New standards published today by the Cabinet Office will ensure that grants will be effectively managed across government.
These standards will be adopted by all departments to make sure that taxpayers’ money, awarded through government grants, is properly agreed and spent. The grant standards policy will replace the 'anti-lobbying' clause paused for review in April.
The publication by the Cabinet Office of a set of 10 minimum grant-making standards for departments and arm’s length bodies is considered to be a positive step. Among them are requirements that strong business cases be made, that grant-making is competitive by default, that grants include agreed outputs and longer-term objectives. They also prescribe proportionate due diligence and training for grant administrators. These are all common sense and features of existing good practice, but it will be very helpful to have them set out in this way.
Perhaps of most interest to the voluntary sector will be standard six. This requires robust grant agreements which include terms of eligible expenditure. This replaces the anti-lobbying clause which was announced in February and subsequently ‘paused’ in April in response to concerns about its impact expressed by NCVO, VONNE and others.
Included in the new set of grant standards is the creation of a Grants Advice Panel to consider ‘high risk, new and contentious’ expenditure as well as any significant increase in funding to existing grant schemes.
In addition all departments will be required to have robust grants approval process for spend over £100,000, and all grants need to be reviewed annually at a minimum.
They will also include a requirement for departments to ensure that grant agreements provide a clear outline of what the funding is to be spent on and how this would be monitored. Standards would put an end to grant money being wasted on activities not specified in the grant agreement, such as political lobbying.
There are around 2,000 grant schemes across government, which together received more than £117 billion of government grants during 2016 to 2017.
Chris Skidmore, Minister for the Constitution, said:
This government is committed to ensuring taxpayers get value for money for every penny they spend. The standards we are announcing today will make sure all government grants are awarded with greater transparency, sufficient scrutiny and more accountability.
The detailed work we have undertaken since February, with government departments, research organisations and the voluntary sector has enabled us to develop these standards through a constructive and collaborative process. I am confident that they will protect taxpayers’ money whilst at the same time, delivering key policy outcomes through our many partners.
Rob Wilson, Minister for Civil Society, said:
Government grants fund important work by thousands of charities in local communities across the country. The new grant standards announced today will not only increase the opportunity for charities to work with government through improved grant making practices, they will better protect the role of charities to speak out on behalf of their beneficiaries whilst ensuring taxpayers’ money is used as intended.
Background
- The grant standards policy will replace the clause paused for review in April
- Read the welcoming note about the grants standards from the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy
- Read the full list of the grants standards