Charities 'will be silenced' by new grant rules

[Northerner]

Charities have said new rules on how they spend government grants amount to making them take a vow of silence.

From May, charities and organisations will no longer be allowed to spend taxpayers' money on lobbying ministers.

The Cabinet Office said the new clause in grants would mean funds go to good causes, not political campaigns.

Sir Stuart Etherington, chief executive of the National Council for Voluntary Organisations, said it was an "insane policy" that would not work in reality.

"Take a service charity funded to run a helpline. They may well be dealing with ex-servicemen, there will be policy issues that emerge from that. They're not allowed to tell the government?" he told the BBC.

"The other reason is, if you've got mixed funding, how are you going to know which is the government's and somebody else's?"

The "draconian" move was "tantamount to making charities take a vow of silence", he added.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-35509117

More ways to suppress criticism of government policies

 

[Amigo]

I wonder if this is in any way connected to the mess that was made funding the now shamed Charity, Kids Company? That became very political in the end and caused Governmental embarrassment. Just a thought.

 

[Northerner]

I get the impression they don't like people like Shelter criticising housing policy, or various others criticising health/care policy. How on earth can they separate out funding from the govt. from fundraising from Joe public? Sounds dramatic, but I honestly think this government is implementing lots of subtle little changes to try and diminish opposition, wherever it comes from

 

[trophywench]

Yup - shut the public up, and do as we say - not as we do. You vill obey! Heil Cameron ......

How much do charities actually get from Government Grants anyway? I have absolutely no idea, or even had an inkling that they got ANY !

Let's imagine though, that eg DUK get X £££££. So - why don't they just allocate it to 'Premises' costs, and/or the salaries of at least some their employees in their accounts? I'm sure that wouldn't be beyond the range of their Accountants skills! Then the travel costs of anyone wishing to join them - eg when they visited Parliament over the kids rules, or when they want to discuss something else with MPs - we the Membership would fund that.

If they employ a Lobbyist - then we'd have to fund that too - so the Grant couldn't be used to pay it. It doesn't seem too difficult?

 

[Northerner]

Apparently the government give out about £1bn a year in grants. Someone on the news was saying that it is really directed at charitites whose primary purpose is to lobby for changes in the law e.g. to raise the alcohol price to 50p a unit, or plain packaging for ciggies where I suppose they could make it work. Wasn't there something similar in the last parliament though, about curtailing lobbying by charities (might have been something to do with elections and what they are allowed to spend.