On the 6th February 2016, the Government announced that organisations receiving government grants will be banned from using these funds to influence government and Parliament, including influencing on behalf of their beneficiaries.

All grant agreements, from May 2016, would have the following clause: “The following costs are not Eligible Expenditure: Payments that support activity intended to influence or attempt to influence Parliament, government or political parties, or attempting to influence the awarding or renewal of contracts and grants, or attempting to influence legislative or regulatory action.”

For more information go to the Cabinet Office interim guidance for grant making Departments: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/interim-guidance-on-applying-a-new-clause-in-government-grant-agreements

 

Response to announcement

At this present moment there is no precise guidance on what would be counted as “prohibited influencing activity”. Sir Stuart Etherington, Chief Executive Officer of NCVO called this an “insane policy” that will not work in reality. The decision ignores the fact that the key purpose of many Government grants to charities are to specifically support their engagement in policymaking to help the Government gain from their knowledge and expertise in dealing with entrenched disadvantage. Lord Harries, a former Bishop of Oxford, who chairs a commission which has looked into charity lobbying – the Commission on Civil Society and Democratic Engagement – said the “polarisation” between charities’ direct work and policies they wanted to change was “very, very unhelpful”. Charities on the “front line” could often best identify where government policy was failing, and “surely they are morally bound to tell the government they could improve their work to help, say, children in poverty?”

To view the combined charities’ letter asking for a change in this decision go to: https://www.ncvo.org.uk/about-us/media-centre/press-releases/1249-charities-letter-to-the-prime-minister-on-anti-advocacy-clauses-in-grant-agreements

 

Decision based on IEA research

Government information claims this decision is based on research from Christopher Snowdon of the Institute of Economic Affairs published in June 2012: “Sock Puppets – How the Government lobbies itself and why”. Almost every Government website has the same clause: “The Institute of Economic Affairs has undertaken extensive research on so-called ‘sock puppets’, exposing the practice of taxpayers’ money given to pressure groups being diverted to fund lobbying rather than good causes or public services.” However, this “extensive” research is filled with polemical statements with little factual evidence to back assumptions e.g. “There is a gulf between the public’s perception of what is charitable – a traditional view still dominated by visions of self-sacrificing volunteers and jumble sales – and the third sector’s view of itself as a more caring, semi-professional wing of the state”. Nothing is cited to show that this is how the third sector views itself!

 

What happens next?

Charities including NCVO and ACEVO have objected to this decision. There will be a debate in Parliament about the anti-advocacy clause. If your organisation is funded by a Government Department and you wish to make your views clear on this you will need to do so to that Department as each Department will consider its position regarding this clause. For an example of this please see the Voluntary Sector Strategic Partner letter to the Department of Health at http://www.whec.org.uk/wordpress/

WRC facilitates the Women’s Health and Equality Consortium (WHEC) which is part of this programme. Other WHEC partners are Imkaan, Forward, Rape Crisis England and Wales and Maternity Action.

If you are representing a women’s organisation and would like to send us your views on the anti-advocacy clause please email us: