Recommendation 17

The Department told us that its intention was that the overall funding provided would be of “significant assistance [to the sector] even if it wasn’t able to cover every gap” and that it understood that “charities would have to make difficult decisions” as a result of the pandemic.54 It said that in designing the package it worked closely with voluntary sector umbrella bodies to get a sense of the health of the overall sector. Once the package was designed, however, it explained that its focus was on distributing the funding at pace. It intended to award and disburse funding until 31 March 2021. After this, any funds remaining would be returned to HM Treasury. We asked whether any money had been unspent and so returned to HM Treasury. The Department said it was too early to give a final figure but that it anticipated it being a very low percentage of the overall value of the fund.55