral evidence session) · The Wilson Room, Portcullis House

COVID-19: Government support for charities

Oral evidence sessions 1 session

15 Apr 2021

View on parliament.uk

COVID-19: Government support for charities

Helen Stephenson CBE · The Charity Commission for England and Wales John Rose · The National Lottery Community Fund Sarah Healey · Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport

Reports 1 report · click to expand

Title	HC No.	Published	Items	Response
Fifth Report - COVID-19: Government Support for Charities	HC 250	9 Jun 2021	19	Responded

Recommendations & Conclusions

19 results

2 Conclusion

Fifth Report - COVID-19: Governmen…

We are not convinced that the Department’s decisions about how to allocate funds were sufficiently...

We are not convinced that the Department’s decisions about how to allocate funds were sufficiently transparent. The Department asserts that in order to help it work at pace it decided to involve special advisers in preparing its advice to Ministers … Read more We are not convinced that the Department’s decisions about how to allocate funds were sufficiently transparent. The Department asserts that in order to help it work at pace it decided to involve special advisers in preparing its advice to Ministers on which charities should receive funding. We did not receive a satisfactory response to our questioning around how the code of conduct for special advisors was applied in this instance given that part of the role is to reinforce “the political impartiality of the permanent civil service by distinguishing the source of political advice and support”. However, the Department could not adequately explain the role taken by special advisers or the safeguards put in place during what it admits is an unusual form for funding discussions. In particular, the Department is unclear as to why special advisers met with officials after the assessment of bids from other government departments had been completed or how those discussions influenced the advice given to Ministers. The level of influence exerted by special advisers and their involvement at the point of decision making appears to go beyond what we have previously seen as Members of this Committee or in our previous Ministerial roles. Similarly, the Department is unable to adequately explain how four organisations whose bids were initially given the lowest ranking scores succeeded in securing funding as Community Match Challenge partners, meaning the Department matched the amounts fundraised by these organisations. The Department also could not clearly explain why the Zoo Support Fund received funding intended for vulnerable people, particularly when the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs already has a separate Zoo Animals Fund in place and many zoos are 6 COVID-19: Government Support for Charities businesses rather than charities. The Department, however, told us that Ministers took the decision to allocate money to zoos because of concerns about the welfare o Show less

Government Response

2.1 The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation. Recommendation implemented 2.2 DCMS agrees that appropriate records of decisions, especially in relation to funding, should always be kept. In this instance, … Read more

HM Treasury

Covid-19: Government support for charities

Activity timeline 8 events

Oral evidence sessions 1 session

Reports 1 report · click to expand

Recommendations & Conclusions

We are not convinced that the Department’s decisions about how to allocate funds were sufficiently...

The Department cannot explain the additional benefit it has received from its contract with a...

The Department cannot demonstrate how its funding decisions have benefited charities and will not be...

The Department cannot yet demonstrate that it fully understands the financial health and resilience of...

On the basis of a Report by the Comptroller and Auditor General, we took evidence...

We questioned the Department about how it decided which bids from other government departments it...

Given our concerns that this was an unusual process, the Department contended that it was...

The Department provided £30 million of funding to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural...

We also asked about the decision-making process around awards for the Community Match Challenge scheme,...

The Department reduced the funding allocation to TNLCF from £310 million to £200 million around...

The Department paid £2 million in 2020–21 to a professional services firm, PwC, to provide...

We have found in our reports on the government’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, that...

By February 2021, the Department had identified 76 fraudulent applications, 70 of which had resulted...

The Department has not yet evaluated whether the funding package has met its objectives of...

The National Lottery Community Fund (TNLCF) told us that it undertook regular surveys of customers...

The National Audit Office found that the information available on the geographical distribution of funding...

The Department told us that its intention was that the overall funding provided would be...

The Department recognised that charities had lost traditional sources of income during the pandemic, such...

We asked about the impact of the pandemic on the financial health of the sector...

Correspondence 4 letters